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Studio Stories
 
THE BEAT GOES ON (Sonny & Cher). PHIL SPECTOR was Sonny’s mentor and this date
had the usual Phil Spector crew, minus Ray Pohlman who had exited playing for a
while to conduct the Shindig TV Show band. This was cut at Gold Star with Stan
Ross engineering. Bob West was on Elec. Bass which had a boring written line
(doop dee doo) and Frankie Capp on drums. It was just a one-chord tune and it
laid like a dead dog, something had to be done.
 
I was playing Dano bass guitar (had started playing bass but Sonny
wanted my guitar lines sometimes and the Dano bass guitar too altho' usually
Barney Kessel played the Dano, don't know how I wound up on Dano on this date).
I was trying to come up with several lick lines to pick up the feeling and
happened on the 3rd idea line that Sonny liked and he gave it to Bob West to play
also - Dano and bass together - just one lick was all it took, the tune came
alive. Made me realize how important the bassline is to a tune. Bob Thompson
later arranged a popular Goodyear commercial featuring "The Beat Goes On" and I
got to play bass this time.
 
Sonny's dates were well-arranged later by Harold Batiste who came up with all
kinds of great ideas for the Sonny & Cher hits but we still donated some
spontaneous lines of our own too. Hal Blaine was usually on drums and other regular
musicians included: Barney Kessel, Don Randi, Mac Rebenec (Dr. John), Leon
Russell, Tommy Tedesco, Don Peake, Bill Pitman, Billy Strange, Glen Campbell, Don
Randi, Mike Rubinia, Mac Rabbenec, Earl Palmer sometimes, Frank Capp, etc. The
lively bunch were the percussionists with their Penthouse magazines.
 
Many a date, Ollie Mitchell and Roy Caton (trumpets) would be playing chess.
Some dates at Gold Star were 6 hour marathons with much experimental time in
getting a balanced rhythm section sound. Personally, I thought Cher did a good job
on her hit "Alfie" -- Sonny was a fine producer. He wanted the trademark elec.
12-string guitar fills I did in those days, acoustic guitar runs, Dano on the
Beat Goes On, and then later on Elec. Bass on their hits.
 
Cher would play some percussion with the section sometimes. She showed me her
pink fur-lined new Mustang - really jazzy for that time.
 
ELUSIVE BUTTERFLY (Bob Lind). I remember this date as being at Sunset Sound
with just a barebones chord chart (no notes). The tune stays on a chord a long
time and being a little bored I accidentally started to go to a wrong chord, then
did a quick slide to avoid a mistake.
 
This was very blatant a mistake so I asked for another take but the producer
loved the up and down slide and asked for more -- hence my trademark was born --
no-one did that before. This date was a pleasant groove and I think it was
released quite a bit later than the actual date we recorded it.
 
WICHITA LINEMAN (Glen Campbell). This was cut just before I quit playing for a
while to write (about 1969). I had stopped at my recording peak and later
resumed doing only the record dates I wanted to take, concentrating more on movie
and TV film work.
 
We cut this at Capital B, Al DeLory producing and with a usual added amount of
high end on my bass as Al and Glen liked a more pickey-sounding bass (so did
the movie and TV film arrangers, Nancy Sinatra, etc. lots of people loved that
picky sound). There were only 5 of us including the writer Jimmy Webb on piano.
 
Jim was a nice pleasant talented guy and had brought along a tape demo he had
made to give us the feel of the piece. He pointed out some nice notes other
than the roots to play in a few places, but other than that I was on my own for
inventing a part.
 
Al Casey (as usual) played guitar, Jim Gordon on drums, Glen Campbell played
his recorded solo on my Danelectro Bass Guitar with its hot pickups (later
stolen, never recovered), Jimmy on piano. This is one of my favorite recordings,
Glen really sung great on this one.
 
After recording the spontaneous rhythm tracks, Al DeLory wrote a pretty
arrangement for the overdubbed musicians (layering was becoming commonplace then with
rhythm section first) on top of what we played. He used a few of my bass licks
for the strings too.
 
Most arrangers, including Quincy Jones commonly did that with key rhythm
sections, saving a lot of arranging time and it grooved so well too. I thought Glen
did a great job on this record. It was nice to also work on Al DeLory's piano
records too...he used to play piano also on a few of the Phil Spector dates and
others - he now lives and works in Nashville. I still hear from Glen sometimes
who’s happy doing various things these days - still the same guy, great guitar
player and wonderful singer.
 
