Drummer reacts to "Windy" by The Association 

“Never My Love” is even better.

"Cherish" is an absolute gem.

"Along Comes Mary" was their first hit. "Cherish"+ "Never My Love" were huge. Aah, HS dances.

Along Comes Mary is their drug song. Cherish was a bit hit.

We used to have music in elementary and they would teach us about harmony, singing in the round, another aspect of singing, and music in general. Who knew we were living in the good old days of music.

This song was a massive hit, on the radio all the time when I was in elementary school.

You are a breath of fresh air, L33. You bravely check out fantastic music from my childhood and give it the attention and admiration it deserves. I love your open mind and comments. Keep up the good work!

You have to see the Wrecking Crew documentary. You should do a video about it

There is a Wrecking Crew documentary on RU-vid.😮😊

One of the thousands of records the Wrecking Crew played on.

The Association were always one of my favorite pop groups from the 60’s. Hit after hit after hit with great harmonies.

They look like lawyers, is that why they’re called the Association?😂 love it !

This song made me happy. Loved the Association and their harmonies. Sunshine and miniskirts.

The Wrecking Crew delivers again. The hit makers extraordinaire, they were the sound of the 60s.

My life revolved around all these tunes you're playing lately. I got this lp on my 9th birthday & played it all the time. My record collection was pretty diverse back then; The Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Cream, Jeff Beck, SRC, Nugent, Stooges, Grand Funk, The Silver Apples ( check them out, not many are hip to them..first electronica, although crude...2 man band) even the Monkees.. My uncle was an exec for distribution at RCA.. They were an umbrella for different labels & he'd give us all sorts of albums. His daughter once played me Freak Out, first time I heard Zappa.

I'll second that!! Check out "Never My Love" and "Along Come Mary"

The Association were so fun as a kid. So many tasty vocalists in this band. So many hits! More please.

When I was 11, I heard Windy on the radio and loved it so much that one day after it was on, I called the radio station to ask the DJ to play it again. He said, “I just played it.” I told him, “Play it again!”, but he didn’t. “And Windy has wings to fly above the clouds, above the clouds!”

The legendary instrumental musicians meet the vocal harmonies of legends making for perfect hits of the 1960’s!

The Association was a great band from my childhood. I wouldn't really refer them as Psychedelic Pop except for maybe my favorite song of theirs "Along Comes Mary". That would be my next recommendation for you.

"Everything That Touches You" is one of the most gorgeous songs of the era. "Cherish" is another classic, produced by Curt Boettcher.

The Association was a great group. Beautiful harmonies.

Catchy tune. These guys were pretty strait laced. Wore suits and ties. Conservative dress. Yet they performed at the Monterey Pop Festival with Jimi and Janis and The Who. They were the opening band.

Cherish is my favorite then Windy❤

When Hal Blaine died a few years ago, I saw a tribute video in which they said he played on over 35,000 recordings. Also, he came up with the name " the Wrecking Crew". There is a dvd/blu-ray about the group. It is excellent. I believe you can see it on Amazon prime and maybe youtube.

Yes Lee , there is a documentary called , The Wrecking Crew" and should be required viewing in all schools, !!!❤😂

I remember listening to this at my best friends house in 1971 and we'd sing it loud in the living room! We were 11 years old.

Still remember throwing pebbles at the windows of my latest infatuation with this playing in the background. Salad days!

