Jesse Colin Younger, The Youngbloods frontman and bassist who sang the counterculture basic “Get Collectively” and went on to an extended solo profession, died March 16 at his dwelling in Aiken, SC. He was 83. His publicists Michael Jensen introduced the information however give not present a reason behind loss of life.
The Boston-based Youngbloods launched their self-titled debut album on RCA Victor in early 1967, however its first single, “Grizzly Bear,” stalled within the mid-50s of the Billboard Scorching 100. The disc’s second single was “Get Collectively,” however it fared even much less nicely, peaking at No. 62 on the finish of the Summer time of Love.
Regardless of taking part in on American Bandstand, the band appeared destined for also-ran standing.
Then got here using “Get Collectively” in a 1969 PSA for the Nationwide Convention of Christians and Jews, and folk began calling radio stations to request the track.
In a 2019 interview for NPR’s “American Anthem,” Younger described the track’s second coming: “Augie Blum, the top of promotion at RCA, went to his boss and mentioned: ‘I need this track once more. Now’s the time for it.’ And so they informed him, ‘Now Augie, we don’t do this. You already know we launched it as soon as. That’s it.’ And he mentioned, ‘You launch a track once more or I’m out of right here.’ He was too priceless for them to lose. In order that they put it out once more, and he was proper, after all. The nation was prepared.”
The reissue would change the whole lot for the Boston quartet.
“Get Collectively” stormed the pop chart that summer season with its laid-back Byrds vibe and mild percussion hook. Fueled by Younger’s tender but pressing vocal, it options the acquainted refrain: “Come on, folks now/Smile in your brother/All people get collectively/Attempt to love each other proper now.” It stays a well-liked radio observe.
The track was penned by Chet Powers, a pseudonym for future Quicksilver Messenger Service member Dino Valenti. The Youngbloods’ model reached No. 5 as hippies occupied San Francisco and the counterculture turned popular culture. Over the many years, “Get Collectively” has been featured in dozens of movies and TV exhibits together with This Is Us, Supernatural, Baywatch, The Simpsons, Worry and Loathing in Las Vegas and Ken Burns’ Baseball and The Vietnam Battle.
Take heed to it right here:
Younger did write songs for the Youngbloods, together with the antiwar anthem “Darkness, Darkness” and “Journey the Wind,” however the by no means would discover that stage of success once more. The band launched three extra albums from 1969-71, however none made the nationwide Prime 100, and the group break up within the early Seventies.
Born Perry Miller on November 22, 1941, in New York Metropolis, Younger launched a pair of folky solo albums through the British Invasion earlier than co-founding The Youngbloods with Jerry Corbit, Lowell “Banana” Levinger and Joe Bauer. He returned to his solo profession in 1972 after the breakup and went on to document greater than 15 solo albums and several other reside discs via 2019. His largest chart success got here through the mid-’70s, when Mild Shine, Songbird and the reside On the Street made the Prime 40.
Younger is survived by his spouse and supervisor, Connie Darden-Younger; their son, Tristan Younger, and daughter, Jazzie Younger; and two youngsters from his first marriage Suzi Younger: Juli and Cheyenne Younger.