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKIN’ (Nancy Sinatra). Billy Strange was Nancy’s
arranger and mentor who wrote some exciting charts for her. Lee Hazelwood was
the producer. We had done some recordings for her before this that never made it
but this tune was her first
biggie in a string of recordings including "Sugar Town" and You Only Live Twice
and a TV them too, others with Ms. Sinatra, a great gal.
 
It was a quick 2 or 3 takes being the last tune on the date (normally 4 tunes
are cut in the 3 hour session). Billy wanted a very treble "pickey" sound from
me (all highs on), while Lee asked the acoustic bassist, Chuck Berhofer, to
play some kind of sliding pattern at the
start of the song.
 
On the first take, Chuck descended in approx. whole tone increments from a high
note but Lee stopped the take and told him shorter, Πtones and we were off.
Billy always recorded with a full live band and the interplay demonstrates his
unique arranging sound for horns. The studios of the 60s had dirty bare floors
littered with wires, trashy papers, and spilled coffee accented the constantly
bright neon lights in the cold studios. We're wearing dark glasses to look at
the music (and we'd write in our parts for reminding too), and sweaters to keep
warm.
 
Billy’s dates were loose and he had a great wit - would keep us laughing.
Nancy was a nice person, better voice than you'd know from her rock recordings, she
could (and can now) really sing -- had a good personality, and very
appreciative of the band.
 
SOMETHING STUPID (Frank and Nancy Sinatra). This was an exciting full
orchestra date in the big studio at Western (instead of Nancy’s usual United B). We
only cut 3 or 4 takes, Frank saying at one point "we got it".
 
There had been a lot of pre-take time on mike balances, music changes, etc. the
whole orchestra was there, but it didn't take long to get the hot performance,
our kind of take. The duet between Nancy and her dad was poignant and sincere,
different from glittery Hollywood, nice date, no hoopla. It was a very
beautiful thing to see the two of them together singing - they were very close as
father and daughter, lots of love there.
 
It was wonderful to do the later TV special with them both - we got gold
cigarette lighters from Mr. Sinatra in appreciation. Hal Blaine was on drums, Al
Casey is the guitarist you hear, Don Randi on piano, Tommy Tedesco on guitar with
Billy Strange conductor/arranger.
 
YOU"VE LOST THAT LOVIN’ FEELIN’ (Righteous Brothers). We recorded this live
(full band and singers) at Gold Star with lots of spectators and the Righteous
Bros. being right there in the main part of the studio.
 
Ray Pohlman played elec. bass while I played my usual acoustic guitar (Epiphone
Emperor), the guitar Phil loved, Phil was co-writer on this tune. With the
echo loud and big in our earphones, we finally jelled with a groove, Earl Palmer
on drums, we knew immediately this was a big hit. The Righteous Bros. could
sing fine gospel style.
 
A ton of slapback echo was put on my rhythm guitar which is a little-known
ingredient - it's very subtle on the track but you hear me doubling with Ray on the
bassline in the middle part.
 
Drummer Earl Palmer moved to Hollywood from New Orleans bringing a swamp beat
with him, a sort of doubletime which helped start the LA 16ths funk style
(drummer Sharkey Hall called our doubletime "samba", kind of latin in feel).
 
Phil’s regular percussionists where Gene and Alan Estes, Frank Capp, Emil
Richards, Julius Wechter, and his guitarists were Barney Kessel, Tommy Tedesco,
sometimes Glen Campbell or Billy Strange, Don Peake, Bill Pitman, Lou Morell,
sometimes Al Casey, and later David Cohen, and Mike Deasey (even Mike Post a few
times).
 
Keyboardists usually were Don Randi, Leon Russell, Al DeLory, Mike Rubini, and
Mac Rebennec. Glen Campbell and I would duel on "Tico-Tico" and I’d always win
the speed contest but Glen
Finally beat me later on one of his TV shows - he'd stand up and sing some
dirty hillbilly songs once-inawhile, and even would jam a little jazz - Glen was
great on the dates, he had a certain great rock solo sound and feel that you
could count on. Billy Strange was no slouch with great rock solos on guitar
either, he was also great to be around, great sensed of humor.
 
On this date, Phil had me double with what Ray played on bass in the middle
quiet motuno part, a rich effect - something that was pretty popular in those days
-- using the guitar player to double the bassline sometimes.
 
