"Windy" is a pop music song written by Ruthann Friedman and recorded by the Association.[2] Released in 1967, the song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July of that year, which makes "Windy" the Association's second U.S. No. 1 hit following "Cherish" in 1966. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 4 song for 1967. The lead vocals were sung primarily by guitarist Larry Ramos along with vocalist Russ Giguere (both would sing lead together in the band's last Top 40 hit "Time for Livin").

"Windy"
1967 German picture sleeve
Single by the Association
from the album Insight Out
B-side	"Sometime"
Released	May 1, 1967[1]
Recorded	March 28, 1967 (instrumentation) April 11 & 13, 1967 (vocals)
Genre	Sunshine pop
Length	2:53
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Ruthann Friedman
Producer(s)	Bones Howe
The Association singles chronology
"No Fair at All" (1967) "Windy" (1967) "Never My Love" (1967)
Audio sample
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Composition

Friedman was introduced to the Association by her friend, Beach Boys lyricist Van Dyke Parks. Originally, she wrote "Windy" in a waltz tempo. But, their producer at the time, Bones Howe, changed it to the common 4/4 beat to assure it would have the commercial appeal necessary to be a hit.[3][lower-alpha 1]

Ramos said Ruthann Friedman had written the song about a man, and that the Association changed the lyrics to make it about a woman.[4] Many other sources confirm that it was written for a man.[3][5]

Friedman later said about it in an interview with Songfacts:[3][6]

I have heard so many different permutations of what the song was about. Here is the TRUTH. I was sitting on my bed – the apartment on the first floor of David Crosby’s house in Beverly Glenn – and there was a fellow who came to visit and was sitting there staring at me as if he was going to suck the life out of me. So I started to fantasize about what kind of a guy I would like to be with, and that was Windy – a guy (fantasy).

However, in another interview with Songfacts, in 2014, she understood that the song was about herself:[7]

These days, looking back at myself in my mid to late 20s, I finally realized I was talking about me in that song, and how I wanted to be.

Recording

Recording the vocals for the song would prove to be exhausting to Ramos, Giguere, and the rest of the band. The session started in early afternoon and ended at 6:30 a.m the next morning (after that, they had to take an 8:30 a.m. flight to a live performance in Virginia).[3] The band was so tired of recording that Howe had everybody in the studio singing on the ending of the track, including Friedman, vocal arranger Cliff Burroughs, his wife Marylin, and Jim Yester's wife Jo-Ellen, along with numerous others.[3][8]

Because of the poor showing of their last album Renaissance, on which the Association performed all their songs, Howe had session musicians (later known as the Wrecking Crew) substitute for the sextet on their third album, which included "Windy", in order to get a radio friendly sound.

It is uncertain which session musicians played on the final version of the single, because the song had several sessions, but the website Songfacts states that typically Hal Blaine played drums, Joe Osborn played bass, Ray Pohlman played guitar, and Larry Knechtel played keyboards. The recorder solo at the 1:07 mark and in the coda was played by the band's multi-instrumentalist Terry Kirkman.[3]

Chart history

Notable cover versions

• Later in 1967 an instrumental version by jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery became his biggest Hot 100 hit when it peaked at No. 44,[19] and No. 10 on the Easy Listening chart.[20]

In the UK an instrumental version was used as the opening and closing theme for the London local TV news for most of the 1970s. Bill Grundy its presenter said of his infamous interview with the Sex Pistols in December 1976 that he was never so grateful for anything as hearing "Windy" starting up in his earpiece.

See also

• List of recordings of songs Hal Blaine has played on

Notes

References

External links

• "Cherish/Windy" by Barry Manilow (duet with The Association) on YouTube