Elenore

"Elenore"
Single by The Turtles
from the album The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands
B-side	"Surfer Dan"
Released	September 1968
Genre	Sunshine Pop
Length	2:31
Label	White Whale
Writer(s)	Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, Al Nichol, Jim Pons, John Barbata
Producer(s)	Chip Douglas
The Turtles singles chronology
"The Story of Rock and Roll" (1968) "Elenore" (1968) "You Showed Me" (1969)

"Elenore" is a 1968 song by American pop-rock group The Turtles, originally included on the album The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. Although written by lead vocalist Howard Kaylan, its writing was co-credited to all five members of the band, Kaylan, Mark Volman, Al Nichol, Jim Pons and John Barbata. The song was written as a satire of their biggest pop hit "Happy Together".

Background

By 1968, The Turtles had had a number of successful pop records on the White Whale label, including Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe", "Happy Together" and "She'd Rather Be with Me", both written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon. The band members wanted to diversify their musical output, in parallel with more innovative musical groups of the time, and to record their own material. However, their record company were reluctant to allow them to do so.^[1]

As a demonstration of their musical versatility, The Turtles recorded the album ...the Battle of the Bands, which featured performances in a wide variety of different musical styles.^[2] The band recorded "Elenore" as a parody of the type of happy-go-lucky pop songs they themselves had been performing, but with deliberately clichéd and slapdash lyrics such as: "Your looks intoxicate me / Even though your folks hate me / There's no one like you, Elenore, really"; and "Gee, I think you're swell / And you really do me well / You're my pride and joy, et cetera..."^[3] Howard Kaylan later said:

Elenore was a parody of "Happy Together." It was never intended to be a straight-forward song. It was meant as an anti-love letter to White Whale [Records], who were constantly on our backs to bring them another "Happy Together." So I gave them a very skewed version. Not only with the chords changed, but with all these bizarre words. It was my feeling that they would listen to how strange and stupid the song was and leave us alone. But they didn't get the joke. They thought it sounded good. Truthfully, though, the production on "Elenore" WAS so damn good. Lyrically or not, the sound of the thing was so positive that it worked. It certainly surprised me.^[4]

According to his autobiography Shell Shock, Kaylan stated that The Turtles had agreed that any song written by one or more members would be credited to the entire group. Kaylan regretted this, as he wrote the song by himself, and it went on to become a hit.

Release

The song was produced by Chip Douglas and released as a single (White Whale 276). "Elenore" reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100,^[5] and also reached # 7 on the UK Singles Chart,^[6] # 4 in Canada, # 8 in Australia, and # 1 in New Zealand.^[7] It has since been featured on many anthologies, and as part of the soundtrack of the 2009 film The Boat That Rocked.^[8]

Chart performance

Weekly charts Chart (1968) Peak position US Billboard Hot 100[5] 6 US Cash Box Top 100[9] 5 Canadian RPM[10] 4 UK[6] 7 Australia 3 New Zealand[7] 1

Year-end charts Chart (1968) Rank Canada[11] 93 UK[12] 68 US Billboard Hot 100[13] 80 US Cash Box[14] 64

Cover versions

• Slovak singer Ivo Heller covered "Elenore" as "Mátoha parohatá" in 1970, backed by Tatra-Revue Dance Orchestra and RT-VOX (backing vocals).
• Italian singer Gianni Morandi covered the song as "Scende la pioggia."
• Dean Torrence, one half of Jan & Dean, covered the song on his 2002 album, Dean Torrence Anthology: Legendary Masked Surfer Unmasked.
• The song was featured in the Mad Men 2014 episode "A Day's Work".
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covered "Elenore" on their album Blow in the Wind.^[15]

References

1. John Bush. "The Turtles | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
2. "The Turtles "Present the Battle of the Bands"". RISING STORM. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
3. "THE TURTLES". Shsu.edu. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
4. Liner notes for The Turtles' anthology Solid Zinc
5. Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 727. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
6. Betts, Graham (2004). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004 (1st ed.). London: Collins. p. 802. ISBN 0-00-717931-6.
7. "Song artist 525 - The Turtles". Tsort.info. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
8. Stephen Thomas Erlewine (2009-03-30). "The Boat That Rocked [Movie Soundtrack] - Original Soundtrack | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
10. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
11. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
12. "Top 100 1968". Uk-charts.top-source.info. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
13. "Top 100 Hits of 1978/Top 100 Songs of 1978". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
15. Adam Bregman. "Blow in the Wind". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 January 2016.