This is something I started working on six months ago, following an e-mail exchange with good, ol’ Denro. Something that’s an inescapable interest for us, as well as the re-issue professionals we have contact with — Steve Hoffman, Bob Irwin, Andrew Sandoval, and Steve Stanley — is 1960’s record production (with Hoffman going further afield, in both directions).
After the introduction of tape recorders (thank you, Nazi Germany) made overdubs and editing possible, recording studios evolved into becoming instruments themselves. It became more likely that the difference between a hit and a flop could be determined not only by who performed the song, but how the record was produced and engineered.
Here’s an example. “Bend Me, Shape Me” by the American Breed debuted on December 2, 1967, and in early ’68 it became a top 5 hit. But that wasn’t the first time someone had taken a bash at the tune.
There was a very Psychedelic version by an obscure girl group, as produced by Tom Wilson, whose many credits included Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel.
The Outsiders, whose “Time Won’t Let Me” in ’66 was also a #5 hit, put “Bend Me, Shape Me” on their third album.
Within a couple of tom-tom beats, I recognize American Breed’s hit record. I would characterize the sound as nudging its way into Bubblegum Land.
Music Mike provides some background on the single vs. the album version of the song.
Music Mike has one of those classic Top 40 DJ deliveries that I have always admired, but wasn’t able to master myself during my stint at an AM radio mic. So let’s give a listen to Mike talking-up one of my all-time favorite singles.
Here’s Music Mike’s online station: https://www.kvkvi.com/
Tech sidebar: Curiously, Music Mike’s site behaves the way mine used to do here. By default it’s presented to the Net as unencrypted HTTP, but if you specify HTTPS the encryption works. Which is good, except his pop-up player isn’t working with HTTPS, only HTTP. I checked TuneIn, and because it sees HTTP for the stream it won’t play the station through most browsers. This isn’t the sort of technical trouble that FCC-licensed radio station engineers used to handle.
Which reminds me of a story. I was once doing DJ duty at the AM station on a hot and stormy summer Sunday afternoon. I was on the air, the only one in the building, when the transmitter suddenly shut down!
In those days, an FCC 3rd Class Radiotelephone Operator’s license, which I had (passing the test the first time I took it — yay), was required to run a mixing board at a radio station, let alone touch a transmitter. Opening up the transmitter, I could see that a fuse had blown. I forget what the amperage was, but it wasn’t a lot. Let’s say it was 3A. There was a box of fuses nearby. I pulled the blown fuse, found a 3A fuse, installed it, and hit the power switch on the transmitter. As it came up I ran back into the studio, made a joke about technical difficulties, and played a record. Everything seemed okay, but then the transmitter blew out again.
For moments like that one, there was a wall phone next to the transmitter. I called my pal Dick Rezsutek, the chief engineer, which meant he had a 1st Class FCC license. Dick worked for the station part-time, and his full-time job was at a TV station in Simpsons City, aka Springfield. Dick asked me which fuse I’d replaced, and his suggestion was, “Three amps? Put in a five.” A possibly risky thing to do, but it held, and I was able to finish my shift. Dick came in that night and he fixed whatever the problem was that caused the fuses to blow.
Looking back on that time so long ago, I remember how much I enjoyed seeing Dick at the station and talking with him about the technical work, even when it was on my own time. Which I suppose made me a good match for what became my life’s work in technology.
Watching the clock was something I never did while working, with the exception of a plastics factory job during college. It was hot, tiring work, but it paid well. It required steel-toe boots I had to buy with my own money. Ten years later, after buying my first house, I started wearing them for work boots, and I threw them out only recently.
