Customer Reviews

Save The Turtles: The Turtles Greatest Hits

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It was a relatively short but highly successful run. Between 1965 and 1970 a five man group from Los Angeles known as The Turtles produced some of the biggest and brightest pop records of the decade. All told, The Turtles would place a total of 17 singles on Billboards "Hot 100 Singles" chart. Five of these would become Top Ten smashes. In 2009, founding members of The Turtles Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan regained control of their catalogue and decided to release a brand new collection of their hits on their very own label. "Save The Turtles: The Turtles Greatest Hits" offers up 20 of The Turtles biggest hits and best recordings. For Volman and Kaylan this project was quite obviously a labor of love.

The Turtles came out of nowhere in the summer of '65 with their debut single "It Ain't Me Babe". The song was written by Bob Dylan who seemed to be all the rage that year and it climbed all the way to #8 on the national charts. Most folks just presumed that The Turtles were a folk group and were a bit surprised that a number of the groups subsequent releases were pure pop. The group continued to release singles such as "You Baby" and "Can I Get To Know You Better" with varying degrees of success until early 1967 when they finally struck paydirt with a tune called "Happy Together". This would prove to be their biggest and best remembered record. "Happy Together" spent a total of 3 weeks as the #1 song in the land. Over the next couple of years the group would continue its highly successful run with 3 more Top Ten hits including "You Showed Me", "She'd Rather Be With Me" and a personal favorite "Elenore". All are included in this fine collection. Also included on this disc are several more of the groups most popular tunes including "She's My Girl" , "You Don't Have To Walk In The Rain", and the lush and lovely "You Know What I Mean" from the late summer of '67. As the 60's drew to a close interest in The Turtles seemed to wane. The Turtles disbanded in 1970 but Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan re-emerged in 1972 as Flo & Eddie. They are still performing today and have managed to keep the music of The Turtles alive for all these many years.

All 20 of the selections on "Save The Turtles: The Best of The Turtles" have been lovingly remastered under the personal direction of Mssrs. Volman and Kaylan from the original master tapes. As I recall the fidelity on those original White Whale 45's that I purchased back in the day left a lot to be desired. Great music and fond memories at a very nice price. Highly recommended!

I got the new "Save the Turtles" collection last weekend. I thought the remastering sounded great! It's hard to believe that all those songs are roughly forty years old! With the remastering they sound like they were just recorded.

I remember a Captain Beefheart interview i once read where Beefheart talks about the first time he actually saw a Van Gogh painting up close in an art museum. He told the interviewer that the colors were so vibrant and the paintstrokes so vivid, it looked like Van Gogh had just painted it, went down the hall to go to the bathroom, and then came back to take another look at it. I had the same feeling listening to your songs on "Save the Turtles." It sounded like you'd just recorded them, went down the hall to go to the bathroom, and then came back to have another listen.

An American band from the 60's with an upbeat tempo that even the younger people of today will enjoy. The music from the 1960's is some of the best music ever made! I really like this CD tremendously. The Turtles have an awesome rock n' roll sound that you will love forever. I personally like their sound even better than the Beatles and that is saying a lot!! The music from the Turtles is so positive and enjoyable that you just want to sing along with them. The Turtles keep their upbeat musical style throughout the CD. These songs never grow old and I highly recommend this CD for your collection. If your having a bad day at work, just put this CD on and you will forget all about it!! Take care and enjoy as life is too short!

