Ron from Nashville, TN asked:
Do you have any favorite stories, memories, or interesting notes associated with RCA Studio B from the recordings you produced there?
I have a lot of memories of working and playing in RCA Studio B. The first time I recorded there I was working at Sun Records in Memphis. That was around 1957. I had not yet learned to love the Sun Studio and I had written a couple of songs that I felt needed a dose of the Nashville Sound.
I had always wanted to meet Chet Atkins anyway, so I took my piano player and my favorite guitar and drove to Nashville. We recorded a session in the RCA Studio with one of Chet's bass players. It wasn't known as Studio B then because Studio A was still about 10 years in the future.
I moved to Nashville from Beaumont, Texas in January, 1965 and rented 2 offices in the new RCA Studio building which is about 15 feet from the Studio B building. My landlords were Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley.
My offices were on the 3rd floor. Chet was directly under me on the first floor and I gave him first crack at most of my productions, including Charley Pride. Now, there was a fun story, that day I had Charley in Studio B for the first time. The word had gotten around that I was producing an African American country singer.
So the control room was full of spectators, including Connie B. Gay, a famous Washington, D.C. showman and one of the people who started The Country Music Association. Later Connie B. was helpful in getting Chet to sign Charley.
The most fun part of that day for me was watching blind piano player Hargus "Pig" Robbins' facial expressions as he heard Charley sing. I wish I had that on video tape or film.
I continued to regularly use Studio B until I built my first Nashville studio in 1969.
Don Kirshner, the impresario behind Brill Building pop, the Monkees, the Archies and his own music-television show, has died of heart failure.
Kirshner was 76 and died in Boca Raton, Fla., according to a statement from his publicist.
Called “the man with the golden ear” by Time magazine in 1966, he wrote songs with Bobby Darin as a college student. In the late 1950s he co-founded Aldon Music, a publishing company whose songwriters included the hit-making teams of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield.
“Kirshner was like a father figure to us all,” Mann was quoted as saying in “The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll” (1980). “Everyone’s first thought, as we sweated over our battered old pianos, was whether Donny would be pleased.”
After selling Aldon to Columbia Pictures, Kirshner moved into TV. He supervised the music for “The Monkees” and “The Archies” series and produced “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” a live-performance television show.
Record labels were also part of his empire. The Beatles recorded “Chains,” a song originally released by his Dimension Records. Another of his labels, Kirshner Records, signed the band Kansas in the 1970s and had hit singles with “Carry On Wayward Son” and “Dust in the Wind.”
Early collaborators
When “Rock Concert” ended in 1982, Kirshner retired. He made a comeback attempt two decades later with a publicly traded company, Kirshner International Inc., whose efforts to create an Internet TV channel and a media player were unsuccessful. He was in bankruptcy proceedings for six years, ending in 2008.
Kirshner was born to Gilbert and Belle Jaffe Kirshner in New York City’s Bronx borough. His father was a tailor. He attended Bronx High School of Science and Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey.
Darin, another Bronx Science graduate, met him through a mutual friend. They teamed up to write radio commercials as well as songs. Connie Francis, who later had hit singles with Aldon, sang on some of the advertisements.
The duo pitched a song to Francis’s manager, George Scheck, and the attempt led to Darin’s signing with Decca Records. Decca dropped the singer after releasing four singles, and he moved to Atlantic Records’ Atco label with Kirshner’s help.
Five of their songs were included on Darin’s debut album, released in 1958. The partnership ended as the singer became more successful, although he married actress Sandra Dee in Kirshner’s apartment in 1960.
Talented teams
Kirshner also enabled Allen Klein, a fellow Upsala student, to get into the music business. Klein was hired as an accountant and later moved into management. He was the Beatles’ manager at the time of the band’s split.
To start Aldon, Kirshner joined forces with Al Nevins, a songwriter and musician. The company set up offices at 1650 Broadway in Manhattan, across the street from the Brill Building, a pop-music center since the 1930s.
“Donny would play one songwriter against another,” King was quoted as saying in “The Sociology of Rock,” a 1978 book by Simon Frith. “He’d say, ‘We need a new smash hit,’ and we’d all go back and write a song.”
Works by Goffin and King included the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” a No. 1 pop hit. Mann and Weil wrote another No. 1 single, the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” with Phil Spector. Sedaka’s “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” was written with Greenfield.
Pre-Fab Four
Columbia Pictures bought Aldon in 1963 for $3 million. Screen Gems, its film and TV production unit, named Kirshner as an executive vice president in charge of publishing and the Colpix label.
