The Turtles: So Happy Together in Westbury

The Island Now

In the three years since The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie brought back some friends for the 25th Anniversary Tour in 2010, “Happy Together” has become one of the most successful summer tours in existence, constantly hitting the road and celebrating the music of the 60’s for thousands of “Happy” fans to enjoy.

This year’s Happy Together Tour – comprised of The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie, Chuck Negron, formerly of Three Dog Night, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, Mark Lindsay, former lead singer of Paul Revere & The Raiders and Gary Lewis & The Playboys – will arrive at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury on Friday, June 21 at 8 p.m.  

“Happy Together Tour 2013 will be the biggest and most successful tour we have done in the past 7 years,” states Mark Volman (aka “Flo”) of The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie. “It’s 54 cities over nine weeks, and the groups on this year’s show bring with them hours of hit songs and memories certain to please every fan of the 1960s.  

In all, the five artists on this year’s tour have over 60 Top 40 hits to choose from, including six No. 1 songs. Half of the Top 40 hits were Top 10!

The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie have headlined and hosted all the previous Happy Together Tours and will be doing the same for this year’s shows.

Gary Puckett & The Union Gap return from last year, while Mark Lindsay, former lead singer of Paul Revere & The Raiders, returns from 2010 and 2011.

Chuck Negron, formerly of Three Dog Night, joined The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie on 2009s Hippiefest Tour.

 The relative newcomer to the Happy Together Tour is Gary Lewis & The Playboys, which shared the stage with The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie, The Mamas & the Papas, The Grass Roots and The Buckinghams on the 1985 Happy Together Tour.  

“I’m very excited to be on the Happy Together Tour again with my great friends from the ‘60s,” Gary said. “We have wonderful acts and all you’ll hear is hits!”

 From such songs as “Happy Together,” “Joy to the World” and “Young Girl” to “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)” and “This Diamond Ring,” fans will, once again, delight in hearing the songs sung by the original singers that they’ve heard on the radio for the past several decades.

 “Happy Together” by The Turtles hit No. 1 on the charts in 1967 (displacing the Beatles’ “Penny Lane”) and remains a staple on classic rock radio to this day. 

Although their biggest hit and signature song, it’s just one of their nine Top 40 hits, which includes such popular songs as “She’d Rather Be With Me,” “Elenore,” “You Showed Me” and “It Ain’t Me Babe.” 

In 1968, far ahead of their time, they would release one of music’s first concept albums, “The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands,” where they pretended to be 11 different bands with different names, each providing a song in a different genre. 

The album, which showcased their incredible range of vocal talent, spawned the hits “Elenore” and “You Showed Me” (both peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard charts). 

Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan have remained plenty busy over the years with both The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie and their extracurricular music activities. The band has sold over 60 million albums worldwide and continue to please audiences with their fun-filled performances.

Chuck Negron co-founded the hugely popular, multi-platinum band, Three Dog Night in 1967. The group went on to become one of the most successful bands of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s with 21 Top 40 hits and three No. 1 songs including “Joy to the World,” “Black and White” and “Mama Told Me (Not to Come).” 

The band’s first gold record was “One,” which featured Chuck on lead vocals as did “Joy to the World” and many other of the band’s biggest hits including “Old Fashioned Love Song.” 

Negron has kept the music that he helped make famous “alive” by continuing to perform throughout the decades.

 This year’s Happy Together Tour starts on Negron’s birthday and he’s looking forward to being a part of the festivities. 

“Performing with the Happy Together Tour is one of the highlights of my career!” he said.

 Gary Puckett & The Union Gap was one of the most successful musical groups of the sixties, boasting five Top 10 singles. 

Puckett’s unmistakable signature voice garnered six consecutive gold records and Top 10 Billboard hits such as “Young Girl” and “Woman Woman.” 

In 1968, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap sold more records than any other artist including the Beatles. 

Puckett has performed on more than 30 network television shows and prime time specials during his career, even adding a command performance for the President and Prince Charles at the White House. The Union Gap disbanded in 1971. Puckett continues to tour nationally and internationally.

 “The Happy Together Tour is a tremendously fun and entertaining show both to do and to see! It’s a pleasure and an honor to be one of the featured performers,” Puckett said. “Don’t miss it!”

 “Indian Reservation” by Paul Revere & The Raiders hit No. 1 on the charts in 1971, selling over 4 million copies which made it the biggest selling single for Columbia Records for almost a decade. 

This massive hit followed quite a few that came before it from the band including “Kicks,” “Hungry,” “Just Like Me” and “Good Thing” (as well as the Mark Lindsay Top Ten solo hit, “Arizona,” from 1970). 

In all, the band would achieve no less than fifteen Top 40 hits, five going Top 10. 

In February of this year, Lindsay released, “Like Nothing That You’ve Seen,” ultimately described by Little Steven on Sirius/XM Radio’s “Underground Garage” as the “coolest song in the world.” A full album, via Bongo Boy Records, will be coming out this summer.

 “I’m hyper-excited about being back on the Happy Together Tour this year and I’m working out to get in top shape for my high energy show,” Lindsay said. “I hope to see you all out on that road and we’ll have some great rock and roll fun together!”

 Aficionados of the ‘60s pop classics have cause to rejoice with the return of Gary Lewis & The Playboys. 

It was the summer of 1964 when Gary Lewis & The Playboys were discovered by producer Snuff Garrett. 

By the following year, they had a song go straight to the top of the charts called, “This Diamond Ring.” 

After the second hit titled, “Count Me In,” went to number two, Leis and the band proved they would be a continued success. They followed with more Top 10 songs such as “Save Your Heart for Me,” “Everybody Loves A Clown,” “She’s Just My Style,” “Sure Gonna Miss Her” and many more (seven in all). 

In 1965, Lewis, himself, was Cash Box magazine’s “Male Vocalist of the Year,” winning the honor over other nominees Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. He was the first and only artist during the 1960s to have his first seven releases reach Billboard magazine’s Top 10 on the Hot 100 chart. Still going strong, Lewis released a new single last year titled, “You Can’t Go Back.”

Tickets are $69.50, $49.50 and $29.50 and are available online at www.ticketmaster.com, charge by phone at 800-745-3000 or at the Westbury box office.  

Event, date and time are subject to change. For more information, visit: www.thetheatreatwestbury.com.

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