Spector had a golden touch with studio techniques, sounds, and hit feelings, a
true pioneer genius in studio innovations such as baffles, headphones, panning
the sounds between tracks, producing ideas etc. Yes, he was a little wild back
then (don't believe his image in that movie, he never was that stiff nor
weird-looking, he was happy and loose on the dates, wore some pretty wild outfits and
would kid constantly), but pretty good to work for, just long dates with only 1
song per 3 hour date, with the "B" side hurriedly cut the last 5 min. or so
(jamming was all it was). And yes, I've gotten calls from him lately to work, but
turned him down - only offered scale.
 
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (Ray Charles single and Quincy Jones’ movie score
theme). This was recorded at Ray Charles’ studio, RPM, around the same time we cut
the entire movie score for Quincy at the old Goldwyn studios sound stage, were
we also cut "In Cold Blood", "Thomas Crown Affair", "The Happy Ending" ("What
Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life"), and other films such as "McKenna’s
Gold", "Viva max", and "Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner", etc., great sounds for
wonderful music scores, scene of the first sound picture "The Jazz Singer".
 
Quincy had me playing Dano Bass Guitar with Fuzztone as well as Elec. Bass funk
lines all throughout but I’d quickly switch on the short breaks to jam with the
great Jazz musicians he brought in from New York for the film: Roland Kirk,
Toots Theilman, etc.
 
I was fortunate to be one of Q’s regulars on all of his movies until the middle
of the 70’s when I totally quit to play live (with jazz piano legend Hampton
Hawes).
 
Starting with "Slender Thread" and "The Pawnbroker", Quincy used me on guitar
as well as Elec. Bass. His scores were great to play, very funky, melodic and
lush. To Sir With Love, New Centurions, Hot Rock, etc., I especially liked his
songs on Cary Grant’s last film
"Walk Don’t Run" (Toots Theilman on guitar and whistling).
 
We knew by the subject matter of "Heat Of The Night" that it was going to be an
intense musical score. We cut the Ray Charles single separately which was a
bit hit.
 
Ray at first used me on guitar around 1964, then on several good-selling bass
hits such as the initial Ashford/Simpson's first hit "I Don’t Need No Doctor", a
favorite on Jazz stations (Earl Palmer on drums, Rene Hall guitar and
arranger).
 
Other hits with Ray Charles were "America The Beautiful", "Abraham Martin &
John", "I Chose To Sing The Blues", "Feel So Bad", "Eleanor Rigby",
"Understanding", "Don’t Change On Me" etc.
 
Quincy Jones worked very hard on all of his movie scores - he was simply great
to work for, respected and paid the studio musicians well. He wrote some great
cue parts for many exciting emotional mood parts in the films and TV shows
("Ironside") as well as his great movie melodies which musicians loved to jam on.
He earned the respect of all musicians, producers, and helped introduce jazz
composers such as Oliver Nelson & Benny Golson to film composing too on Ironside
etc.
 
Sometimes he’d get backed up with work (he never hired a ghost writer) and
would have the rhythm sections just jam on a structured bar piece and he’d write on
top of our improvised lines like he would do for various other queues. On one
such call, he had Joe sample on keyboards, Arthur Adams on guitar and funky
vocals (the best was too wild for the tape), Harvey Mason on percussion, Paul
Humphrey (or Grady Tate) on drums and yours truly on bass.
 
A few months later I went to see a movie "New Centurions" and there was our
music -- it was laced throughout the film. There were other times that Q would
only have me play exactly what was written, especially on Ironside series TV
films (most of it), limit my improvisation as on "Chump Change" cut at TTG ("Carol,
you’re playing too much"), yet just turn me loose as on the Bill Cosby TV Theme
of the early 70’s when he said "play something" on the blank music chord chart.
 
The Cosby TV theme was also re-cut for a single "Hikky Burr" separately as was
a bit hit (and on Smackwater Jack LP) with Cosby playing percussion while
smoking his big cigar, Paul Humphrey drums, Joe Sample keyboards, Milt Jackson
vibes, Tom Scott sax.
 
The last time I worked for the wonderful Quincy as to record multiple guitar
parts (to be speeded up to sound like a synthesizer, haha, something different)
at A & M on the single, "I Heard That". Quincy confided in me then that since
his serious aneurisym surgeries, his life was changing - he’ll always be the
same wonderful person to me who loved my playing and gave me my start in the
eventual 100s of movies I found myself playing on, thanks Quincy Jones!
 
FEELIN’ ALRIGHT (Joe Cocker). We cut this in the fall of 1968 at Sunset Sound
studios - I’ll never forget it. There were five of us in the studio - Paul
Humphrey on drums, Artie Butler on piano (that’s his famous Latin boogaloo solo on
piano), David Cohen guitar, Laudir on congas, and yours truly on bass, with Joe
in the studio singing live. Joe was great.
 