There was absolutely a documentary about The Wrecking Crew! It was great! I watch it every couple of years. It mostly focuses on guitar virtuoso Tommy Tedesco, bass goddess Carol Kaye, and the best drummer of the 1960s, Hal Blaine. But it covers almost every player (and the acts they sat in for/with) at some point. The Association had a couple of major bangers and a couple of brilliant Sunshine Pop ballads, including "Cherish" and "Never My Love", one of the most-played singles of the 20th century. "Along Comes Mary" was their other huge Psych Pop hit, and it was about Marijuana. As far as your assessment of old Pop vs new Pop, I don't entirely disagree. But if we are being very real about it, much like The Monkees, The Association was considered poseur music at the time, largely because they weren't even playing their own instruments. Yes, Pop from the 50s-80s was more listenable and original than most Pop since then, but Pop has always incorporated technology, "sweetening" (whether through string sections, sound fx, or electronic ear candy), and fake-outs (like having the band mime along to tracks recorded by session players like The Wrecking Crew, using MIDI/quantization, or using Autotune). This includes early Classic Rock acts like The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, The Who, Pink Floyd, and The Doors, too. One of the things that killed great Pop was a phenomenon we now call "Rockism". Rockism was the notion that Pop was inferior to Rock, singles were inferior to albums, and that "authenticity" was more important than listenability. It centered its focus almost entirely on longhaired white boy music (Hendrix, Santana, and Heart being rare exceptions), and helped canonize what became later known as Classic Rock. But it did so at the expense of some brilliant and groundbreaking Pop, Funk, Soul, R&B, and Dance Music, which were all considered too ethnic, too feminine, or too juvenile to qualify as authentic or Classic by their hegemonic standards. Rockism is still a bit of a mind-virus, honestly, but it's been countered for the last twenty years or so by "Poptimism" which is the notion that the best Pop can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best Rock. Acts like The Association bear this out perfectly.

I remember. It was big I think about 1967, we played some arrangement of it in band,

This was one of my very first favorite songs when I started listening to Top 40 radio in 1967, and I still love it. You should note that this "video" is them "playing" to the actual record. The musicians on the recording were members of the legendary Wrecking Crew. That's why it sounds so good.

That's the Wrecking Crew doing the backing instrumentals. Love Hal Blaine!! Yes, there is an EXCELLENT documentary on the Wrecking Crew by Denny Tedesco who was Tommy Tedesco's son (Tommy was the genius guitarist on most of the Wrecking Crew gigs...for example, he played the opening guitar intro on the Mama's and Papa's "California Dreaming"). And I believe the great Carol Kaye played bass on this (she played bass on most of the Beach Boys' hits like "Good Vibrations" and "California Girls").

Their irst hit was Along Comes Mary, their last one was Everything That Touches You (my favorite)

A radio hit .. fun watching these old videos

Yes, there’s a book and a documentary about the Wrecking Crew.

One of my first memories is of me dancing to this song in my backyard when I was 3 or 4. It was in Saskatoon, Canada.

One of my favorite bands from my late teens and college years.

"They all look like lawyers. Is that why they're called The Association?" Speaking as an attorney, I spit out my coffee on that one!

We were definitely blessed by the range and quality of music we grew up with. The Association was a hit machine, thanks to the stable of songwriters they had to draw from and of course to the virtually unbeatable - unless you consider other regional/in-house "bands" like the Funk Brothers - power of the Wrecking Crew. Loads of hits down this bunny burrow. 😊🤙🏼🎶🔥❤️🍁❤️✨️🕊

The documentary is called”The Wrecking Crew” 2008

Some bands/singers may not be known for their albums, only singles -and you have thier Greatest Hits. And, when the mood and memory gets to you, you can get the tune! I'm 55 years, and still get physical media. My Parents had vinyl of a number of Folk and Pop from the Sixties, so I grew up with this wonderful tune, and others to later expand my horizon and music genre. 🙃

Never My Love !!! Greatest love song ever written.

The Classics IV is a similar band that had a great song, “Traces”, about love lost.

If you haven’t seen the Wrecking Crew documentary, please do so soon!!!! It’s a great documentary.

A nice upbeat song of theirs. Along Comes Mary is another. Cherish and Never My Love are slower, softer, but beautiful songs

Windy was a great one.

Even if you weren't, The music was happy and uplifting. The son of Wrecking Crew guitarist, Tommy Tedesco produced the Wrecking Crew documentary, Everything you wanted to know is explained. Please watch and or do a reaction too.

An absolute anthem for the sixties sound!

