Happy Together Tour returns to Ruth Eckerd Hall
Happy Together Tour returns to Ruth Eckerd Hall
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![[Image]](http://www.tampabaywired.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/AGLSQB.jpg)
CLEARWATER – The Happy Together Tour will return to the Tampa Bay area Saturday, June 10, 7 p.m., with a show at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen Booth Road, Clearwater.
Tickets start at $40. Call 727-791-7400 or visit www.rutheckerdhall.com.
It’s a summertime tradition: Music fans come together to celebrate the best music of the 1960s and 1970s in one spectacular show featuring some of the biggest hits of the era. This year’s edition of the Happy Together Tour will include six headline artists with 53 Billboard hits amongst them. The acclaimed yearly summer tour that is going into its eighth consecutive year delivers the best music of that time period, alongside a first-class multimedia production. Fans are offered the unique opportunity to relive that legendary time in culture and music.
The incomparable lineup includes returning hosts The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie. Also appearing on the bill this year will be The Association, Chuck Negron formerly of Three Dog Night, The Box Tops, The Cowsills and The Archies starring Ron Dante.
Still as vital today as they were when they debuted back in the 1960s, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman initially made their mark with The Turtles, according to a biography provided by Paradise Artists.
When The Turtles disbanded in 1970, they joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, and then they glided into their own Flo & Eddie persona, dishing out records that have encompassed a multitude of personalities.
Kaylan and Volman have always been keenly aware of the latest industry trends in a fashion that has yielded an abundance of quality records, and more than their share of hits.
From 1965 to 1970, the two were part of a band that was the closest America ever came to having a Beatles. Other bands – such as The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Rascals and Beach Boys – had as many hits, but The Turtles’ hits were better conceived and arranged and, like the Beatles, transcended many styles.
The band emerged as a surf-rock group called the Crossfires initially. Formed in 1965 in Westchester, Los Angeles, Kaylan and Volman were joined by high school friends Al Nichol, Chuck Portz, Don Murray and Jim Tucker. In the mid-1960s, The Beatles and the whole cultural phenomenon of the British Invasion swept across North America. Kaylan and Volman rebranded the Crossfires as The Tyrtles, a folk rock group. The trendy stylized spelling soon evolved into The Turtles and the band scored its first Top 40 hit with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” in 1965.
More hits followed, including “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “Let Me Be,” “You Baby,” “Can I Get to Know You Better,” “Happy Together,” “You Showed Me,” “She’d Rather Be With Me,” “Elenore,” “She’s My Girl” and “You Know What I Mean.”
One of the most successful bands to come out of the ’60s, they have sold millions of records, tapes, CDs and DVDs as well as earned a number of achievements including a Golden Globe nomination in 1970 for Best Original Song – “Goodbye Columbus.”
The Association has also received RIAA certifications for six gold and three platinum records. “The Association: Greatest Hits” (Warner Brothers) is now double platinum and continues to be one of the longest best-selling albums in the history of the company.
The band’s hits include “Cherish,” “Windy,” “Never My Love” and “Along Comes Mary.”
The world was introduced to Chuck and Three Dog Night by the breakthrough – and the band’s first million seller – “One.”
Three Dog Night was driven by Chuck Negron’s solo lead vocals on 4 million selling singles and three No. 1 records, including “Joy to the World,” which topped the charts for six weeks. The band also enjoyed five Top 5 hits and seven Top 40 hits,
Negron put and kept Three Dog Night on the charts for six years. His soaring, soulful, four-octave range and unique vocal styling became a part of the American landscape. His gut-wrenching performance on the band’s follow up hit to “One,” “Easy to be Hard,” is now a pop classic, as is his beautiful and smooth vocal on “Old Fashioned Love Song.”
Negron’s unmistakable voice exclaiming “Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog” on the multi-Grammy nominated and 1971 Record Of The Year, “Joy to the World” is today a part of Americana, securing a place for Chuck Negron as one of the great singers in rock and pop.
The Box Tops – from Memphis, Tennessee – are the newest addition to the Happy Together lineup. The Box Tops recorded a string of Top 40 hits including the worldwide No. 1 smash song “The Letter.” Other hits included “Cry Like A Baby,” “Soul Deep,” “Neon Rainbow” and more. During the 2017 HT Tour, The Box Tops will be celebrating their 50th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary of “The Letter.”
The real-life inspiration behind the hit television series The Partridge Family, the Cowsills – teen siblings Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Susan, and Paul in tandem with mom Barbara – was one of the biggest pop acts of the late ’60s. Distinguished by their angelic harmonies and sun kissed melodies, siblings Bob, Paul and Susan carry on the touring tradition of The Cowsills as one of the co-headline bands in the 2015 and 2016 hugely successful Happy Together Tour.
Cowsills hits include “Hair,” “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” and “Indian Lake.”
Rounding out the lineup is another newcomer to the Happy Together family.
Ron Dante is the lead singer of The Archies – the group that is best known for the classic No. 1, hit of 1969, “Sugar, Sugar.” Other well-known songs include “Bang-Shang-A-Lang” and “Jingle Jangle.” Dante had another top 10 hit in the summer of 1969 with “Tracy.”
The Happy Together Tour began in 1984 with mainstays The Turtles. It was rebooted in 2010. This year’s show will be the eighth consecutive year of touring. The passion for the music has withstood the test of time, and The Happy Together Tour brings that magic back to fans, night after night.
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Article published on Monday, June 5, 2017
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