Terry Kirkman

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Terry Kirkman, (born December 12, 1939) in Salina, Kansas, USA, is a musician who wrote the love song "Cherish". He left the band Men in the 1960s to become a founding member and sometime leader of the musical group The Association.

Kirkman co-wrote some material with fellow group member and friend, Jules Alexander. His "Requiem For The Masses", a song originally written about a tragic death in Vietnam, featured six-voice harmony which had the power of a much larger group.[citation needed] The music fell between that of the Beach Boys and the Beatles in both style and popularity.

Early in his musical career, Kirkman partnered Frank Zappa. Their music shared a complexity rare in rock, something quite difficult to perform.

The first The Association hit, "Along Comes Mary", possessed jazz type changes blended with harmony and L.A. folk rock rhythm section complete with a Fender tele and the engineer who had previously recorded "The Monster Mash", Gary Paxton. This song was not written by Kirkman but by artist Tandyn Almer whose identity reportedly was not Beach Boys guru Brian Wilson.[citation needed] Other hits sung by The Association included "Never My Love" and "Windy", both being commercial successes.

A very active touring group, The Association would do 250 one-nighters in a year. It was reported that a line of cars two miles long formed near Chicago's Ravinia venue when they played a concert about 1970.

Terry Kirkman was vice president of an L.A. organization that helps musicians with substance abuse habits, as of 2003,