We struck an instant groove on this 2-chord Latin-funk piece. The take they
mastered was not my favorite take (the one before was which evidently didn't get
recorded) - something happened to that take so we cut another one. But it was
good enough to be a No. 1 hit twice: 1969 and 1973 after Herb Albert bought the
master. I was fresh from a vacation in New Zealand plus was dating someone
special, was a very happy time and Joe brought a lot of energy to the session ala
the Ray Charles style he sings so well.
 
Even the layered background singers (Pat & Brenda Holloway, Merry Clayton)
commented how they loved to sing background on that record with so much feeling.
This is my 2nd favorite recording.
 
THE WAY WE WERE (MEM’RIES) (Barbra Streisand). This is one my favorite
recorded hits I played on -- I guess because of the song, Ms. Streisand, and
sentimentality. We cut this Dec. 14, 1973 at TTG with a rare full live orchestra
with strings, Marvin Hamlisch conducting, Ami Hadini engineering, Fred Smith
(who wrote "Ma Baby Loves The Western Movies" & "Peanut Butter" etc.) at the tape
machines.
 
Barbra was late to the date and we finally cut 33 straight takes -- nothing was
wrong, we just hadn’t hit the peak (hit feel) and Barbra wanted more takes too.
Paul Humphrey played drums on this (this is not on the film itself - that's Hal
Blaine on the film cut) and finally I decided to "go for it" (it was time to go
home) -- I remember looking over to Paul who was all-smiles, put something
extra on his drumming and we livened up the take -- the tune peaked as I was
glancing up to Streisand in the vocal booth - the feeling all came together. We all
knew it was "he" take.
 
I never got to meet Ms. Streisand after we cut the next tune in just a few
takes (about 60 people on the dates gathered around her and I hurried out to opt
for some sleep), but was finally glad to work for her as I had to turn down the
"Hello Dolly" film call with her before (I was booked way ahead in those years)
-- this sort of made up for it.
 
It was really special to play live with all the gang again in 1973, the finest
recording musicians in the world as the recording scene by that time was
completely layered record dates -- rhythm sections first, then horns, then strings
etc. (TV films were still "live" tho'with all being there in-person). Due to
layering, no-one really saw each other much anymore and the musical communication
between musicians was great for feeling on Barbra's date.
 
In those years, you rarely saw anyone outside of the rhythm section, the first
players on a recorded layer track. We heard about the emotional overtones of
the movie she was making. This is Union Contract Nos. 5511, 5512, 6 hours, 2
dates (2 tunes).
 
TTG was the studio where we cut a lot of Jimmy Rodgers’ hits, some Ventures,
where I didthe Count Basie overdub for "Come Together" a semi-hit for him
(guitarist Freddie Green waws there too, playing, nice fellow!), the first 2 Frank
Zappa LPs (Guitars: Tommy Tedesco, Dennis Budimer, and myself on 12-string elec.),
the famous porno film we recorded the score of for Mike Curb (incongruously,
Curb was "Mr. Clean"), a Quincy Jones LP (Bass on "Chump Change"), and many other
great sessions.
 
I last visited this landmark studio (in 1987) and it was in the middle of being
dismantled, the building was sold. Pianist Michel (Mike) Rubini was in from
Hawaii doing some multiple synthesizer work as he showed me around -- it was good
to see him again. Seeing the great upstairs studio room again felt eerie, all
that music, all those times - seeing my corner spot again was wonderful. Lots
of great memories there.
 
Other various memorable dates include (at United A) the Marketts Batman Theme
which they got us out of bed for at 4:00 AM in the morning to run down to the
studio to cut this "hot" single and our cut was on the air around L.A. by 10:00
AM that morning (I was on Elec. Bass, you hear my glisses all over the
place...Tom was making fun of me doing that and I
did it even more just to irritate him hahaha) -- Tommy played the lead).
 
They had to get it out fast to cover and cop the lead of the TV show theme and
it succeeded, it was hot - a big hit. Tommy and I also worked for Victor Mizzy
quite a bit ("Addams Family" and "Green Acres") -- Victor was fun to work for,
he even got married in the studio where we’d usually record. That’s Tommy
Morgan you hear on all the harmonica parts -- Tommy is just about the only
harmonica you hear on all the TV, movies, and L.A.-cut recordings (I published his 2
harmonica books -- Gwyn Publishing, now owned by Alfred Publishing).
 
