{"id":61340,"date":"2025-07-13T04:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T04:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/61340\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T04:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T04:28:09","slug":"will-the-turtles-the-real-turtles-please-stand-up-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/61340\/","title":{"rendered":"Will The Turtles (the real Turtles) please stand up? \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s in a name? At what point does pop-music nostalgia lead to possible misrepresentation?<\/p>\n

Those were key questions Friday night during the mostly crowd-pleasing 2025 Happy Together Tour performance at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. Alternately spirited and creaky, engaging and perplexing, the 130-minute stroll down a very well-worn memory lane featured one artist who rose to fame in the 1950s, the doo-wop-bred vocal great Little Anthony. The other five performers, who each rose to prominence in the 1960s with million-selling records \u2014 Jay & The Americans, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, The Vogues, The Cowsills, and headliners The Turtles \u2014 were represented (and, in at least one case, misrepresented) by their latest iterations.<\/p>\n

\n

Blurred lines: When a legendary band has just one or two original members, is it legit or a tribute act?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While no one has stated that this year\u2019s Happy Together Tour will be the last, there are several reasons why that possibility may be increasingly likely. To repeat the first question posed at the start of this review: What\u2019s in a name?<\/p>\n

\"....LittleLittle Anthony still hits the high notes at 84. His performance was a highlight of Friday\u2019s Happy Together Tour concert. (Michael Ho \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Here are some factors that inspire such a discussion.<\/p>\n

The current lineup of The Vogues has no original members.<\/p>\n

The current lineup of Jay & The Americans has one original member, 82-year-old harmony vocalist Sandy Deane Yaguda. The Americans\u2019 lead vocal role has been filled since 2006 \u2014 the same year the group reactivated after a 33-year hiatus \u2014 \u00a0by Jay Reinke, who at Friday\u2019s concert here introduced to himself as \u201cthe third Jay.\u201d (The first two are deceased.)<\/p>\n

\"....TheThe Cowsills exuberantly opened Friday\u2019s Happy Together Tour concert.(Michael Ho \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Cowsills, who opened the show with a buoyant four-song set, were represented by brothers Bob, Paul and their sister, Susan. (The group\u2019s other four original members are deceased.)<\/p>\n

\n

Susan Cowsill was 7 when she joined The Cowsills in 1966. She\u2019s on tour with them now.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Puckett, a San Diego music mainstay for much of the 1960s, still leads a band called The Union Gap. But, apart from him, it has no original members.<\/p>\n

\n

Gary Puckett sings on at 82: \u2018In 1968, we sold more singles than The Beatles\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

His Humphreys\u2019 set saw the veteran singer accompanied not by the latest edition of The Union Gap, but by the same four-man group of hired hands that expertly backed all the evening\u2019s artists. The group could not compensate for Puckett\u2019s enthusiastic but increasingly shaky singing on such favorites as \u201cLady Willpower,\u201d \u201cOver You\u201d and the still-creepy 1968 chart-topper, \u201cYoung Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, only the most devoted fans can name the original members of The Union Gap, The Vogues or Jay & The Americans. And it is unrealistic to expect bands that started 60 or more years ago to still have their original lineups, just as it was when the Happy Together Tour\u2019s second edition stopped in San Diego in 1985 with groups containing only one or two of their co-founders, including headliners The Turtles.<\/p>\n

Co-led by singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, who use the stage names Flo & Eddie, The Turtles launched the first Happy Together Tour in 1984 for a four-year run. They revived it in 2010 and have been the only act to perform on every edition of the annual national concert trek, at least in a manner.<\/p>\n

Kaylan bowed out after the 2017 tour, following back surgery and two heart procedures. He was replaced by pop journeyman Ron Dante, the former lead singer for the TV cartoon group The Archies. With the wisecracking Volman remaining on board, The Turtles still boasted one original member. Until now.<\/p>\n

\n

Ron Dante, voice of The Archies, now sings with The Turtles: \u2018Honor the songs\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This year\u2019s Happy Together Tour is, sadly, the first without Volman. In 2020, he was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. The condition leads to a decline in the ability to independently function, think and reason.<\/p>\n

Consequently, The Turtles-free Turtles that performed here Friday saw Volman\u2019s parts sung by tour guitarist Godfrey Townsend. The six selections he and the vocally strained Dante essayed, including \u201cShe\u2019d Rather Be With Me,\u201d \u201cElenore\u201d and \u201cHappy Together,\u201d are classics. But their singing lacked range, power and personality.<\/p>\n

The question, then, is: How misleading is it to bill The Turtles \u2014 or any other long-established band \u2014 by its well-known moniker, when not one actual member of that band is performing on stage?<\/p>\n

Certainly, for most fans the opportunity to hear reasonable approximations of the hits that they grew up with can provide a welcome night out. Or, as a man seated near me exclaimed during intermission: \u201cThat was awesome \u2014 I knew all the words!\u201d<\/p>\n

But would fans turn out in force knowing they will be hearing The Turtles in name only? Should they be informed, in advance, before deciding whether to purchase tickets?<\/p>\n

Whatever the answer, the most enjoyable parts of Friday\u2019s concert offered more than just a chance for attendees to revisit their adolescent years in song by channeling anew feelings of young love, longing and fresh-faced angst.<\/p>\n

The Cowsills performed such gems as \u201cIndian Lake\u201d and \u201cHair\u201d with infectious verve. Best of all was the perpetually charismatic Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Little Anthony. Now 84 \u2014 not 79, as he joked \u2014 he still hit the glorious high notes in \u201cTears On My Pillow\u201d And \u201cGoin\u2019 Out of My Head.\u201d And he romped exuberantly through \u201cShimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop,\u201d but only after telling the audience his true feelings about the song: \u201cI think it\u2019s stupid!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a name? At what point does pop-music nostalgia lead to possible misrepresentation? Those were key questions…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,5424,3549,3550,7264,1072,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-61340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-music-and-concerts","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-county","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-things-to-do","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114844041410249988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}