Musicians often mention three to five shows when I ask them to name the best concerts they saw by another artist. Russ Giguere, an original member of the Association, is far more plentiful, pointing out 17 groups or performers that impressed him on stage.
The Association played shows with all 17 when the group released huge hits in the 1960s, including “Along Comes Mary,” Never My Love,” “Cherish” and “Windy,” and during subsequent decades. The Association still performs today with Giguere handling business matters.
Music buffs may enjoy the following best-I’ve-ever-seen insights of Giguere, who sang and played rhythm guitar and percussion in the band. He also co-wrote a 2020 book, Along Comes the Association, about his career.
Here are Giguere’s comments about the best live acts he has ever seen:
The Lovin Spoonful. “The first band we ever toured with. Great music, great guys, great hits.”
Little Anthony & the Imperials. “They dress well and sound wonderful! The last time we played with them, they did ‘We Built this City’ on rock and roll for their second encore – a Starship hit song (written by Martin Page and Bernie Taupin) – and just kicked ass on it!”
Three Dog Night. “We were all Danny Hutton fans anyway. This band was good, and we did about 10 shows with them —one aboard a ship. They were spectacular!”
The Spinners. “Just great! They sang one of my favorite tunes, “Rubberband Man.” They had a tenor who consistently sent chills up my spine when he sang. We did a summer tour with them in the ‘80s.”
Aretha Franklin. “One of the greatest singers of the world. There is a story that Pavarotti couldn’t do a Detroit concert, because he was sick, and she did the concert for him. She was a big opera fan. Anyway, it was a thrill working with her.”
Chuck Berry. “One of the inventors of rock ‘n’ roll. We played with him probably eight to 10 times. He was a great writer, great singer, great dancer.”
The Everly Brothers. “I only remember playing with them twice — once in the ‘60s and once in the ‘80s. They were one of the creators of guitar rock and sang just wonderfully.”
Ray Charles. “We only played with him once, and I saw a concert once in my late teens in San Diego with the Raeletts and his big band. Ray was just the best ever — great jazz, great rock ‘n’ roll!”
The Rascals. “Some of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll records ever made were done by this group. We did a few concerts with them and one cruise. Felix Cavaliere is a stunning keyboard player, singer and writer.”
Four Tops. “Aptly named. We had done individual concerts with them, but touring with them was great! We did “Dodge Presents, Legends for Liberty Tour” with them in 1985 — a 15-day, 13-city tour of America’s heartland for the benefit of the Statue of Liberty. During our first concert on this tour, we did our version of ‘Walk Away Renee.’ Afterward, back in the dressing room, someone recalled the Tops had a hit with it in ‘67. The band elected me to go to their dressing room and apologize. ‘Gentlemen,’ I began, ‘you have had so many hits, we failed to remember ‘Walk Away Renee’ is on your impressive list of many.’ They responded: ‘We like your version better, we insist you keep doing it.’ What a class act all the way!”
Sly & the Family Stone. “One of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands to ever play on stage. I was reading the newspaper one weekend and saw there was a battle of the bands at the Hollywood Bowl. The prize was $10,000 and a recording contract. They walked on stage and just looked like no one else. They won. There really was no contest. I have never seen or heard anyone like them.”
The Mamas and the Papas. “We did about 60 concerts with the Mamas and the Papas in the ‘60s. In July 1985, we played with the new reformed Mamas and Papas with John Philips, Denny Doherty, Elaine ‘Spanky’ McFarland, who replaced the late Cass Elliot, and John’s daughter, McKenzie Phillips, who replaced his ex-wife Michelle. Spanky was an old friend of ours from her Spanky and Our Gang hit-making days in the ‘60s and the Happy Together tour in 1984. If you only knew McKenzie Phillips as an actress from the hit show One Day at a Time, her singing would blow you over. She was one of those people who appeared real straight off-stage, but once she set her foot on stage, she became electric. It was incredible to watch! I know no one wants to hear this, but the John, Denny, Spanky and McKenzie lineup sounded as good or even better than the original group.”
