The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands

Infobox Album |
Name = The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands
Type = Album
Artist = The Turtles


Background =
Released = November 1968
Recorded = 1968
Genre = Pop music
Length = 37 min 7 sec
Label = White Whale Records
Producer = Chip Douglas
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:1kd4vwrva9ik~T1 link]
Last album = "Happy Together"
(1967)
This album = "The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands"
(1968)
Next album = "Turtle Soup"
(1969)

"The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands" is the fifth studio album released by The Turtles. Produced by Chip Douglas, it was released in November 1968 by White Whale Records. It includes John Barbata's final recorded performances with the band; he left shortly after its release to join Crosby, Stills & Nash. Barbata's eventual replacement, ex-Spanky and Our Gang drummer John Seiter, also contributed to the album. Some issues of the album were retitled "Elenore".

This was a concept album, with the band pretending to be a series of different groups, playing in varying styles from psychedelic ("The Last Thing I Remember") to hard rock ("Buzzsaw") to surf music ("Surfer Dan") to bluegrass ("Chicken Little Was Right"). The outer cover showed the Turtles in evening dress, playing hosts of the "show", while the inside gatefold showed them in different costumes for each song.

"Kamanawanalea" was a made-up Hawaiian idol ("the god of lust and perversion"), and a rude pun. The lyrics of "Food" included a recipe for brownies, with a special ingredient. "You Showed Me" was written by Gene Clark and Jim McGuinn of The Byrds, and became the last major Turtles hit. The final song, "Earth Anthem", was notably recorded at 3:00 A.M. by candlelight, to capture the exact mood the Turtles wanted.

Charts and awards

The album peaked at #128 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, but its singles were more successful. "Elenore" and "You Showed Me" both reached #6 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, while "Sound Asleep" topped out at #57.

Track listing

All songs composed by The Turtles, except as noted.

# The Battle of the Bands (Harry Nilsson, Chip Douglas) – 2:14 ("The U.S. Teens featuring Raoul")
# The Last Thing I Remember, the First Thing I Knew – 2:55 ("The Atomic Enchilada")
# Elenore – 2:31 ("Howie, Mark, Johny, Jim & Al")
# Too Much Heartsick Feeling – 2:43 ("Quad City Ramblers")
# Oh, Daddy! – 2:45 ("The L.A. Bust '66")
# Buzzsaw – 1:59 ("The Fabulous Dawgs")
# Surfer Dan – 2:42 ("The Cross Fires")
# I'm Chief Kamanawanalea (We're the Royal Macadamia Nuts) – 1:34 ("Chief Kamanawanalea and his Royal Macadamia Nuts")
# You Showed Me (James McGuinn, Gene Clark)– 3:16 ("Nature's Children")
# Food – 2:40 ("The Bigg Brothers")
# Chicken Little Was Right – 2:47 ("Fats Mallard and the Bluegrass Fireball")
# Earth Anthem (Bill Martin) – 3:54 ("All")
#:The following are bonus tracks that are only on the SUNDAZED CD re-issue, and not the original vinyl LP:
# Sound Asleep – 2:29
# The Story of Rock & Roll (Harry Nilsson) – 2:38