The early Dot Records sessions with Milt Rogers and Randy Woods were nice -- we
cut a lot of Pat Boone dates, a nice singer. And it was good to work for
Jackie DuShannon ("What The
World Needs Now" - track cut in L.A. finished later in NYC), and the Ed Ames
material and the following were also an honor to record with: Ella Fitzgerald,
Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Fred Astaire, Mae West, Arturo
Toscannini, the wonderful Mills Bros., etc. Also: the pop hits of Trini Lopez elec.
12-string rhythm and some Everly Brothers.
 
H.B. Barnum wrote some good charts for Ike & Tina Turner (Ike had good ideas,
Tina was nice but quiet on the dates), David McCullum (12-string), O’Jays
(guitar) and the Broadway show LP "Golden Boy" at Capitol Records gave me the
opportunity to not only play some fun Dixieland banjo, but the jazz comping on guitar
similar to what I did while playing live jazz in the late 50s, -- the Capital
studio LP was very special, excellent musicianship, great sounds produced by
Dave Axlerod, fine arranging from H.B. who would crack us up doing calisthenics on
the beat of our music on a take.
 
BEACH BOYS (Brian Wilson). Steve Douglas (the most-working saxman in Hollywood
- he did all the what we call "chicken-sax" soloings) contracted me to play
some guitar on some of their early recordings with the fine Ray Pohlman (L.A.
studio No. 1 bassist since the mid 50s) on bass on all those early record dates
("Surfin’ Safari" etc.).
 
Brian switched us starting with (I think, but could have been slightly earlier)
"Help Me Rhonda" and then I played all the Fender Bass parts after that - we
were professionals, Ray did the 3 tunes on the Pet Sounds lp I'm not playing on:
"I Know There's An Answer", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", and "Here
Today".
 
All the notes Brian wanted us to play came from his creative genius but being
somewhat illiterate in music writing, we would have to sometimes rewrite his
handwritten parts to be able to read them well.
 
I always liked Brian who was super clean, confident, happy, mixing the board
after Chuck the engineer set it up -- the TV & movie story on him was atrocious,
not the Brian I knew and so false, it was almost funny but tragic that so much
slander gets out - totally false - he's a good person, very happy and strong in
the studios, great to work for. He could have gone on to be one of our great
movie composers but I think he was happy just doing records.
 
His usual musicians were: Hal Blaine on drums, Don Randi or Pete Jolly or Mike
Melvoin, keyboards, Steve Douglas - Jay Migliori & Plas Johnson saxes, Lyle
Ritz on string
bass a lot of the time, guitars were Billy Strange (hot solos), Glen Campbell,
Bill Pitman, Lou Morell, Tommy Tedesco, Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, and
later Ray Pohlman usually too.
 
Brian did all the producing/arranging/mixing/writing/ & some vocals, and only
Carl Wilson would sometimes play a little guitar (rhythm) part plugging directly
into the board in the booth at Western (some Beach Boy’s stuff was cut at Gold
Star too). The others would stop in once in a while to say hello and listen a
little to playbacks and then leave.
 
I respected Brian very much altho’ like Phil Spector, we worked us long hours -
he was great to us and I think we helped him grow in his music knowing that we
admired him and respected him so much. He also had a sly sense of humor.
 
His talent was enormous, being influenced by the Four Freshmen. We cut Pet
Sounds LP at Western & Mrs. O'Leary's Cow at Gold Star. We also cut Sloop John
B., Good Vibrations, Calif. Girls, Wouldn’t it Be Nice, Heroes and Villains,
Calif. Girls etc. most of Pet Sounds at Western 3.
 
The last recording I did for Brian was a thing called "Fire" (cut at Gold
Star), his best thing yet. He wrote the cellos to sound exactly like a fire engine
(the piece being a portrayal of the great Chicago fire) and artistry skills
were accelerating into classical-type music, just gorgeous writing, realistic
sounding.
 
We didn’t question him when he wanted some construction sounds for the
"re-building" part if his suite -- we did get paid well to operate
jackhammers (Lyle Ritz did that), sawing, hammering, riveting etc. -- this was
kind of fun..... It’s too bad he scrapped this masterpiece.
 
Around 1969 I decided to quit doing record dates for about 7-8 mos. and when I
resumed studio work later, I didn't want to work all the rock and roll dates --
opted for more movie/TV film work and just the record dates I wanted, being
tired of the ever increasing mundane formula things with the various groups, and
quit Brian also unfortunately as I
cared a lot for Brian.
 
