Feels crazy to me that this song is lost. The big hit singles from The Association felt omnipresent growing up. There's a great scene in "Breaking Bad's" third season with "Windy," which I caught channel surfing at the time and actually was my gateway into the show.
"Along Comes Mary" is a timeless classic, and one I was happy to hear regularly when I was a college radio DJ in the late '90s when Bloodhound Gang covered it on the "Half Baked" soundtrack:
There's a definite Dylan influence in the lyrics. It's a song I was familiar with, mostly because a clip of the chorus was part of a K-Tel record commercial, or something similar (maybe Freedom Rock?) Any song in that category has that clip burned into my mind 40+ years later.
I had always assumed that The Association came out of the folk scene, and then complexified their music, like The Byrds or The Mamas and the Papas, but that doesn't seem to have been the case. Although some of their other hits harmonize themselves into wallpaper, this one definitely rocks a little, and was fun to rediscover.
If you heard the song in that K-Tel commercial, that means the name of the song was in yellow text when it scrolled up the screen. For the rest of time, I will associate white text with "on the album, not being played" and yellow text with "on the album, and you're hearing it right now"
My parents were HUGE Association fans, and I grew up with the 45 of "Windy" on fairly constant play--"Cherish" was Mom and Dad's Song. I have clear memories of getting left with a babysitter when The Association were playing the Pittsburgh dinner club circuit in the '80s, and I swear my parents were so square any implications of "Along Comes Mary" were lost on them. This may be my final remnant of youthful naivete.
The Association can sound pretty dated if you are just flipping past them on the radio but that four-pack of “Cherish”, “Mary”, “Never My Love” and “Windy” (as close to a personal theme song as I’m willing to commit to) are just so musically and emotionally rich for one band. To me they are immune from the overplayed Forrest Gump soundtrack stuff that MASTAS talked about. And weirdly not covered enough by other bands!
I also just looked up who wrote Windy and it was by Ruthann Friedman, who thought she was writing it about some guy and only looking back in her 80s did she realize she wrote it about herself and how she wanted to be, which is just lovely.
Feels crazy to me that this song is lost. The big hit singles from The Association felt omnipresent growing up. There's a great scene in "Breaking Bad's" third season with "Windy," which I caught channel surfing at the time and actually was my gateway into the show.
"Along Comes Mary" is a timeless classic, and one I was happy to hear regularly when I was a college radio DJ in the late '90s when Bloodhound Gang covered it on the "Half Baked" soundtrack:
https://youtu.be/0RaLEVmuM4o?si=3XQId8xNerVM5HzT
Funnily enough, I remember that episode of "Breaking Bad" as encouraging me to check out "Windy"!
There's a definite Dylan influence in the lyrics. It's a song I was familiar with, mostly because a clip of the chorus was part of a K-Tel record commercial, or something similar (maybe Freedom Rock?) Any song in that category has that clip burned into my mind 40+ years later.
I had always assumed that The Association came out of the folk scene, and then complexified their music, like The Byrds or The Mamas and the Papas, but that doesn't seem to have been the case. Although some of their other hits harmonize themselves into wallpaper, this one definitely rocks a little, and was fun to rediscover.
If you heard the song in that K-Tel commercial, that means the name of the song was in yellow text when it scrolled up the screen. For the rest of time, I will associate white text with "on the album, not being played" and yellow text with "on the album, and you're hearing it right now"
My parents were HUGE Association fans, and I grew up with the 45 of "Windy" on fairly constant play--"Cherish" was Mom and Dad's Song. I have clear memories of getting left with a babysitter when The Association were playing the Pittsburgh dinner club circuit in the '80s, and I swear my parents were so square any implications of "Along Comes Mary" were lost on them. This may be my final remnant of youthful naivete.
Oh no! I hope this piece hasn't spoiled the last bit of your childhood innocence, haha.
The Association can sound pretty dated if you are just flipping past them on the radio but that four-pack of “Cherish”, “Mary”, “Never My Love” and “Windy” (as close to a personal theme song as I’m willing to commit to) are just so musically and emotionally rich for one band. To me they are immune from the overplayed Forrest Gump soundtrack stuff that MASTAS talked about. And weirdly not covered enough by other bands!
I also just looked up who wrote Windy and it was by Ruthann Friedman, who thought she was writing it about some guy and only looking back in her 80s did she realize she wrote it about herself and how she wanted to be, which is just lovely.
I love learning this. How nice that a song can surprise even the person who wrote it.