Mark Volman, founding member of the Turtles, dies at 78 in Nashville

Mark Volman, a founding member of the 1960s pop group the Turtles and half of the comedy rock duo Flo Eddie, died Friday in Nashville following a brief, unexpected illness, his representative said. He was 78. Officials have not disclosed a formal cause of death; Volman had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia in 2020 and publicly revealed the diagnosis in 2023.

Volman rose to fame as one half of the Turtles alongside Howard Kaylan. Born in Los Angeles on April 19, 1947, he and Kaylan began singing together in high school and helped lead a group that delivered a string of mid 1960s hits. Their best known song, "Happy Together," reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 and is certified triple platinum by the RIAA. Other notable recordings included a cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe," "Elenore," "She'd Rather Be With Me," "You Showed Me" and "She's My Girl."

After the Turtles disbanded in 1970, Volman and Kaylan reinvented themselves as Flo Eddie, a stage act that mixed music with humor and theatricality. The duo toured with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and provided distinctive backing vocals on records by other artists, including T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get It...