Getting "Get Together" Together

“Get Together” was a familiar song to Greenwich Village folkies in the 1960s, Summer of Love hippies in 1967, anyone listening to the radio in 1969, and to Gen X slackers in the early 1990s. The story of the song, and its many, many versions, is a bit epic, but here are some of the high points.

The song was written as “Let’s Get Together” in 1963 by Dino Valenti, the stage name of the song’s writer Chet Powers. Here’s Chet/Dino, recorded in the early 60s on a track not released until 1996:

The song was soon being performed in folk clubs on both coasts. The Kingston Trio included “Let’s Get Together” in their live shows, and recorded it for their album Back in Town (1964). Actor/singer Hamilton Camp may have recorded the first version titled “Get Together” (1964). Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins sang the song in San Francisco Bay Area clubs. Jefferson Airplane included a version on their first album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966).

Jesse Colin Young heard Buzzy Linhart perform the song in Greenwich Village and asked the singer to write the lyrics out for him. Soon Young was performing the song as “Get Together” as a solo artist and with his band The Youngbloods:

This version got to #62 on the charts in 1967 but would get a couple of boosts in 1969 to propel it into the top ten.

The song didn’t go away, with many more covers in the late 60s and early 70s by Linda Ronstadt, The Sunshine Company (dedicated to all men of peace) in the US, by the Dave Clark Five in the UK, and by 3’s a Crowd in Canada. Also from this period is a soulful take by the Staples Singers.

But then in 1969, the song hit a kind of breakthrough.

A version of “Let’s Get Together” was performed at the Woodstock music festival, but not by the Youngbloods. Young claims that the band was invited by the festival promoters but missed the call and didn’t make it to the show. Instead Richie Havens, a fixture of the Village folk scene interpolated the song in his legendary opening set (he went on in place of the scheduled openers, who were late, and played all the songs he knew, plus improvised “Freedom” on the spot).

Also in 1969, the Youngbloods’ version of “Get Together” was used in a public service announcement on the radio for the the National Conference of Christians and Jews’ Brotherhood Week (you may remember Tom Lehrer’s mocking song but it was a real thing, and it helped dispel interfaith stereotypes).

As the story goes, radio listeners requested the music from the PSA and RCA re-released the single, an unheard of practice at the time. This time, “Get Together” went to #5, the highest peak of any version of the song on the Billboard Hot 100.

Postscript: the 1990s.

NFS favorites The Indigo Girls released a cover of the song in 1990. In 1994, Big Mountain released a reggae version of “Get Together” complete with a toasting/rap break.

In 1991, Nirvana included a snippet of bassist Krist Novoselic singing(?) the chorus of “Get Together” as the introduction to their track “Territorial Pissings.” Perhaps they were channeling Tom Lehrer in mocking the earnestness of the brotherhood message; how very Gen X of them. In any case, the brotherhood message seems a lot more relevant again, 35 years later.