Get Together (Youngbloods song)

The song was originally recorded as "Let's Get Together" by the Kingston Trio in a live performance in March 1964 that was released on June 1, 1964, on their album Back in Town.[3] While it was not released as a single, this version was the first to bring the song to the attention of the general public. The Kingston Trio often performed it live.

A pre-Byrds David Crosby recorded "Get Together" around the same time as the Trio, but possibly a few weeks later, since the band arrangement includes the riff from the Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout", released earlier in Britain but not in the United States until April. Crosby's version was recorded at World Pacific Studios, Los Angeles. It was produced by Jim Dickson as a four-song demo that Crosby recorded before joining the Byrds.

A version of the song first broke into the top forty in 1965, when We Five, produced by Kingston Trio manager Frank Werber, released "Let's Get Together" as the follow-up to their top ten hit "You Were on My Mind". While it did not achieve the same level of success as the other, "Let's Get Together" provided the group with a second top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when it peaked at number 31.[4] It would be their last hit record. The Mitchell Trio released the album "That's the Way It's Going to Be" in 1965 which included the song, sung by John Denver who replaced Chad Mitchell.

"Let's Get Together" was the third song on side 2 of Jefferson Airplane's first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, released in August 1966. As Tim Jurgens said in his review of the album in the January 1967 issue of Crawdaddy,[5] "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is the most important album of American rock issued this year (1966); it is the first LP to come out of the new San Francisco music scene..". He called "Let's Get Together" a "most sensitive, hopeful and contemporary ballad", and wondered why it isn't sung in church. However, the song wasn't released as a single, although the album did make the top 100 of 1966, as number 97.

In 1967, the Youngbloods released their version of the song under the title "Get Together". It became a minor Hot 100 hit for them, peaking at number 62 and reaching 37 on the US adult contemporary chart.[6] However, renewed interest in the Youngbloods' version came when it was used in a radio public service announcement as a call for brotherhood by the National Conference of Christians and Jews.[2] The Youngbloods' version, the most-remembered today, was re-released in 1969, peaking at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.[7]

Another version was released in 1967 by the Chicago psychedelic group H. P. Lovecraft on their debut album. Another Chicago band, The Cryan' Shames, covered it on their third album, Synthesis.

In 1968, the Sunshine Company released a version of the song titled "Let's Get Together" as a single that reached number 112 on the Billboard chart.[8]

Also in 1968, the Canadian group 3's a Crowd released their version of the song as a single, titled "Let's Get Together". It peaked at number 70 on Canada's national singles chart.[9]

The group The Yankee Dollar released their version of the song on their self-titled album in 1968.

The group Smith recorded a version on their 1969 debut album, sung by Gayle McCormick while, in the same year, it was recorded by the Carpenters as the fourth track on their debut album Offering (later re-released as Ticket to Ride).

In 1970, Gwen and Jerry Collins released a version of the song as a single that reached number 34 on the US country chart.[10]

In March 1970, the Dave Clark Five reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart with their version retitled "Everybody Get Together".[11]

In 1995, Big Mountain released a version of the song as a single that reached number 28 on the US adult contemporary chart and number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100.[12] It also reached number 32 on Cash Box.[13]

In 1999, Garth Brooks, recording under his short-lived, fictitious alter ego Chris Gaines, recorded a song called Right Now, which puts an alternative rock spin on the song with Brooks (as Gaines) singing the original chorus of Get Together.

The Youngbloods version of the song has been featured in several films, including Purple Haze, Forrest Gump, The Dish, Stephen King's Riding the Bullet, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the media conglomerate company Clear Channel Communications included the Youngbloods' version of the song on a list of "lyrically questionable" songs that was sent to its 1,200 radio stations in the United States.[24]

The refrain's lyrics are shouted in muted voice by Krist Novoselic during the song Territorial Pissings on the Nirvana 1991 album Nevermind.

In 1990, the song was used in the TV series Midnight Caller titled "Ryder on the Storm".

• List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States

• Get Together at Songfacts.com
• 1963 release by The Folkswingers
• Beyond the Summer of Love, 'Get Together' Is An Anthem For Every Season, NPR, April 10, 2019