He and Marilyn, his wife, were guests at my house (he loved my special
roller-back chair, good for backs) like regular people and we'd just hang out and talk,
watch TV some.... I know they had fun at one of my rare dinner hangout parties
when they were inspecting the mike that was underneath a new bidet I had just
installed (pretty racy huh for the
60’s).
 
Phil Spector and scores of musicians came - but Phil took one look at the
dancing and hilarity going on and excused himself to a back bedroom to talk to my
kids and just eat chicken, and drink milk. So much for the "wild" Hollywood
party at my house.
 
Anyway, the record scene was soon being taken over by attorneys, accountants,
and other type people in 1969, it was forever changing and creativeness was
bowing to money-minded people who didn’t believe the old "money would come" if
records were created well.

Brian was a very sensitive person and maybe this had something to do with the
following tough years for him (note: when I first wrote this, I had no idea of
the past family problems Brian had with his father) -- we did know that the
Beach Boys sold more records that the Beatles, and the Beach Boys seemed like such
a good bunch of guys and certainly so
for Brian Wilson.
 
AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH and SOMEDAY WE'LL BE TOGETHER (Diana Ross).
These two tunes are featured singles from the "Someday, We’ll be Together Again" LP
we cut in L.A. August 1968 at RCA Studios with a full live orchestra
(Hollywood’s best musicians) and
back-up studio singers (Diana Ross was there) - we were told this was the "last
album the Supremes would make".
 
Paul Humphrey and I recently recalled this giant venture produced by Motown.
Paul has been on these dates along with Earl Palmer on one day, and Gene Pello
on the other. It seemed like everyone in town was there and the booth was
crowded with quite a few people including Berry Gordy.
 
I knew on the way to RCA that this was going to be an important album, we all
heard it was the Supremes’ "goodbye" album. We had done most of the Supreme
hits in Hollywood (Hal Blaine on Baby Love, Paul on many, Earl on tons, Jesse
Sailes on many other earlier Motown recordings, Sharkey Hall on a few).
 
I can remember cutting the music to the hits we cut for the Supremes: "Love
Child", "Stop In The Name Of Love", and most of the others -- Joe Sample also
speaks of them in magazine interviews as did Steve Douglas and Earl Palmer, Armin
Steiner, Ami Hadani (see the letter from Billy Strange....we were all doing
Motown dates back in the early-to-mid-to-late 60s).
 
There was no secret of our work back in the 60’s and when I visited the Detroit
"Hitsville" studio (on the way to Toronto to record the Motherlode’s hit of
"When I Die") in 1969, the friendly engineer there and others discussed the
various recordings cut in Detroit and L.A.
 
People sometimes are afraid these days to speak of the dates for lack of
paperwork and because some of the early stuff was cut as "demo" dates, although we
later got a lot money backpay for recordings later proven to be the hits, then
contractor Ben Barrett loaned his recording license to Motown (who for some
reason couldn’t get one in L.A., probably due to the using of union musicians for
reportedly "demo" but actual real tracking recordings) and acted as contractor
(late 1966 or ’67).
 
Again, tracking was common if not legal then. So back to the RCA date.
I was almost late and was the very last to enter the studio which looked like
the end of a football game, so many people in the very large room (same room
used for the Henry Mancini recordings).
 
Both drummers had huge umbrellas above them to help dampen the overtones and
stop mike leakage. There were many percussionists, about 6 guitarists, full band
with french horns, large string section, and about 20 backup singers in
addition to Diana Ross -- they were
all there to sing live (although as usual, she added better vocals at her
leisure later).
 
The studio dates in Mary Wilson’s book confirm this - the vocals were added
later. Gil Askey was the music conductor and there were extra very long charts
requiring some to read off of 3 music stands (guitarists shared charts).
 
I thought I could get away with using only 2 stands by folding up my music for
easy turns (like the film studios) - it was so crowded with all the musicians
and singers in it, even in this huge room. Mickey the engineer split my bass
(1/2 from my 1-12" double amp Versatone and 1/2 on the direct box into the board)
and we rehearsed the music a little and started recording.
 
The band feeling was powerful and everyone in the booth seemed to be dancing
and smiling. The creative first Motown Bassist James Jamerson had cut the
original "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough" with Marvin Gaye and Tami Terrell and I
sightread this modified version of his original bass part noting that it was much
different from my style of playing.
 
Toward the end, I tried to do a quick page turn on the key change on the take
we knew was "it", and I quickly kept going catching Gil Askey’s bemused face as
he motioned for me to keep going after my complete music chart fell down.
 
