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Jules Alexander (born September 25, 1943), was in Hawaii in 1962, serving a stint in the Navy. During this time, he met Terry Kirkman (born December 12, 1939), who was visiting. The two young musicians jammed together and promised to hook up once Alexander was discharged. That happened a year later; the two eventually moved to Los Angeles and began exploring LA's early 60's folk scene. This led, in 1964, to the forming of The Men, a 13 piece folk-rock band. This group had a brief spell as the house band at The Troubadour, the famed LA nightclub. After a short time, however, The Men disbanded, with 6 of the members electing to continue on their own. At the suggestion of Kirkman's then-fiance, Judy, they took the name The Association. The original lineup consisted of Alexander (credited as Gary Alexander on the first 2 albums) on vocals and lead guitar; Kirkman on vocals and a variety of wind and brass intruments; Brian Cole (born September 9, 1942, died August 2, 1972) on vocals and bass; Russ Gigure (born October 18, 1943) on vocals, percussion and guitar; Ted Bluechel, Jr (born December 2, 1942) on drums and vocals; and Bob Page on guitar and vocals. Page's time in the band was brief; he was soon replaced by Jim Yester (born November 24, 1939) on vocals, guitar and keyboards.

The band spent about 5 months rehearsing before they began performing around the Los Angeles area, most notably a regular stint at The Ice House in Pasadena, and the sister club in Glendale. They also auditioned for record labels, but faced resitance due to their unique sound. Eventually, the small Jubilee label issued a single of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (later covered by Led Zeppelin) but nothing happened. Finally, Valiant Records gave them a contract, with the first result being a version of Bob Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings". It gained some local notoriety. but didn't break outside of LA.

That national break would come with the song "Along Comes Mary", written by Tandyn Almer. Alexander first heard the song when he was hired to play on a demo version, and persuaded Almer to give The Association first crack at it. THe recording went to #7 in Billboard, and led to the group's first album, And Then... Along Comes the Association , produced by Curt Boettcher. A song from the album "Cherish", written by Kirkman, would become The Association's first #1 in September, 1966.

The group followed with their second album, Renaissance , released in November 1966. Somewhat surprisingly, the band changed producers, dumping Boettcher in favor of Jerry Yester (brother of Jim and formerly of The Modern Folk Quartet). The album did not spawn any major hits (the highest charting single, "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" stalled at #35) and the album only reached #34, compared with a #5 showing for its predecessor.

In late 1966 Warner Bros. Records, which had been distributing Valiant, bought the smaller label (and with it, The Association's contract.) At about the same time, Jules Alexander left the band; he was replaced by Larry Ramos (born April 19, 1942) who had played with The New Christy Minstrels and recorded a solo single for Columbia Records.

With the lineup settled, the group returned to the studio, this time with Bones Howe in the producer's chair. The first fruits of this pairing would be the single "Windy" written by Ruthann Friedman. It would hit #1 in May of 1967, and was followed closely by the album Insight Out which made it to #8 in June. On June 16, 1967 The Association had the unique honor of being the first act to perform at the Monterey Pop Festival. (The Criterion Collection DVD of the festival includes their spirited reading of "Along Comes Mary" on disc 3.) The group's winning streak continued with their next single, "Never My Love" written by Don and Dick Addrisi; it went to #2 in Billboard and #1 in Cash Box in autumn 1967.

Early 1968 saw the group's 4th album, Birthday , with Bones Howe again at the controls. This album spawned the top 10 hit "Everything That Touches You" and another top 40 hit in "Time for Livin". Later that year, the group released a self-produced single, the harder-edged "Six Man Band". This song would also appear on Greatest Hits , released in November, which continues to sell well to this day.

In early 1969, Jules Alexander returned to the group he had help found. With Larry Ramos staying, that meant The Association was now a seven man band (which they acknowledged by changing the title and lyric of "Six Man Band" to match.) The first project with the 7-piece was music for the soundtrack of Goodbye Columbus , the film version of Philip Roth's best selling novel. The title track, written by Yester, only rose to #80, an ominous sign in retrospect. John Boylan, who would become one of the most important record producers of the 70's and 80's, worked with the group on the soundtrack, and stayed on board for the next album, 'The Association . Not surprisingly, many of the tracks have a decided country-rock feel. None of the singles made any impact, so the group re-teamed with Curt Boettcher for a one-off single, "Just About the Same", a reworking of a song Boettcher had recorded with his group, The Millennium. This failed to hit as well.

Despite all this, the band remained a popular concert draw, and in early 1970, a Salt Lake City performance was recorded for The Association "Live" . Shortly afterward, Russ Gigure left the band; he would release a solo album, Hexagram 16 , in 1971. The Association replaced him with keyboardist/singer Richard Thompson (no relation to the Engligh singer-songwriter), who had contributed to previous albums. 1971 saw the release of Stop Your Motor ; despite some good tracks (notably a cover of Jimmy Webb's "P.F. Sloan" with Brian Cole imitating Roy Rogers in the bargain) the album was their worst selling to date, only reaching #158 in Billboard.

Stop Your Motor also marked the end of The Association's tenure at Warner Bros. In early 1972, they resurfaced on Columbia with Waterbeds in Trinidad! , produced by Lewis Merenstein (best known for producing Van Morrison's Astral Weeks ). The album fared even worse than Stop Your Motor, reaching #194, while a single of The Lovin Spoonful's "Darlin Be Home Soon" failed to break the top 100. For the band, however, the worst was yet to come.

On August 2, 1972, Brian Cole was found dead in his Los Angeles home of an overdose of herion. For the rest of the 70's, The Association was in a state of flux, occasionaly releasing singles now and then, along with sporadic touring. Then in the late 70's, the surviving original members reunited for an HBO special (Terry Kirkman was working for HBO at the time.) This led in the early 80's to a few singles on Elektra (one of which, "Dreamer", made the top 100 with virtually no promotion) and more touring.

Currently, the band includes Russ Gigure and Larry Ramos from the classic lineup, along with Ramos' brother Del on vocals and bass, drummer Bruce Pictor, guitarist Bob Werner, and most interestingly, Jordan Cole (son of Brian) on keyboards and vocals. The Association still tours, playing up to 70 dates a year.