the record’s rise to popularity was kind of unique.

Whitaker used to have a radio show in the UK, and used to have a feature where he would set poems submitted by listeners to music. “The Last Farewell” was such a tune, and turned out so well that Roger decided to record it in 1971, but it didn’t chart.

The wife of the PD at WSB-AM in Atlanta heard it while traveling in Canada in 1975 (four years after Whitaker recorded it) and liked it. When she got home she persuaded her husband to play it (WSB still played music in those days). He did, more than once (gotta keep the wife happy). After a few airplays the requests started coming in, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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Posted by Kafka

I am the moral conscience of TD

Member since Jul 2007

142754 posts

Posted on 9/24/23 at 10:16 pm to FearlessFreep

LINK

quote:
Terry Kirkman, a founding member of the Association who penned the band’s Sixties classics “Cherish” and “Everything That Touches You,” died on Saturday. He was 83.

Kirkman’s wife, Heidi Berinstein Kirkman, confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that he died in his home in Montclair, California of congestive heart failure following a long illness.

Kirkman was born in Salina, Kansas and later studied music in California at Chaffey College. His foray into the professional music world began when he had a chance meeting with guitarist Jules Alexander in Hawaii in 1962. A year later, while they were both in Los Angeles, they began to assemble what would eventually become the Association following forming Inner Tubes (which included Cass Elliott and David Crosby), which later grew to become a 13-piece group called the Men.

After the Men disbanded in 1965, Kirkman and five of the members formed their own group, with strong harmonies and arrangements at the fore. Naming themselves the Association, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kirkman penned several of the band’s most memorable songs, including their biggest hit “Cherish,” and “Everything That Touches You.” He also contributed his vocals to their other hits, including “Never My Love” and their first hit written by Tandyn Almer, “Along Comes Mary,” which appeared on their debut album alongside “Cherish,” from 1966’s And Then… Along Comes the Association.