The Turtles’ Happy Together: From the Worst Demo Ever to an Iconic Classic

Apparently, it was the world’s worst demo. Ever. No one wanted this song. Tons of artists passed over it. The sound quality was nearly unlistenable. And the performance on the track was even worse. Amateurish, out of time, and highlighted by a bizarre falsetto, it was insanely bad… and about to be lost to oblivion because no one was going to record this mess. It was so bad one of the band members turned a chance to co-write the song down… a decision that would cost him millions of dollars. The song Happy Together was going nowhere fast…. That is, until finally a surf band turned folk band, turned psychedelic band heard a diamond in the rough. The band was called the Turtles with Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. They themselves were on their last legs… having released five straight singles that absolutely bombed. Needing a surefire hit, who knows why they took a chance on this horrible demo? But we’re glad they did. Because as they say, the rest is history. It’s a tale of two intrepid friends Howard and Mark or Flo and Eddies as they would later be known, they have stuck together for the long haul, and so has their signature classic that everybody loves Happy Together. And I mean everybody. It’s a song that you can’t not sing along to when it comes on. It’s pure magic. And you’re going to love the story behind it, coming up… NEXT on the Professor of Rock.

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