One-hit wonders? Well, sort of. They had five Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and seven on the RPM chart but can many people name any of them other than "Happy Together"? Oldies radio owes a great deal to the song they are best known for but they've never gone out of their way to play, say, their cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" or "You Showed Me" or, indeed, "She'd Rather Be with Me". When you're only remembered for one song then you might as well be a one-hit wonder.
But "Happy Together" isn't the subject of this review — and a good thing too because it's very much the "Walking on Sunshine" of the sixties: a gloriously joyful pop hit that I would be perfectly happy never to have to listen to again. "She'd Rather Be with Me" was its follow-up and you'd be forgiven for assuming that it's one of those classic more-of-the-same singles that doesn't quite have the same energy as its predecessor. But that's far from the case. If anything, there's a little more spirit involved this time, like they realised that they couldn't quite recapture the euphoria of "Happy Together" and so added some audacity in its place.
Musical audaciousness may be a little discussed aspect of the influence The Beatles were having at the time. This didn't mean having to copy the Fab Four, the way industry plants like The Monkees were doing or the way whole generations of boring old power pop groups have been doing since the early seventies (even though I'd argue that aping a very narrow element of their sound isn't really something Beatles' devotees ought to be doing at all; being Beatlesque ought to involve being musically curious but I digress). The Beatles had been exploring and experimenting so much that it rubbed off on others — and it wasn't simply The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones they were rubbing off on. Though not all that sonically alike anymore, The Turtles had also modeled themselves on fellow Los Angeles band The Byrds (they had even once toyed with the misspelled Tyrtles in tribute but that was just being silly) who were also becoming far more unpredictable in the studio and whose brilliant fourth album Younger Than Yesterday had been released that February. (In fact, "She'd Rather Be with Me" is closer to The Beach Boys, especially in its Brian Wilson-influenced instrumental passage which is not unlike the ridiculous but adventuresome "Amusement Parks USA" from their 1965 album Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!))
The Turtles weren't in the same league creatively as either The Beatles or Byrds and they likely knew it but I have a lot of respect for the fact that this didn't stop them from trying. "She'd Rather Be with Me" might have come across as bubblegum pop had a less confident group recorded it; in the hands of The Turtles, however, it's loaded with a stomping beat, some honky tonk piano, blasting horns and what may or may not be a circus pump organ in the background. It's one of those songs that reveals a hidden instrument or production quirk with every subsequent listen. Plus, they have far more swagger than a band reliant on outside songwriters has any right to be.
"Yobo!" my wife just called to me from the living room, "the music is bothering me". I proceeded to shut the door so I could listen to it again. Yeah, I know what she means for once (we don't always see eye-to-eye when it comes to music): it does sound like a racket at first and it doesn't matter how much you lower the volume, it can't help but be loud. Yet, "She'd Rather Be with Me" is a classic pop grower, a song I was largely indifferent towards at first but one that I can't get enough of now. An American Hollies? Glorified one-hit wonders? Nah. The Turtles were just an opportunist band making the most of their opportunity.
Score: 9
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