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Flo & Eddie
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Mark Volman ("Flo") (left) and Howard Kaylan ("Eddie") (right) in a 2008 tour
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Los Angeles, U.S. |
| Genres | Comedy rock |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Labels | Reprise, Warner Bros., Columbia |
| Spinoffs | The Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa, Checkpoint Charlie, Alice Cooper, Psychedelic Furs |
| Spinoff of | The Turtles |
| Members | Mark Volman Howard Kaylan |
| Website | http://www.theturtles.com |
Flo & Eddie is a comedy rock duo consisting of Mark Volman (Flo, short for Phlorescent Leech) and Howard Kaylan (Eddie).
The two were the original founding members of the Top 40 mid-to late 1960s rock and pop group the Turtles. After the Turtles dissolved in 1970, Volman and Kaylan first joined Frank Zappa's band The Mothers of InventionasPhlorescent Leech & Eddie. Contractual restrictions imposed early in their career prevented Volman and Kaylan from using the name The Turtles, as well as their own names, in a musical context.[1]
When The Mothers of Invention bandleader Frank Zappa was injured during a concert in London in 1971, Kaylan and Volman found themselves at an impasse, as the group was out of action for a time. They responded to this by recording The Phlorescent Leech & EddieonReprise Records with most of the other members of the Mothers of Invention.[2] Although this album failed to chart, the duo continued to release albums, including the more successful Flo & Eddie; Illegal, Immoral and Fattening; Moving Targets; and Rock Steady with Flo & Eddie.
During the 1970s, Kaylan and Volman continued to work as session musicians. They were backing vocalists on the T. Rex 1971 song "Get It On", singing the inadvertent extra chorus that "worked". The duo sang background vocals also on early T. Rex albums and were close friends of the band's vocalist Marc Bolan. The duo was also in good relations with Alice Cooper, and they were the opening act on the "Billion Dollar Babies Tour" during the spring of 1973, going on to record background vocals for Cooper's albums From the Inside, Flush the Fashion and Zipper Catches Skin. The duo was also the house band for the Canadian TV talk show 90 Minutes Live with Peter Gzowski. They also sang background vocals on "Telephone Booth", a 1974 song by Hoyt Axton.
The duo sang backing vocals also on Bruce Springsteen's first Top Ten hit on the Billboard chart, the 1980 song "Hungry Heart", while in 1982, they released a four-song EP on Rhino Records (RNEP 603) under the name Checkpoint Charlie. The record is a dark but whimsical take on late 1970s/early 1980s German Synth-pop, New Wave and Techno music, such as D.A.F. and Kraftwerk.
In 1984, as The Turtles... featuring Flo & Eddie (together with three other groups from the 1960s: Gary Puckett, Spanky and Our Gang, and the Association), they traveled across the U.S. and Canada as "The Happy Together Tour". The following year they got together with the Buckinghams, Gary Lewis and the Grass Roots, for a 1985 version. For the eight months the tour was on the road, it was consistently one of the top 10 grossing tours in the country.
During the summers of 2010 and 2011, Flo & Eddie had heavy touring schedules throughout the U.S., both as part of the Happy Together: 25th Anniversary Tour, along with the Grass Roots, the Buckinghams, Mark Lindsay, and The Monkees' member Micky Dolenz (2010 only).[3]
They also had a collaboration with animation studio Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, dating back to when this company made the cartoon scenes in Zappa's film 200 Motels. Flo & Eddie did the music for their films Down and Dirty Duck and The Adventures of the American Rabbit, the television special Peter and the Magic Egg, and their Strawberry Shortcake television specials. The last one led this franchise creators at American Greetings to also bring in the duo for The Care Bears show.[4][5][6]
On August 1, 2013, Flo & Eddie, having gained ownership of The Turtles' recorded output, filed a lawsuit against satellite radio broadcaster Sirius XM for failing to pay sound-recording royalties in the states of New York, California, and Florida. On September 22, 2014, a California judge ruled that under state law, Sirius XM had to pay to digitally broadcast pre-1972 sound recordings.[7] On June 22, 2015, a Florida judge ruled in favor of Sirius XM, as that state has no specific legislation concerning sound recording property rights.[8] A few days later, Sirius XM agreed to pay $210 million to major record labels.[9] On November 28, 2016, Sirius XM agreed to pay between $25-99 million to the pre-1972 song owners.[10]
With Frank Zappa:
AsFlo & Eddie:
With John Lennon & Yoko Ono:
Under Other Names:
Backing Vocals:
As producers:
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