Unsung

They are some of your favorite artists of all time. And you don't even know their names.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is how music does that.I'm Dale McGowan. You know I should
mention that it's not mandatory that youlisten to the previous episode before you listen
to this one. The King ofSpace Age Pop. But this one's going
to make a lot more sense andbe a lot more fun if you do
that. So just a thought.Last time, I introduced a force of

(00:20):
nature called one Garcia escavel I talkedabout his incredible use of tambers, the
way he'd take a familiar melody andslice it up across a whole spectrum of
tone colors. I called him acourageous arranger for doing this. When you

(00:58):
split up melodies like this and forceinstruments into their extreme ranges and pile them
in tight clusters and give them impossiblerhythms, you the arranger, are diving
off a twenty story building. Ifthe players you're writing for are anything less
than godlike, you are diving intoa net of overcooked spaghetti. And there's
an excellent chance that your wonderful tambrelimagination is going to end up all over

(01:19):
the sidewalk. I've been that guy, and when your risks fail to pay
off, it makes you timid.The next time. It makes you conservative
in your choices, it makes yougood instead of great. But Escavell never
got timid. If anything, hegot more and more adventurous as he moved

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into the nineteen sixties further into spaceage pop. How could he do that?
The answer is that Escavell was notdiving into spaghetti. He was diving
into a high tensile strength keV Larnet. As a rising star for RCA,
Victor Escavell had access to the bestof everything, including the greatest session musicians

(02:00):
alive. He wrote impossible things becausehe had full confidence in the gods that
would be executing those impossible things inthe studio. Now, greatest session musician
might sound like jumbo shrimp. Sessionmusicians sounds like the second string, right,
a hack who fills in the backgroundbehind the star hired just for a

(02:21):
given studio session. If they werebetter musicians, they'd be the stars.
Am I right? Or am Iright? I am wrong? And I'll
tell you who knows that's wrong.Anyone who has anything to do with the
recording industry, and that includes producers, recording technicians, and the stars,
and frankly the session players themselves.They know how good they are back.

(02:42):
In the episode called I Could HaveBeen John Williams, I told a story
about studying film scoring at UCLA andhow the session musicians brought in to play
our scores. Studio musicians, bythe way, are superhuman. The orchestra
would rehearse each clip for three minutesand then record it twice. That last
one had a lot of complex rhythmand meter change, and they nailed it

(03:06):
like they had a week of rehearsals. Working session players are almost always better
at what they do, better attheir instruments than the superstars they're backing up.
Not always, but usually, whilethe star is plunking out the next
hit on the piano at home,hanging out in clubs, giving interviews,

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sleeping in yachting in Santropez, oreven touring and playing the same set list
over and over and over again forthree hours at a time. While the
star is doing all that, thesession musician is playing sight reading chart after
chart after chart, pop songs,jazz film scores as a ringer in a
classical orchestra background band for a commercialfive six eight ten hours a day in

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the studio, five six seven daysa week for forty years it would be
weird if they weren't ten times bettermusicians. Then Head Sheer in Her Lady
Gaga or the Weekend. Here,for example, is a room full of
session musicians site reading part of thescore to The Incredibles two. That part

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of the score, by the way, is the end credits. No one
is listening. Search YouTube for theIncredibles two scoring session to watch the You'll
get about five results from that session. It's just amazing to watch. So
having the appreciation I have for sessionmusicians, as I was working on the
Escavel episode and swooning over the incredibleartistry of the individual session musicians who made

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Escavell's work possible, I went tothe online liner notes to find their names
to see who they were, andwhat I found on one album after another
was Juan Garcia, Escavel and hisorchestra. That's it. This was really
common in the fifties and sixties.The record labels wanted to build the profiles

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and mystique of individual artists, sothey took the indispensable virtuosos playing with those
artists, the net that made theacrobatics of the artists possible, and faded
them into the background. Now,I can understand this if you're dealing with
an actual orchestra of seventy or eightymusicians like that incredible session. But when

(05:56):
it says Escavell's orchestra, it's notan orchestra. We're talking about maybe twelve
to sixteen people, including a lotof soloists, but their names are never
mentioned. Intwegged, I dug intothe literature on Escavell. One of the
names I wanted to surface was thisguy. There's just a lot of whistling

(06:24):
in Escavell, and I was bettingit was the same person. And sure
enough, I learned that Escavell's whistlerwas the great Muzzy Marcelino. In the

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late fifties and sixties, if youwere in need of a whistler, and
they often were, Muzzy was yourfella. You have probably heard Muzzi's work
before, but he is never mentionedon escavel album notes. There's also that

(07:26):
slide guitar right. Sometimes that's astandard electric guitar, and sometimes it's what's
called a pedal steel guitar or Hawaiiansteel guitar, which is you might have
seen this. It's like a tablethe size of a TV tray with strings
like an autoharp or zither, andthat sound in escavel is almost always the

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work of Alvino Ray, the Kingof the slide guitar. Allow to entertain
you and us, the King Family'sanswer to Ed Sullivan, smiling at Ravin,
all right. He was actually sowell known that Alvino Ray inspired an

