The passing of this singer/songwriter brought up a panoply of memories.

Back in 1968,  I got special permission to attend (Ok, I was alloweď to also plan the event too) the John F. Kennedy High School’s first senior prom.  I wasn’t a member of the class, but might have been had my life been different.

(1) Sonny is Killed – The Godfather (4/9) Movie CLIP (1972) HD – YouTube

But, this team of  seniors raised a bunch of bucks to have a blowout prom.  We rented the Carl Hoppl Malibu Club, at Lido Beach.  (Lido Beach is where the Godfather movie showed Sonny Corleone being murdered.  Oh, and it was pretty clear that the Mafia owned a bunch of houses in Lido Beach, the small community between Point Lookout and Long Beach.)

Not only did we rent the Malibu Club (it closed soon after our event), but we hired one of the biggest bands of the 1960s to entertain us.  The Association.   Their hits included “Cherish”, “Requiem for the Masses” (an anti-war ballad), “Never My Love”, and “Windy”.  (I modified that last song to honor my girlfriend at the time- Mindi Cara [last name withheld for privacy reasons]].

Our team of prom managers rented a fleet of limousines (back when they only held four passengers or so) to take us from the Merrick/Bellmore communities to the Meadowbrook Parkway through that Point Lookout tollbooth (where Corleone was shot), with another 3500 feet to travel, thereby reachingthe entry of the Malibu Club.  Our party lasted from 7:30 to 1 PM.  (Yes, we had a second band so we would have non-stop music.  And, Car Hoppl’s at the time was one of the premier Long Island restaurant chains- so the food was superb.)

 

But back to Terry Kirkman.  He was one of the founders of the Association, and their style of music (as was true of many a band of that era) was folk-rock.  Kirkman wrote the first number one song for the band- Cherish (1966).  The Association’s next hit was written by another team, but still toped that charts-  Never my love.  Windy was also written for the Association, but sung beautifully by Kirkman.

 

(Kirkman, hailing from Kansas, was a civil rights activist- but the rest of the band were conservatives (reactionaries?)  Even with those differences, the band was nominated for six Grammy’s (three were for Cherish) and he remained with the band until 1972.  (They did a reprise tour together in the early 1980s.)

I am sure you will enjoy this music as much as I did- and still do.  (Oh, but  maybe not the antiwar ballad.)

Thanks for the memories, Terry Kirkman.