I was lucky - the notes I improvised fit the chords as sub-tones and the
rhythmic part I played fit the momentum - we didn't stop and no-one else seemed to
noticed what happened so I kept playing (you keep going no matter what),
inventing a bassline similar to the one I later used on Joe Cocker’s "Feelin’ Alright"
hit, 16th-note bassline that was only 2 chords in nature but fit the Motown
tune as pedal tones, voila, it worked - everyone loved the take - everone was
dancing around in the large RCA booth during the take.
 
For everyone’s information, "Feelin’ Alright" (for which I’m credited on the
album single’s credits) was released AFTER Diana's recording had been cut (but
not released until 1970) so there’s no way anyone else could have copied this
line - you still hear the Feelin' Alright improvised line I did on Diana's
recording of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" years later, it was never replaced by
someone else.
 
Some copycat books were quoting unreliable sources to discredit our Motown
contributions (poor record-keeping and deliberate misinformation for marketing
purposes doesn’t help either) but in time, more truth will be forthcoming. It does
stand to reason, that the great hit-making musicians of L.A. were certainly
capable of more than just "demos or album-fillers" as suggested. We all remember
those dates.
 
I later accidently took the calls from Al Lapin for a TV Special at NBC (I did
numerous TV specials for the fine contractor at NBC) which turned out to be a
"G.I.T. On Broadway" ("Getting It Together on Broadway") TV Special featuring
the Supremes and Temptations, a show conducted by H.B. Barnum - I purposely had
quit working for Motown earlier for personal reasons.
 
The fine trumpeter, Ollie Mitchell almost had his movie camera confiscated as
he was filming from the sidelines -- it was amazing to see those scenes again
this year (1995), the way we looked then, what was going on (there were a lot of
boring times waiting to play) and how thin we all were.
 
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE (Lalo Schifrin). This theme and TV show music was cut in
only a few sessions and re-edited and changed around many times, using the same
intense cues that we cut - the music was very potent.
 
Lalo’s strong music was an integral part of this long-running TV show that you
still see and hear to today. I used a mixture of lows and a lot of highs for
my strong "click" sound as well as muting the strings with my right hand
slightly. The TV theme is slightly different than the later LP recording which we
also recorded.
 
HOLD ME, THRILL ME (Mel Carter). This early hit was cut with a full orchestra
live at the big studio at United Recorders. Ernie Freeman had called his usual
group of musicians, I played bass, Earl Palmer played drums. Mel was truly a
nice pleasant person and Ernie’s fine arranging insured another hit record.
Many other big dates were cut in this big
room: Don Costa LPs, some Frank Sinatra, 25 (or 50) Guitars LPs, and some fine
singers I also recorded with, Eartha Kitt, Keely Smith, some Pet Clarke (here
and at Western), Mae West (we and a nice chat about "health"), and a big band
funky Jazz LP with Jimmy Smith.
 
BIRDS AND BEES (Jewel Aken). They ran my guitar through a Leslie organ speaker
cabinet with the blower on for this tune - you had to play very even and strong
to trigger the notes just right. An interesting effect. This date was at Gold
Star a Don Ralke arrangement (Herb Newman production), later paid as union
(first not). Jewell sung live with the small band, he's a very nice fellow,
wonderful singer.
 
LITTLE GREEN APPLES (O.C. Smith). H.B. Barnum wrote this arrangement for O.C.
(also the "Hickory Hollar" hit we cut) and these sessions were all recorded at
the Columbia D studio, same studio where we cut the fine Andy Williams dates
("Love Story" & Godfather theme), as well as Mel Torme’s "Comin’ Nome" hit too -
fine studio with excellent rhythm section sound.
 
John Guerlin played drums on all of these (he’s the overdub jazz drummer on the
"Bird" movie). John and I enjoyed working together on many dates, including
Wonder Woman & Hawaii 5-0 TV. That’s John you hear with the fine Tom Scott group,
L.A. Express.
 
"Little Green Apples" went very well - O.C. was a nice gentleman and we all
enjoyed working together. I later saw OC at the Don Ralke funeral memorial...he
sung and still in great voice, was a religious minister..it was sad to lose him
about 1-2 years later.
 
ELVIS PRESLEY. Jerry Scheff was Elvis’ regular bassist, the bassist you see
and hear on all the live-film cuts and specials, but I was hired to play on some
of the movie scores in back of Elvis for his movies and maybe one or two record
dates only (what NPR said in 1993 was wrong, I was not on "many" of Elvis’s
things).
 