The Monkees, called the Pre-Fab Four because Columbia created the group for the TV series, made their debut in 1965. Kirshner served as musical director and received 15 percent of record-sale royalties, triple the total payout to its members.
Kirshner followed the Brill Building model by having the Monkees record songs written by others. Neil Diamond wrote “I’m a Believer,” one of three singles that climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” by Goffin and King, reached No. 3. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, another songwriting team, put together many of their other hits.
As the show became more popular, the Monkees took greater control of the music. Kirshner was fired in 1967 after putting out a single without the band’s consent. The dismissal led to a $35 million lawsuit, settled out of court, against Screen Gems.
Kirshner rebounded later that year with “The Archies,” an animated series portraying comic-book characters as a pop group. He supervised the music and put together a studio band.
“Sugar Sugar,” a No. 1 single for the Archies in 1969, was a song he pitched to the Monkees before his ouster. In the same year, he spent about $3 million to buy the rights to half a dozen Broadway musicals from producer Alan Jay Lerner.
Arcade Fire’s No. 1 ’Suburbs’ Gave Indie Scene Peak 2010 Moment
Kirshner’s next foray into music television was the ABC network’s “In Concert,” showcasing rock artists. He was the executive producer of the series, which premiered in 1972.
The next year, he started his own production company and brought out “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” where he appeared so uncomfortable on camera that musician Paul Shaffer parodied him on the “Saturday Night Live” comedy show.
“He raised the curtain for dozens of bands, all in a nasal drone, his gaze just off to the right of the camera as he read from a teleprompter,” the Washington Post recalled in a 2004 story. “Kirshner looked startled and stiff.”
Move to Florida
Kirshner’s son, Ricky, and daughter, Daryn, hosted “Rock Concert” in its final season. Ricky later produced Super Bowl halftime shows and the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Kirshner had both children with the former Sheila Grod, whom he married in 1959. The couple lived in New Jersey before moving to Boca Raton in 2002.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame presented him with the first Abe Olman Publisher Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Music Industry in 2007.
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Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998) was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954. His best known song is "Blue Suede Shoes".
According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins' sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed." Perkins' songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Cash, which further cemented his place in the history of popular music.
Called "the King of Rockabilly", he was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient.
Carl Perkins 50th Anniversary Edition Sun Records Limited Edition CD
Track Listing:
Blue Suede Shoes
Boppin The Blues
Gone, Gone, Gone
You Can't Make Love to Somebody
Honey Don't
All Mama's Children
Dixie Fried
Pink Pedal Pushers
Matchbox
Everybody's Tryin' To Be Be My Baby
Roll Over Beethoven
Glad All Over
The We Remember Elvis Fan Club paid for a plaque that went up at the Civic Arena on Elvis Presley' birthday in 1982. But now, with the arena closed, the plaque is among the arena items up for sale to the highest bidder.
On more mornings than she cares to remember, Priscilla Parker woke up early for flea markets where she sold donated items to come up with the $1,157 needed to buy a plaque commemorating Elvis Presley's three concerts at the Civic Arena.
She and four girlfriends founded the We Remember Elvis Fan Club, and their plaque went up at the arena on Elvis' birthday in 1982. But now, with the arena closed, the plaque is among the arena items up for sale to the highest bidder.
"It should be placed someplace where masses of people can see it and remember Elvis," Parker, 71, of Dormont, said. "All they want to do is tear things down and destroy stuff."
The city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority gave its blessing to every item included in the auction, said Ryan Householder, project manager for AssetNation, the company hired to run the auction.
The items include an autographed locker where Hall-of-Famer and team owner Mario Lemieux hung his street clothes before games, sections of dasherboard, and seatbacks autographed by players. More than 550 items are included in two memorabilia auctions, set to close on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
No item has drawn more attention than the Elvis plaque, Householder said. He has been working since May to itemize items for the sale, and he kept telling people who inquired that the plaque probably never would be sold.
Sports historians from the Sen. John Heinz History Center selected a long list of items for The Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum in the Strip District. The history center ended up with lights from behind the goals, the building's dedication plaque and Coach Dan Bylsma's dry erase board, among many other items.
"Our goal is to preserve this history of the Civic Arena as well as the history of the Penguins," history center spokesman Ned Schano said. "Those collections fit in perfectly with what we do at the history center. We were very pleased that between the Penguins and the Sports & Exhibition Authority they were able to give us items."
The Elvis plaque, however, was not on the history center's wish list.
