The Association "Renaissance" 1966

Jules Alexander (born September 25, 1943, Chattanooga, Tennessee) was in Hawaii in 1962 serving a stint in the Navy when he met Terry Kirkman (born December 12, 1939, Salina, Kansas), a visiting salesman. Kirkman grew up in Chino, California, and attended Chaffey College as a music major. The two young musicians jammed together and promised to get together once Alexander was discharged. That happened a year later; the two eventually moved to Los Angeles and began exploring the city's music scene in the mid-1960s, often working behind the scenes as directors and arrangers for other music acts. At the same time, Kirkman played in groups with Frank Zappa for a short period before Zappa went on to form the Mothers of Invention...

...Eventually, at a Monday night hootenanny at the Los Angeles nightclub The Troubadour in 1964, an ad hoc group called The Inner Tubes was formed by Kirkman, Alexander and Doug Dillard, whose rotating membership contained, at one time or another, Cass Elliot, David Crosby and many others who drifted in and out. This led, in the fall of 1964, to the forming of The Men, a 13-piece Folk rock band. This group had a brief spell as the house band at The Troubadour.
After a short time, however, The Men disbanded, with six of the members electing to go out on their own in February 1965. At the suggestion of Kirkman's then-fiancée, Judy, they took the name "The Association". The original lineup consisted of Alexander (using his middle name, Gary, on the first two albums) on vocals and lead guitar; Kirkman on vocals and a variety of wind, brass and percussion instruments; Brian Cole (born September 8, 1942, Tacoma, Washington) on vocals, bass and woodwinds; Russ Giguere (born October 18, 1943, Portsmouth, New Hampshire), on vocals, percussion and guitar; Ted Bluechel, Jr. (born December 2, 1942, San Pedro, California), from The Cherry Hill Singers, on drums, guitar, bass and vocals; and Brian Cole's friend and bandmate from the group Gnu Fokes, Bob Page (born May 13, 1943), on guitar, banjo and vocals. However, Page was replaced by Jim Yester (born November 24, 1939, Birmingham, Alabama) on vocals, guitar and keyboards before any of the group's public performances.
The new band spent about five months rehearsing before they began performing around the Los Angeles area, most notably a regular stint at The Ice House in Pasadena (where Giguere had worked as lighting director) and its sister club in Glendale.[3] They also auditioned for record labels but faced resistance.[citation needed] Eventually, the small Jubilee label issued a single of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (a song originally recorded by Joan Baez, later popularized by Led Zeppelin), but nothing happened. Finally, Valiant Records offered them a contract, with the first result being a version of Bob Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings", which was produced by Valiant's owner, Barry De Vorzon, at Gold Star Studios.
The Men were first managed by Doug Weston, owner of the Troubador, before switching to actor Dean Fredericks, who remained on board when The Association was formed and helped get them the Valiant deal. In 1966 Fredericks turned the reins over to Pat Colecchio, who managed the group for the next eight years, then on and off during the two years after that. But the change in management turned out to be less than amicable as Fredericks later sued the band for breach of contract and was subsequently awarded a settlement.

trax:
1. I'm The One 2. Memories Of You 3. All Is Mine 4. Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies. 5. Angeline 6. Songs In The Wind 7. You May Think 8. Looking Glass 9. Come To Me 10. No Fair At All 11. You Hear Me Call Your Name 12. Another Time, Another Place 13. The Machine 14. Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies (45 Version) 15. No Fair At All (45 Version-Alternate Vocal) 16. Looking Glass (45 Version-Alternate Vocal) 17. Memories Of You (Instrumental) 18. No Fair At All (Instrumental) 19. Songs In The Wind (Instrumental) 20. Angeline (Instrumental) 21. Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies (Instrumental) 22. Looking Glass (Instrumental)

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