Terry Kirkman didn’t need weeks to write the song that would give The Association its first No. 1 hit. In fact, “Cherish” came together in roughly half an hour.
Kirkman wrote the romantic ballad in California during the Association’s early days, inspired by a woman he was interested in at the time. Released in 1966, “Cherish” became one of the year’s biggest singles and helped establish the Los Angeles group as a major force in the harmony-rich pop and soft rock that defined the latter half of the decade.
The Association had only recently scored its first major hit.
Formed out of the Los Angeles folk scene, the group released “Along Comes Mary” earlier in 1966. The song reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and introduced the band’s elaborate vocal harmonies to a national audience.
“Cherish” offered something much gentler.
Built around acoustic guitar and lush vocal arrangements, the song captures the uncertainty of wanting a relationship that may never become reality. Its title becomes a recurring declaration as the narrator struggles to find words strong enough to describe his feelings.
Kirkman later recalled writing it extraordinarily quickly, completing the song in about 30 minutes.
“Between 11:00 pm and 11:37 pm on that particular night, which I know because I got home at exactly 11:00 pm and the news had just started, my wife said, ‘Do you wanna watch the news?'” Kirkman recalled in an interview years later. “And I said, ‘No, I think I’m gonna try to write this song.’ And then when I finished it, I was just barely into Johnny Carson’s monologue at 11:37. So in that period of time, that song got written.”
But turning his composition into a record required considerably more work.
Producer Curt Boettcher, who would become an important figure in the era’s sophisticated California pop scene, worked with the Association on the recording. The arrangement placed the group’s layered voices at the center, while session musicians helped create the polished instrumental backing.
There was another complication: “Cherish” was too long for AM radio conventions.
The finished recording ran beyond the three-minute mark, leading the label to list a shorter running time on the single. Even with its unusual length, radio embraced it.
“Cherish” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1966 and remained there for three weeks. It also became one of the Association’s signature recordings, preceding another chart-topper, “Windy,” in 1967.
The group’s run continued with songs including “Never My Love” and “Everything That Touches You,” but “Cherish” retained a special place in its catalog. David Cassidy even returned the song to the charts with his own hit version in 1972.
The Association reunited in 2003 for the band’s induction to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and even took the show back on the road for subsequent tour dates.
“It’s just amazing to see these 70-year-old people turn back into kids when we play those songs,” said lead guitarist, vocalist and co-founder, Jules Alexander in an interview shortly thereafter. “We have a shared body of experience with our audience and it’s so much fun to play for them.”
Sixty years after Kirkman’s half-hour burst of inspiration, “Cherish” remains inseparable from the Association’s soaring harmonies. What began as one young songwriter trying to capture unrequited love became a three-week No. 1 and one of the most recognizable ballads of the 1960s.
Related: 1970 Rock Song, Written by Paul McCartney, Is Still a Powerful Hit 56 Years Later