Gary Puckett. “We’ve done more than 100 shows with Gary, and the most memorable was the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, in the ‘60s. He was always excellent and had many different bands.”
The Buckinghams. “We’ve done many tours with these guys —summer tours and later Happy Together tours. Hundreds of shows, and they’re always great!”
The Dixie Cups. “Although we’ve only done a few concerts with them, we were having breakfast with them after their induction into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and I told them about a national radio interview I had done. The interviewer asked me to name four of my favorite records. ‘Iko Iko’ was the first. The Dixie Cups then told me it was recorded after all the studio musicians had gone home, and they needed to add one more song for an album. So, they added, ‘Iko Iko,’ an old folk song, and it became a huge hit. Great song, great group, great story!”
Paul Revere and the Raiders. “We did our first show with them after we had stopped performing and gotten back together. During the next 30-plus years, we did many concerts with them. Sometimes we were on tour with them, sometimes it was straight shows, but they were always top of the line. Always, always funny, and they were a great master of ceremonies.”
Linda Ronstadt. “A fantastic voice, a great beauty, great music! We only did one show with her that I recall — at UCLA in the ‘60s. I sang some background for her at a Troubadour hootenanny. The band she was working with at the time were four guys who would later become the Eagles.”
Seventeen favorite live acts may be too limiting, though, for Giguere. The Association was the opening act of the legendary 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, and he also points out acts that blew his mind there.
“Everyone always talks about Janis Joplin, the Who and Jimi Hendrix — the three acts most etched in the mind of the Monterey Pop Festival experience,” Giguere says. “I remember hearing Ravi Shankar on the last day of the festival. He actually performed on a long runway extended out into the audience. The audience response was just tremendous! His music knocked me out. I had never heard a sitar before.”
Giguere also has plenty of praise for the Who, a relatively unknown act in America when they played Monterey.
“We did several concerts with them,” Giguere recalls. “When they first began touring the States, they opened for us, and we were the headliner. The first time we saw the Who perform, Terry Kirkman (another original member of the Association) and I were standing to the right side of the bleachers at the Illinois State Fair. Pete Townshend stood atop four large speaker cabinets, raised his guitar to the heavens, then shoved the neck of his guitar directly in the upmost speaker. After he was done, Terry turned to me and asked, ‘How are we going to follow THAT?’ I said, ‘No problem. We do what we do, they do what they do.’ We got our usual standing ovation, and everything was right with the world. The Who was a great act, and their music was wonderful. The Who could do most anything.”
The Monterey festival was 56 years ago, so what music today does Giguere listen to?
“I listen to a lot of Django Reinhardt, the greatest guitarist who ever walked the Earth,” Giguere says.
He then cites other favorite artists he now listens to: Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Chuck Berry, The Golden Gate Quartet, Ravi Shankar, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Cliff, the Modern Folk Quartet, Miles Davis and Paul Simon. Giguere is particularly fond of Simon’s Graceland album.
The newest artist he listens to is Molly Tuttle and her band the Golden Highway. They released a highly praised bluegrass album, Crooked Tree, last year.
The music of Eartha Kitt — one of the oldest artists Giguere admires — always has a special place. Kitt, who began releasing records in the 1950s, headlined England’s 2008 Cheltenham Jazz Festival at age 81 and released a record of the performance two months before she died in December of that year.
Giguere remembers watching Kitt perform five or six times at the Cinegrill, an intimate cabaret at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
“One time I couldn’t get anyone to go with me, so I went alone,” Giguere remembers. “It was a good-sized audience but not quite full. No one was sitting at the bar in the back of the room, so I sat at the bar and had a great view of the stage. The lights went down, and Eartha came and sat next to me. The spotlight came on us, and she began her set singing to me. I about fell over! I’d had a crush on this lady, her look and her voice since I was about 13. This made my week!”