(08:16):
Easter Eggan a Batman episode. Thisis the tickiest weapon you have, a
Doug Batman, my own unpatented AlvinoRay gun. That's what a household name
he was. But no mention everwhen he played with Escavelle. Now,
I almost didn't even try to excavatethe brass section. Players never get a
byeline. You never figure out whothey are. But I tried anyway,

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and guess who I found? Anyof you? Late seventies early eighties kids,
remember the squealing trumpet of Maynard Ferguson. Well he is at twenty eight

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years old, balancing on top ofEscaville's wall of brass, and right below
him on second trumpet. Doc Severnson, the leader of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show
Band, at age thirty from Notto Night Show, Starry Johnny Carson listen
at mcmie alow with Doc Severn.Then what about those background singers Jet Chuck,

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Jimmy Chuck Chuck Zoo Zoo Zoo.That is a group of session singers
called the Randy Van Horn Singers.If you're old enough, you may know
them from such hits as Christmas Dangleand After School Cartoons, st The Family

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Mean, George Jeffson, The wecan dig even deeper. Some of the
individual members of the Van Horn Singerswere uncredited solo singers and other work,
including some that you just might knowif you're long enough in the tooth.
You're a mean one, mister Grinch. You really are. You're as cudley

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as a cactus. You're as charmingas an eel, mister Grinhinch. That
is the great bass singer session musicianThorough Ravenscroft. What a name. First
of all, you're a mean one, mister Grinch, for which Ravenscroft,
the one and only soloist, wasuncredited. That's crazy. That song went

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to number thirty one on the BillboardTop one hundred and nineteen sixty six,
with everyone in America assuming that BorisKarloff, the voice of the Grinch was
also singing that song. He wasnot spiders. You've got garlic in your
soul, mister Green, That's notthe only place Thorol Ravenscroft has touched your
life and heart. Frosted flakes havethe taste adults have grown to love.

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They're good. That's him, andhe's also the bass voice in the singing
busts of Disney's Haunted Mansion, creakingSo to wait, happy horns, look,
griming lines, don't eyes, anddon't try to all uncredited. Now

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a lot of these. I understand. If you're part of an ensemble,
you don't get a byeline. Butthere's another voice in the van Horn singers
whose story just upsets me. Youremember Singing in the Rain when movies go
from silent to sound and the actressLena Lamont suddenly has to sing, but
her voice is so uncoachably bad,and I can't stand and I can't stund

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him, and I can't stand thatthey dubbed Debbie Reynold's voice in for hers.
I say, just sing the Rainagain, and then stuff happens,
and then Gene Kelly says to theaudience, praise stop that girl, that

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girl running up the ass, stopher. That's the girl's voice you heard
in Love Tonight. She's the realstar of the picture. And yeay,
the ghost singer gets the credit shedeserves. Yeah, Well, imagine that
story in real life with just afew little changes. Shall We Done One
Free? That is Deborah Kerr inthe film version of Rogers and Hammerstein's The

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King and I as Anna, theBritish teacher for the children of the King
of Siam, dancing across the floorwith the King as she sings, shall
we dance? Shall we done?One Free? On a bright cloud of
music? Shall we start? Shallwe done? Wan sree? Shall we
then say good night and mean goodbye? And a lot of other songs in

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that musical, But it's not Deborahasinging. That is the voice of a
twenty year old woman named Marnie Nixon. Marnie Nixon was hired as a ghost
singer and then handed these amazing solosto perform, and she did, and
it was wonderful. But not onlydid her name not appear in the credits,
but as she recounted in an interviewsixty years later, the studio twentieth

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Century Fox with the King, andI called me and they said that if
anyone ever knew that I did anypart of the dubbing, that they would
see to it that I wouldn't workin town again. Can you imagine?
I was scared to death? Ohthere's more. Remember Maria in Westside Story?

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Oh not, don it all begune? Tonight? I saw you and
the window tonight there is only youdon't night. What. Yeah, that's

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not Natalie Wood, It's Martie Nixon. Can you imagine creating something like this
and then watching the film go onto sweep the Academy Awards ten Academy Awards.
It was just a mega sensation.And you're not able to tell anyone
that the voice America is falling inlove with is yours. And when Audrey

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Hepburn and My Fair Lady sounded likethis sweetly, they replaced her audio with
Marnie Nixon began stop stop stop,in between anonymously singing some of the most

(15:15):
iconic and famous roles in musical theater. Marnie Nixon anonymously performed with the Randy
Van Horn Singers, including with Escavell. I don't know about you, but
for me knowing all that makes theexperience of listening to an Escavell track really
different. Instead of Eskavell and hisorchestra, these disembodied splashes of tone color.

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I see this amazing confluence of talentsof real people coming together. Muzzy
Marcelino and Alvino Ray and Marnie Nixonand Thorough Ravenscroft, Doc Severnson and Maynard
Ferguson, all coming together in thisstudio at different places in their career,
different ages, before going off alltheir different ways afterwards. Plus eight or

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nine or ten others session musicians whosenames we will never know, just spent
their entire careers pouring their incredible talentsinto the songs we love. Because this
isn't just about Escavell, of course, It's about everything you love, speaking
of which I know you've all tolet you go home, please all yourself.

