Terry Kirkman, Frontman and Co-Founder of the Association, Dies at 83

Terry Kirkman, the singer, songwriter, and co-founder of the Association, a band that, throughout its heyday in the Nineteen Sixties, landed main hits with “Windy,” “Cherish” and extra, died Saturday (Sept. 23) at his dwelling in Montclair, CA. He was 83.

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“We’re saddened to report that Terry Kirkman passed away last night, RIP Terry,” reads a put up on the Association’s official social channels. “He will live on in our hearts and in the music he so brilliantly wrote. Sending hugs and lots of love to Heidi and Sasha!”

Born in Salina, Kansas, Kirkman and his good friend Jules Alexander relocated to Los Angles in the early ’60s, the place the seeds for the Association had been planted.

Early in his California journey, Kirkman performed with Frank Zappa, earlier than the late bandleader went on to kind the Mothers of Invention.

Kirkman and Alexander had been founders in the Men, which might disband, and from it the Association was shaped in 1964. The folk-rock group peaked two years later with a string of recordings that additionally included “Along Comes Mary,” “Never My Love” and “Everything That Touches You.”

Known for his or her sharp sense of model and clean harmonies, the Association opened the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, acknowledged as the first industrial American rock competition, with a invoice together with Jimi Hendrix and the Who, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, the Byrds, Canned Heat, and many extra. They held their very own amongst the legends of rock, onlookers famous at the time.

Kirkman wrote a number of hits for the Association, together with “Cherish”, “Everything That Touches You”, and “Six Man Band,” and performed a spread of wind, brass and percussion devices on their recordings.

Kirkman left the Association at the finish of 1972, following the launch of seven albums, led by their 1966 debut And Then… Along Comes the Association. He returned to the fold in 1979, splitting as soon as extra in 1984 – having had sufficient of relentless touring.

That earlier ‘80s reunion included recording periods which adopted an look on the HBO particular Then and Now. The Association did launch a pair of singles for Elektra round that point — together with “Dreamer,” which hit No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981.

Over the years, the Association was nominated for six Grammy Awards, and earned a Golden Globe nomination in 1970 for finest authentic tune, with “Goodbye Columbus.”

Various incarnations of the band proceed to carry out, and their albums have achieved three platinum and six gold RIAA certifications, based on the Association’s official website, with its Greatest Hits (by way of Warner Brothers) now double platinum.

Kirkman dies 20 years following the Association’s induction into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, in 2003. Bandmate Russ Giguere informed his aspect of the band’s story in 2020’s Along Comes The Association: Beyond Folk Rock and Three-Piece Suits.

The artist died of congestive coronary heart failure following a protracted sickness, his spouse Heidi Berinstein Kirkman confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.