Great pick Lee. I hope you check out Along Comes Mary. Faster tempo and crazy vocals.

the 60's was an musical explosion. next tune .... along comes mary by these guys. good pick lee!

I joined a record club in 1967, ya know, 13 albums for a penny... This was one of the 1st albums i got. 😊

They like to smile because they are very very happy.

I'm so glad I found your channel! I've been watching a little more each day. Your reactions are spot on, and you sound like you really appreciate the music we were lucky enough to hear every day! The 60s and 70s were truly the golden decades of great music. Great job, you'll be getting more followers, I'm sure!

Absolutely totally,❤️this song summer of love''67

Wow, brings back random memories from childhood. My neighbor, Betsy who was much older than me invited me to her high school choir concert and they sang "Windy,"

Great song brings to mind Up Up and Away.

"Along Comes Mary".

Top notch harmonies.

Somehow the feel of the song brings Spanky & Our Gang to mind.

"Everything that Touches You" is a great unappreciated tune.

Huge childhood song hit. So until now, for 50 plus years, I always thought this song was about Wendy. Damn.

Pure perfect pop. Wonderful

Cherish and Never My Love are great Association songs, too.

love along comes mary by association

Where to start - I m always grateful that I grew up in the best time for music, starting in the 50's until around the 90's when I started to hear the rapid decline of music and the start of 'electronically altering' the sound of it. I learned about the musicians when I was able to recognize certain players by their sound: Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Jim Gordon, etc., and would buy albums based ot. Bones Howe was a producer who worked primarily with Liberty Records and related labels. He also produced songs for The Fifth Dimension, Johnny Rivers, Jan and Dean, The Turtles, etc. He had his own production sound which made his work recognizable. The history of The Association is readily available on Wikipedia for one. Harmonies were their trademark and they were originally on Valiant Records and Warner Bros. bought the masters after their second album. The earlier records are not as 'sweet' as the Howes productions, but there are good tracks: "Along Comes Mary", "Pandora's Golden Heebie Geebies" and Cherish (which was more in line with Howes style). There is a clip around of them singing "Six Man Band" which is now quite dated, but interesting. They wanted to do more 'relevant' music and did one such song "Requiem for The Masses". One interesting bit is that they were offered "MacArther Park' by Jimmy Webb, buy refused to record it. Missed a hit there. The Wrecking Crew documentary is so much fun, stories of things that happened in sessions and particularly Hal talks about having two drum kits and he had a roadie who would set them up, he would do a 3-4 hour session, then go to the next studio where the other drum kit was already set up and he would play while the roadie was breaking down the first kit and may have taken it to another studio for a third session. It is on RU-vid. The Association early on worked with a producer named Curt Bottcher who worked with Brian Wilson and Gary Usher (The Byrd's producer albums 3-5) and recorded a song "My World Fell Down" with the Crew with Glen Campbell on vocals. It was attributed to a group "Sagittarius". The song was a moderate hit and Columbia wanted an album, but there was NO group, so they took some tracks Bottecher was working on and a couple of others, reworked them and recorded with the Crew. Has some idea of how MacArthur Park might have sounded if Association had done it There is much to enjoy from the Crew. They were professionals and would usually record 3-4 songs in three hours, them move onto the next session. I also stated to recoognize good engineers, but that is a whole other lesson.

On the Midnight Special they look like "don't give a shit hippies" but seriously rockin' professional musicianship.

Great big hit. Pure sunshine. Also try Orpheus. Can’t Find the Time. Sandpipers Come Saturday Morning.

You can still catch them on tour with the Happy Together tour and they still sound great

Being from the Midwest, I am partial to their song Dubuque Blues. There are two quite different versions, the 1969 studio version with the song’s writer Jules Alexander on vocals and a (for them) harder rock version on the Association Live album (1970) with Larry Ramos and Brian Cole on vocals.