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Motown Records had a house backing bandwith the informal name the Funk Brothers,
thirteen guys who played on almost everyMotown hit of the sixties. There
is Pistol Allan a drummer, andMike Terry on, Barry Sas and Robert

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White on guitar. Literally thousands ofmotown songs had different artists up front,
but the same uncredited crew in theback, the Funk Brothers. This starts

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to get at the thing I findmost fascinating about the unsung session musicians of
this period. It's not just thatyou have uncredited musicians doing amazing work.
It's that you've got the same coreof session musicians over and over and over.
It's like finding out that all themovies you love actually used the same
ten actors. The sixties is thismind blowing profusion of genres and styles.

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There had never been anything like itin music history. Mainstream rock was joined
by surf music, psychedelic rock,folk, reggae, country, R and
B, cool, jazz, samba, motown, Bausonova, funk, soul,
gospel, progressive rock, all inthe same decade. But it's crazy
to realize that as you're listening tothat explosion of variety and style, from

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Sam Cook to the Monkeys, fromSimon Garfunkle to Elvis to Steppenwolf, the
leads are changing, but most ofthe actual sound you're hearing is coming from
a couple dozen legendary LA session musiciansinformally known as the Wrecking Crew, there
was drummer Hal Blaine, who recordednearly thirty five thousand tracks from Dean Martin
to Simon and Garfunkle. The JohnDenver Larry Nektell may have been the most

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versatile session player ever, including basson Missus, Robinson organ on Good Vibrations,
I Love the Grand piano on Bridgeover Troubled Water, the harpsichord on
I Think I Love You by thePartridge Family This Way, and solo guitar

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on Guitar Man, That's the sameguy. Carol Kay, the only woman
in the crew, recorded more thanten thousand tracks, from Sam Cook's Summertime

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to the original Batman theme to Frankzapp as Hungry Freaks. She's considered one
of the greatest bassists of all time. And they didn't just read the parts
they were given. The Wrecking Crewwas famous for adding to their parts,
embellishing, improving. They were hiredfor that purpose, and more often than

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not, the final product was practicallyco composed by the Wrecking Crew. Now
listeners at the time had no ideathat famous artists weren't playing their own instruments.
Preserving that illusion was good for business. In her book about the era,
Carol Kay said, we all knewthe scam that the record companies perpetrated,
but hiring these monster players was alsogood for the music. Good Vibrations

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is a great example. It's oneof the most complex and brilliant pop songs
ever created. It was recorded inthirteen sessions at four different studios, resulting
in ninety hours of tape. Totalcost was the equivalent of half a million
dollars today, and there was nota single beach boy playing a single instrument
on Good Vibrations. They sang,but the nineteen different instruments are one hundred

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percent wrecking crew. Right up front, you get Larry Nektel on organ,
Carol Kay on bass, and HalBlaine on drums. On the wind that
minute perfume through the end the session. Players were expensive, but Brian Wilson

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knew that he was getting players whocould read this complex chart instantly, and
unlike the band members themselves, he'dbe battling no egos. There was a
different price to pay, though.When these bands would hit the road for
tours, the fans would expect tohear every bit of what they heard on
the album, and the band membersended up frantically practicing the intricate lines their
session counterparts had lasered into the publicmind. This had the effect of raising

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the level of instrumental ability among artists, and by the early seventies a lot
of them were insisting on playing theirown parts on their albums. It took
longer in the studio and the resultswere sometimes shaggy ear, which became kind
of an earmark of the seventy sound. Some bands kept using session players,
but now they were usually credited.About half of Steely Dan's nineteen seventy two

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song Reeling in the Years is aguitar solo mostly improvised. It was played
by Wrecking Crew guitarist Elliott Randall.He walked into the studio, he was
handed the chart, which included tonsof improvisation, and created what is often

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considered among the top guitar solos ofall time, and he did it in
one take. Finally, there's myfavorite session musician moment. One year after

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Reel and in the Years, PinkFloyd is in the studio finishing their album
In the Dark Side of the Moon, which includes one of the most evocative
moments in music history. They justneeded one last thing. A female vocalist
to create that moment in the GreatGig in the Sky. Now. The

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engineer in the booth was Alan Parsons, and he said, hey, I
know somebody. The next day,twenty five year old session singer Claire Tory
was in the studio and they said, sorry, we've got no words,
no melody line, just a chordsequence. See what you can do with
it. Here's what she did withit. S They paid her thirty pounds

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which was double scale for Sunday work, and she didn't know her part had
ended up on the album until shesaw the LP and a record shop and
saw her name. That's right,she got a credits. That was episode

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sixty two of How Music Does That. I'm rebuilding my audience after two years
away. So if you like whatyou hear, please like and review the
show wherever you get your podcasts.It's easy and fun. If you liked
this episode, find the share buttonon your app and let your friends know
thanks for listening. I'm Dale McGowan. See you next time, whenever that

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may be for How Music Does That? Yes,