Tune Tag #32 with Dan Pal of PalCinema, TV & Music, Pt. 1: Police, Barbra Streisand, Turtles, Durocs, Michael Jackson, Code Blue, Brian Wilson

A celluloid pro (with a musical jones) meets a vinyl nerd whose Police record is lengthy (with skips that reflect years of play), and whose rap sheet includes the pre-doctorate Intern Dre.🩺

Hey, Dan….Nanu Nanu and Shazbot!

“Nanu nanu” and “Shazbot” were catchphrases from Robin Williams’ Mork & Mindy 1978 sitcom character, Mork from Ork (a fictitious planet…or, so they say).

Tune Tag welcomes

Dan Pal

of PalCinema, Television, & Music!

Dan Pal is a Film Professor at DePaul University in Chicago, Film Critic, Director, Screenwriter, Producer, & Festival Programmer. He’s also an avid music fan and has hosted and administered annual Top Ten Parties for over 40 years.

I dig deep into my knowledge and interests as well as share personal details about what entertainment means to me. I also love to interact with people who have similar interests!

“Off to the races…with Turtles?!?”😱

Dans’s Song #1 sent to Brad: The Turtles, “Happy Together,” 1967

Dan’s rationale: I had just posted it on my Substack page as my favorite song from 1967:

A Top Ten Memoir: 1967 - "And the Beat Goes On..."

Brad’s response: Dan’s only been on Substack for a month, and he’s already established himself as a positive musical force to be reckoned with! His choice of “Happy Together” as his fave song of ‘67, alone, shouts that loudly from the rooftops (in 3-part harmony, yet)! Plus, he’s got family in Houston, my hometown!

If you were, say, over 30 in the late-’60s (and, thus, weren’t to be trusted, according to hippies of the day), and found The Beatles to be noisy and bothersome, “Happy Together” (produced by Joe Wissert on independent White Whale Records) had to put a smile on your face!

(Presumably) happy together as a songwriting team, Gordon (l) and Bonner were moved to write songs of joy and celebration, however specifically intentional that may (or may not) have been. Their record-buying public, though, couldn’t be happier!

Singer/songwriters, Alan Gordon and Garry Bonner (shown above when in The Magicians, circa 1966) knitted together the most exuberantly joyful and thrilling song that, vocally, took what The Beatles and Beach Boys were inventing and perfecting in the rock arena, and upped the glorious ante ten-fold! In case there was any doubt, the songwriting pair fashioned the celebratory “Celebrate” two years later. Three Dog Night (with the Chicago horn section in tow) took their party to #15 in the States, and #8 in Canada in 1969. An early Uriah Heep cover—known as Spice in 1968, and unreleased at the time—can be heard here.

His name sounds like he was one of Fred MacMurray’s ‘60s sitcom My Three Sons, but Chip Douglas was the man behind the vocal arrangement for “Happy Together.” The following year, Douglas began a studio career, producing many of The Monkees’ hit records (that’s Davy Jones on the left, above), including “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “Daydream Believer.”

According to the June 4, 2013 RockCellarMagazine.com, both Kaylan and Volman praised bass player, Chip Douglas’s arrangement, the former stating that “Chip knew what he wanted to hear, and he actually heard in his head the blend of horns and voices. He wanted to have the flutes echo the high voices and the horns be the middle voices.”

Flo (l) & Eddie: After the Turtles dissolved in 1970, Volman (l) and Kaylan first joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention as the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie. Contractual restrictions imposed early in their career (with White Whale Records) prevented Volman and Kaylan from using the name The Turtles, as well as their own names (stunningly), in a musical context. They recorded several Flo & Eddie albums for Warner Bros. and Columbia through the mid-’70s, and later, hosted their own L.A.-area radio show, “Flo & Eddie by the Fireside.”

For The Turtles, Howard Kaylan (Eddie in the eventually comedic singing duo, Flo & Eddie) sings lead. Mark Volman (aka Flo) became one of the first (if not the first) rock band member to “do nothing but sing,” easily earning his keep by doing that one thing incredibly well. He’s the super-high harmony on T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get it On)”! The two singers met at L.A.’s Westchester High, and were both members of its a cappella choir. When the band that became The Turtles formed, and Mark wanted in, the members didn’t want a spot to be taken by someone who “just sang.” Hence, the tambourine and fake trumpet Mark always had on hand!

Who saw (or heard) this coming? Both songwriters were performers, as well! We’ll get to Alan Gordon in a minute. But, in 1974, Bonner recorded his and Alan’s “Happy Together” on Atlantic Records, with Bob Ezrin producing!

By this time, “our George Martin” (as Alice once asserted) had already produced Alice Cooper’s Love it to Death, School’s Out, and Billion Dollar Babies albums! Ezrin’s production discography is jaw-dropping!

Brad’s Song #1 sent to Dan: Alan Gordon, “Soul Sneekers,” 1978

Inner sleeve of Gordon’s Alley & the Soul Sneekers album. Eventual Late Nite with David Letterman bandleader, Paul Shaffer, played keyboards on the sessions, and is pictured upper right. The album was produced and arranged by arranger/songwriter/producer, Jack Nitzsche, who was Phil Spector’s Gold Star Studio right-hand-man in the early ‘60s.

Dan’s response: Alan Gordon co-wrote “Happy Together.”

Brad’s rationale: By 1978 (I was 23, and in retail records in Houston), when I got the promo of this Alley & the Soul Sneekers Gordon album on Capitol Records, I was well aware of his hit-making songwriting career from a decade before. But, my singular Alan Gordon album story revolves around his album release two years before: His 1976 The ExtraGordonary Band effort on the tiny (and run with dubious intentions, it turns out) Tiger Lily Records, distributed by the just-barely bigger Roulette Records.

In the 5 years that spanned the boundary across two centuries (1998-2003), I sold my 2,000-unit vinyl album collection on eBay. This one ended up being the crown jewel, stunningly enough, eventually going for a whopping $500.00 to a buyer in Japan! I’m guessing its rarity (low-press run in U.S.) and complete unavailability in any other country (plus his record biz career cache) accounted for the outlandish price! Current Discogs prices: Low: $799.99, Median: $900.00, and high: $1,000. Who knows…maybe “mine” is represented somewhere in those offers (it had the promo “bullet hole” upper-right, and similar ring wear)! Nice to know I might have moved the secondary vinyl market, even if just a tad, 2 1/2 decades ago!