You should also check out "Along Comes Mary" and "Requiem For The Masses" for a couple that are kind of polar opposites. The very first concert I attended was The Association in 1970, and - unlike so many today - their vocals were just as good live and on their records. And I don't know if the Wrecking Crew toured with them (I kinda doubt it), but the instrumentation was also spot on. Just tune in to their album called Greatest Hits and you will pretty much have the set list from the concert - just in a different order (the encore song was "Along Comes Mary"). That 8-track tape was also in my car all the time. I'm glad you found them, Lee. It's very evident my generation is having a good impact on you. :-D.

BRILLIANT! "They all look like lawyers; is that why they're called The Association?"

Yep, our pop.

Perfection.

Along Comes Mary was their 1st hit and is kinda druggy, and very cool.

Along comes Mary is my fav from them!!!

Lol! two notes in and I realised I knew this! Not heard it for eons :D

This was one of my favorites. Great song!

This reminds me of riding around in the way back window well in our VW Beetle when I was a toddler, spacing out on the little dots on the roof liner. And then Downtown by Petula Clark would come on... Yeah, Lee there's a lot of filler product out there aimed at unsuspecting filler people who don't know what they're missing. Things are about to get a lot better, though, so don't dismay.

Great pop song. Great memories! I hope you’ll revisit The Association for some of their other amazing songs.

The studio version is probably the wrecking crew with the group singing... but they did perform this live... Watch the movie Monterey Pop and they will blow you away.

Yes there was a wrecking Crew film as far as I know. As one drummer to another if you want to go nuts lookup a picture of one of Hal Blaine's Concert Tom set of plenty. Man once you go concert tom you never go back,..well occasionally. That's why Gibraltar builds/sells racks. 😂

This was my very first 45 I bought. I had plenty of Beatles albums before but actually going to May CO. Myself and spending my allowance on a 45😂

Some of the pop songs from the 60s can be a bit cheesy, but if I hear them on the oldies station, I am enjoying them and also singing along. The main thing that differs from todays pop music is that the old AM pop music puts you in a good mood.

This tune was almost immediately transformed into a marching band arrangement that was a feature at high school football games....back in the days of my youth.

"Sunshine Pop Perfection"! If this doesn't make you smile then there's no hope.

I was so confused when you said it was supposed to be psychedelic rock. I’ve known this forever. We played it in band when I was in junior high.

Good choice! Loved them!

Huge #1 record in 1967. ❤

Best association album is the double Live album.

the wrecking crew behind this group yes they have a documentary movie worth watching !

MUST LISTEN: The Association's origin hit *Along Comes Mary* in 1966, which in my opinion was their best song ever. It was about Marijuana (came out the same year as Paul McCartney's love song to marijuana *Got To Get You Into My Life)*

Thanks Lee LOL I was considering this for a PayPal pick this is so awesome they also do a great song called cherish❤

Even The Muppets had a version of this song. Fun video

Everything That Touches You!

"What is that sound?" That my friend is the Renaissance keyboard instrument, the harpsichord. Many pop artists began incorporating it to give the Baroque classical sound, and I'm going to say Simon and Garfunkel started it with their song "Scarborough Fair".

My favorite Hal Blaine track !

What I would call a 60's, 70's "crush song", where if you didn't have a crush on someone, the song would make you feel like you did. - As a matter of fact, not only me, but it wasn't uncommon for a young beauty to captivate her peers with not only beauty, but the drug culture she was in, making the allure all the more powerful. Hard as hell to resist for a 17 year old back in the day. Usually ending in some crazy form of heartbreak......

Pop, but wonderful pop. I've never thought of this as psychedelic. I love your description of them looking like lawyers 😂! Spot on!

"Wa-ell blow me down"! Everyone knows when Windy blows. The smiles show, and the beat flows. And the groove goes. This is when even the 'pop' songs had great musicians, playing catchy riffs. There is a movie about The Wrecking Crew, on Netflix right now. Peace & Love, from an old hippie, and the Gods above.

The recorder/ piccolo was Plaz Johnson.