Jim Yester

James Yester (born November 24, 1939) is an American musician.

His father was a local Birmingham radio broadcaster, who played the part of a band member in the 1948 film Fort Apache, and was also a freelance piano player and author of numerous books based around the accordion.

The first concert Jim attended was a Fats Domino concert at the Olive Recreation Center.

Growing up, Yester attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California and was a member of the Falconry club there.

He first learned how to play the harmonica while walking to and from elementary school.

Then, later on, Yester learned how to play the piano at the home of a fellow Falconry club member who had a piano in the garage where their meetings would take place; Yester would watch him play the instrument, and then play it himself after his friend finished.

He started playing the piano in clubs when he was 13.

He attended Los Angeles Valley College studying accounting.

Sometime in the late 1950s/early 1960s in Los Angeles, Jim and his brother Jerry performed as a folk duo called The Yester Brothers and were managed by Martin "Mutt" Cohen, who owned the Unicorn Coffee House.

Mutt's brother, Herbie, would later Manager the Modern Folk Quartet, a band both brothers would later be affiliated with:

"Probably the one that had the most effect on me was at the Hollywood Bowl. Henry Mancini and his orchestra with Peggy Lee, then Mancini and orchestra doing all the Peter Gunn music, followed by the Kingston Trio. My brother Jerry and I had begun singing as a folk duo, and the concert convinced us that was what we wanted to do."

He is a member of the sunshine pop group the Association, who had numerous hits on the Billboard charts during the 1960s, including "Windy", "Cherish", "Never My Love" and "Along Comes Mary", among many others.

Jim enlisted in the army in 1961 and was based in Germany.

He was later discharged in 1964.

When in the Army, he met two other troops who put together a comedy trio.

After sending a tape to an entertainment director in Germany, the director pulled them out of combat so they could tour around France and Germany, entertaining soldiers:

"They sent me to Germany. I was in a 280 millimeter canon outfit for awhile and I requested a transfer because I'd been head of my class in the field I was in. They authorized a field but they didn't have it. So then I wound up in a medium tank battalion and in the same Commo section were two guys. One was a Jazz guitarist from Greenwich Village. The other was kind of a Jackie Mason type guy who had been in a Folk group in college and had put out an album, and we put together a Folk/Comedy trio and sent a tape out to the Entertainment Director in Nuremberg. They freaked and pulled us from our outfit and sent us all over Germany and France, entertaining the troops. So, that was fantastic. We did that for almost a year."

It's a killer song with a great sound."During their short tenure with Jubilee Records, they recorded their first single "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (a song originally recorded by Joan Baez, later popularized by Led Zeppelin) and then recorded "One Too Many Mornings" (originally recorded by Bob Dylan in 1964), which was produced by Valiant's owner, Barry De Vorzon, at Gold Star Studios soon after. After a few months, they were given to Valiant Records.

Their debut album And Then... Along Comes the Association was released in July.

Two of the songs from the album, "Along Comes Mary" and "Cherish" charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Cherish" reaching number one.

Yester sang lead on "Along Comes Mary", a controversial song reputedly about marijuana.

The band managed to convince Valiant to let Curt Boettcher produce the album for them.

When the band were starting to garner a following, Yester was sharing a house with members Jules Alexander and Russ Giguere.

Yester was one of the group's main songwriters.

The band is known for their harmonies and multiple lead vocalists, with Jim contributing on Tenor vocals, that can be heard on "Cherish".

The group's other hits in the following years included "Windy", "Everything That Touches You", "Never My Love", and "Requiem for the Masses".

Windy and Never My Love scored at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and Everything That Touches You charted at number ten.

In 1966, Yester was asked to join the group The Association when their original rhythm guitarist Bob Page left two weeks after the band formed: "I'd gotten an audition at the Troubadour and played Wednesday nights at the Ice House. Bob Stane, the owner, pulled me aside and said, ‘Good news, these guys have put together a new group’ – which was The Association, who had only been together for two weeks – ‘and they want you to call them.’ They were looking to replace one of the guys; he was a banjo player with a bit of an attitude. Then, I sang for them, and they sang for me. Jules told me, ‘Come back in three days and you can move in’. So, I moved in, and that was my beginning with the band."The group rehearsed for six months and were eventually signed to Jubilee Records:"Before we started performing anywhere, we would spend six months of the year just on our act. We rehearsed, wrote, and worked on choreography.

To make money during that time, musicians would play on demo sessions for other people.

After seeing which roles worked best for each member, Jules ended up playing bass on what would become ‘Along Comes Mary.’ We tried that out one night, and the next day, we put the song in our act.

On Friday, June 16th 1967, the band were the lead-off act at the Monterey International Pop Festival.

The band were introduced onto the stage by Mamas and the papas member John Phillips (who was also a key-organizer of the event) however, due to them being the first act, the camera crew were still setting up equipment, meaning the first half of the group's performance wasn't filmed, and what set of songs they performed aren't 100% known, but the songs The Machine, Along Comes Mary, and Windy, have surviving footage, performed in that respective order.

As a member of the Association, he has been nominated for a Grammy Award six times, three times each in the 9th and 10th Annual Grammy Awards, both of which were held in 1967 and 1968, respectively.

The Association were regular guests on the variety show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour during 1968, and also partook in a far amount of performances on the Red Skelton Hour.

The band would later appear on many other shows including Top of the Pops and The Ed Sullivan Show.

Yester was a core member of the Modern Folk Quartet, when they reformed in the 1980s.

He is the older brother of former Lovin' Spoonful member Jerry Yester, and played briefly with that band in the 1990s.

Since 2007, Yester has remained a member of the Association, co-leading alongside original member Jules Alexander and Del Ramos (brother of late Association member Larry Ramos).

Jim Yester was born in Birmingham, Alabama to Lawrence and Martha Yester.

Yester's family moved to Burbank, California when he was three because his father wanted to get involved in the film industry.