Movies were "Live A Little, Love A Little" featuring some of my 16th Boogaloo
improv, and the fine score written by Billy Goldenberg of "Change Of Habit".
Billy Strange was usually the musical conductor/arranger for others and some
wonderful players that Billy used were: Roy Caton (Baja Marimba Band regular
trumpeter - a fine studio musician), and the great Ollie Mitchell ("Herb
Alpert"-style hits, Motown, Shaft Theme), and Tony Terran, excellent big band trumpeter who
played sometimes for Ray Anthony on records, and Union President Bill Peterson
on trumpet too.
 
Plas Johnson and Jim Horn and others were on saxes, Al Casey on guitar. I met
Elvis on a movie score date - he was nice and polite, professional, good to
musicians. Unfortunately on one big date that looked like it was going all night
long, I had to leave as I felt ill
from overwork (too many years of 16-hour days, 7 days a week sometimes), and
the whole scene just felt bizarre also - so many people milling around.
 
I waited until Billy Strange could get a bass sub, Elvis was concerned, said
some nice things, he was very sweet, a nice man and I was sorry to leave, but not
being well, I had to get home.
 
INDIAN RESERVATION (Paul Revere and the Raiders). This was cut at the big
Columbia studio with Hal Blaine on drums. I also cut lots of fine dates with
Johnny Mathis in this same studio, met Judy Garland here, also did Simon & Garfunkle
dates such as "Homeward Bound" and Buckingham hits here.
 
Hal Blaine is the most most recorded drummer (but Earl Palmer could have done
more, it's really a tie I think) and had he had the opportunity, could have
played some jazz too, he could play some jazz with big bands, but the studio work
kept him busy -- he always had a good story to tell.
 
HOMEWARD BOUND (Pail Simon/Art Garfunkle). Like "Indian Reservation", there
were only a few of us in this big room at Columbia where some of the Supremes’
things, Johnny Mathis, Doris Day, Patti Page, Mahalia Jackson, and Don Ellis’ big
band things (w/Ralph Humphries on drums) were recorded.
 
Judy Garland was in the booth where when we did the very first Liza Minelli
session here -- she was nice but quiet, very interested in seeing Liza’s
performance, rooting for her. This date with Simon & Garfunkle went well and Art and I
got very friendly, he’s very outgoing whereas Paul was quiet and kept to
himself - Paul was in charge.
 
They got a good sound in the booth -- Larry Knechtel is on piano (he
also played on "Bridge Over Troubled Water" now travelling with Bread at this
writing), Hal Blaine on drums. I played on only a few
of Simon & Garfunkle’s things - their dates were nice but sometimes boring.
 
We also did John Davidson, Michelle Lee, and other Motown things in this
studio. Tommy Tedesco used to kid about the Motown guitar sound and just hit his top
guitar string to imitate the "authentic" Motown sound - Tommy would put you on
in an instant.
 
SOME TV SHOWS (see other lists for list if record hits and movies that are
re-used): M.A.S.H.., Mission Impossible, Ironside, Hawaii 5-0, Room 222, Kojak,
Streets of San Francisco, Brady Bunch, Wonder Woman, McCoud, Mannix, Love American
Style, Loveboat, Soap, Alice, Peyton Place, Cannon, Stalag 17, The Survivors,
Addams Family, Green Acres, Mod Squad, It Takes A Thief, Get Smart, Hogan’s
Heroes, Brady Bunch, 1st Bill Cosby TV, Academy Awards, 70’s This Is Your Life,
Bonanza, FBI, Paper Chase, TV Specials with Bob Hope, Pet Clarke, Sinatras, Red
Skelton, Lena Horne, etc.
 
Some Other Movies: Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Pawnbroker, Forbin
Project, That’s Entertainment II (theme), Sugarland Express, Store Front Lawyers,
Jigsaw, Stilletto, Smokey, Cool Hand Luke, Valley Of The Dolls, Candy, Bob Ted
Carol & Alice, Bold Ones, Sometimes A Great Notion, Sweet Charity, On Any
Sunday, Across 110th Street, The Happy Ending, Grand Prix, Viva Las Vegas, The
Getaway, Get Yourself A College Girl, Beach Blanket Bingo, Alice B. Toklas, Run For
Your Life, Shaft (theme).
 
Note: It was not only the great creativeness of the conglomerate fine studio
musicians who helped create hit records, but the fine musicianship of scores of
movie/TC film musicians who also helped create and perform with great intensity
which helped the movie industry out its post-TV slump, saving a many mediocre
picture with absolutely great musical sounds and performances.