(Note: This review is for the CD version; I mistakenly wrote it under the link for the vinyl version!) I like this compilation, although I think that Rhino's 20 Greatest Hits CD (which was released much earlier) is better. One of the reasons for this is that several of the songs here appear in mono mixes, whereas they were in stereo on Rhino's collection. The mono mixes are O.K., although for some reason the chorus vocals on the mono "You Baby" are overpowered by the instrumentation. "Grim Reaper Of Love" appears here in unedited form, though the edited version on 20 Greatest Hits was (I think) the one that was originally released as a single (although it is in stereo on 20 Greatest Hits --- I assume that it was in mono on the single). I also prefer the mix of "You Don't Have To Walk In The Rain" that appeared on Rhino's CD to the one included here. The stereo effect on the mix here is wide whereas it is very narrow on the other mix, but to me the other one still sounds better. This CD also misses a couple of songs that were on 20 Greatest Hits: "Eve Of Destruction" and "Lady-O." I'm a bit surprised that they weren't included; I think the Turtles' version of "Eve Of Destruction" is the best (of the versions I've heard, anyway), and "Lady-O" is probably the most beautiful song that the group ever did. However, this CD does have one really good track that wasn't on Rhino's --- an "extended" version of "Makin' My Mind Up" (this song wasn't on Rhino's CD at all). As for the "Chevrolet Camero Commercial" on this CD, I don't really know why it's here; surely there are better unreleased tracks than this. Overall, this compilation isn't bad, but I would advise you to get Rhino's 20 Greatest Hits CD instead. It's out of print now, and new copies are outrageously expensive (at Amazon, anyway), but reasonably-priced used copies can still be found.

I was just a young kid during the mid 60's. But, I still remember many of the songs on this CD. Along with my Beatles albums, the Turtles Greatest Hits was one of the first albums I ever bought. I bought this particular CD so that I could listen to these great songs while driving. "Can I Get to Know You Better", "She'd Rather Be With Me", "She's My Girl", "It Ain't Me Babe". Great stuff. One of my favorite songs is "You Baby". Yes, it's bubble-gum. But the song has that tight drum riff that grabs your attention from the very first beat. And Howard (Kaplan) Kaylan's screaming falsetto (just after the second bridge), is killer. These songs will lift your spirits in the manner of the early Beatles, Paul Revere and the Raiders,the Dave Clark 5, etc. These older songs from the 60's (as well as the 70's) put today's music to shame. Young people who only listen to the newer cr_p from the 90's and 00's are truly missing out on some fantastic music. This CD is worth every penny.

We old timers (I'm 55), can't help being a bit nostalgic about the 60's. OK, it was a time of Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I Got Love In My Tummy (a real song), but it was also a time of unforgettable standards like: House Of The Rising Sun, A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Satisfaction, and For What It's Worth. Don't remember For What It's Worth? Yeah, you do, try playing it.

Say what you will, some of these lightweight rock bands from the golden age of rock made some real gems, catchy tunes that have never lost their timeless appeal.

The Turtles made some nice little pop hits. I bought this album for the sake of sheer nostalgia. One nice thing is that when you go back and review a greatest hits style album you often find a diamond in the rough you haven't heard before. On this album it's a tune called Me About You. A quirky little tune that I think would make a great commercial jingle for say, Coca-Cola. I'm going to keep adding to my collection of golden oldies, I like them. If you like 60's stuff, you'll probably enjoy this album.

Hopefully Mark and Howard will be reading this.
How many times does the public need a greatest hits
package ? At last count, it's been 6 times on c.d. since
1995. How about doing what cbs/legacy did with
The Byrds Releases or iconclassic did with The Guess who.
Remaster each album starting with the 1965 album "It
ain't me babe". Put bonus tracks from the album sessions
with liner notes and commentary from the band members that
played on the sessions along with producers notes.
It's been haphazard with those releases and i'm hoping
one day they'll do it right.

I recently purchased The Turtles Greatest Hits. These songs take me back to a time of enjoyment I seldom get with today's music. I love it!!

i highly recommend this greatest hits of a great band. from start to finish i enjoyed this collection!

This band was one of pop's greatest hitmakers and I wish they'd put out a new one! why not? they can sell it online even. Anyways their isn't a bad song on here and that's saying alot. I have all of their releases, including hte crossfires and their flo and eddie work. So I din't need this one but I got it for a friend who is young and loves it. Good music lives on.