Because neither the SEA nor the Penguins grabbed the plaque for the Consol Energy Center either, it ended up in the auction, Householder said. AssetNation runs sales of public property, but they typically include vehicles and heavy equipment. The company listed the Elvis plaque as the first item in the memorabilia auction.
"I put it as the No. 1 item because it probably is the most unique item," Householder said.
No one from the SEA could be reached for comment.
Two-thirds of the money raised by the sale goes to the SEA, and a third goes to the Penguins Foundation, which supports children's charities and youth hockey programs. The first of several auctions, in December, raised $100,000 -- about $40,000 more than expected.
Parker said the fan club's founding members were inspired to make the plaque when Elvis died. They wanted some way to commemorate his concerts in Pittsburgh. Elvis played at the Civic Arena on New Year's Eve in 1976, a year before he died. People who were there say that performance was one of the best from the latter stage of his career.
The women came up with a sketch, won approval from Elvis' estate for the plaque design and received permission from the operators of the Civic Arena to hang it in the building, Parker said.
Even though they paid for the plaque the first time around, Parker said the club would try to raise money to buy it back again. They would prefer, however, for the SEA to simply return the plaque so it can be given to either the Heinz history center or the archives at Elvis' Graceland Mansion in Memphis.
"It should be seen by other people," Parker said. "It shouldn't be in somebody's house."
We got this email from friend Teresa Campbell this morning and wanted to share it with you.
Hello!, ELVIS FRIENDS!!!
I hope that you are all well...
Have talked to two very good friends of John Wilkinson (an original member of the TCB Band, I'm sure we all know) in this past week, and I wanted to pass on to you what was said.
We started talking about John and his relationship with 'ELVIS', personally and professionally, and reminded each other that John was the only member to have played in all the concerts from '69 thru '77 without missing one single concert...remarkable!!!...the ONLY ONE to have accomplished such a feat...(along with 'ELVIS' of course...!!!)
That's some record!
And my two friends and I got to talking about 'why not have John Wilkinson' on the panel in judging the ETA contestants?!...who else, having never missed a concert in all those years, would be a better judge on the panel than John???!!!
I'm just passing on a wonderful suggestion, imho, to you...if you think that this would be a good idea, I ask you to contact EPE @ marketing@elvis.com and recommend John...
John, having had a stroke and can not play the guitar any longer, is now in good health and expressed that he would be most honored and excited to take on such a wonderful opportunity in this very exciting venture in judging the new ETA for EPE!
John has such a vast experience in seeing, knowing, and loving 'ELVIS' in all 'HIS' performances and 'HIS' personal life...
Just passing on to each one of you who love, support, and acknowledge 'ELVIS' as the 'Entertainer of the Century' and this century as well!!!... As you all know, it is most well deserved!!!!!
If you are in agreement about John Wilkinson helping out on the judging panel for the new ETA in this coming year of EW, contact EPE @ marketing@elvis.com...
And if you do, I thank you from the bottom of my 'ELVIS' heart...I think it would do John a world of good and is just a great idea!!!
Love,
T
p.s....
I know that we are not all ETA fans...I, personally, can take some of them and leave some of them...just depends on the performer...but...if the ETA contest is going to happen anyway, John would certainly make sure that the one chosen would be worthy of the title...
Thanks again.....
Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband are selling their Los Angeles mansion for an asking price of $28 million, putting on the market a home once lived in by Elvis Presley, her spokesman said on Wednesday.
The hillside house in the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air was built for the late aviator and industrialist Howard Hughes, said John Blanchette, a publicist for Gabor.
Presley lived in the house -- which has 26 rooms and a pool -- decades ago when he was acting in movies filmed in Los Angeles, Blanchette said. It is built into a hillside and overlooks the city.
Gabor, 93, the star of 1950s films "Moulin Rouge" and "Lili," had her leg amputated on Friday because of a gangrene infection after hip replacement surgery in July.
She is recovering in a Los Angeles hospital where doctors have said they are "guardedly optimistic" about her prospects.
"We only use two rooms, all the other rooms are locked up. It doesn't make sense for two people to live in such a big place," her ninth husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, told Reuters.
The couple plans to move to a luxury condominium, he said.
Gabor bought the mansion from Elvis' estate in the 1970s, sometime after his death, for $600,000, von Anhalt said.
The actress got an offer of $18 million for the place 10 years ago, he said.
Priscilla Presley is bringing daughter Lisa Marie and other family members to Nevada Ballet Theater’s Black and White Ball at Aria on Jan. 29 when she is presented with the Woman of the Year award.
