The time Joe Cocker (his birthday's today) had to re-record a vocal track for 8 hours

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Fri May 20, 2022, 06:25 PM - Edit history (1)

Cross-posting from Music Appreciation.


I was reminded of this story when Dyedinthewoolliberal posted a thread for Joe Cocker's birthday -- https://democraticunderground.com/103475980 -- and I mentioned this story in my reply there and said I'd try to find it again and type it up.

I decided to post it as an OP in case it might get overlooked in the replies, though I'll link from that reply to this thread, too.

This story is from Tony Visconti: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy, pp. 125-126. The references to Denny are to British producer Denny Cordell, who'd met Tony in New York a year earlier and hired him to work in London, a decision that influenced a lot of music later. The reference to Platz in the third paragraph is to David Platz, president of EMI and Denny's boss. Sue and Sonny were session singers, a British duo.

During much of the summer of '68 we were recording more tracks for what became the debut Joe Cocker album. I was Denny's assistant for much of this and contributed the brass arrangement for the cover of Lennon and McCartney's 'With A Little Help From My Friends'. I also played 'chop guitar' on 'Bye Bye Blackbird'; the other guitarist, Jimmy Page, played his solo on a different day, I missed out on my one and only chance to meet him. Still, I'm very proud of that credit: Guitars, Jimmy Page and Tony Visconti.

Like Joe's first single, 'With A Little Help From My Friends' gave Denny similar anxieties; especially as he absolutely lived for Joe Cocker from the moment they met. Cocker would go on to become a significant artist in Denny's future, after he formed Shelter Records with Leon Russell. Denny recorded at least two versions of John and Paul's song from scratch. It ended up with Procol Harum's B.J. Wilson as the final drummer, Jimmy Page as the guitarist, Chris Stainton played both the bass and organ parts, and Sue and Sonny along with Rosetta Hightower were the backing singers. This was an 8-track recording and seven of those tracks were crammed with musical information. There was only one track left for Joe's immortal vocal; Denny drove Joe for eight hours to get what he needed. Every time Joe did a new vocal the previous one had to be erased. I will never forget watching his veins popping in his neck, his face almost purple as late one night he finally recorded the 'perfect' vocal. And even though we were all exhausted and more than a bit insane -- we knew it. We had it.

All that was then needed was the right mix. Denny flew to the USA and spent two weeks attempting to perfect the perfect mix; in his quest he used two different engineers. While in America Denny decided the backing vocals needed to be more authentic and so he put the 8-track master on the new, experimental 12-track machine and crammed 'genuine' black female backing singers onto the song. Denny had tried to get a mix done in London before he left; I also had a go. Denny kept sending mixes back to London until one day in September a desperate Platz came to me and said, 'I have no idea what a good mix or a bad mix is. Can you listen to them all and choose one? We have to release this single, it's going to be a big hit and we can't release it in November because the Beatles, the Stones and every other big pop group is going to release their Christmas singles.'

I spent the day listening to all the new American mixes, which to me sounded progressively worse. I went back to all the British mixes and picked one of mine. It was mixed to all of Denny's dictates -- it was the best mix. Platz told me to get it mastered and the single was released before Denny returned from America. He was initially upset but when it went to No. 1 in no time it made him feel a whole lot better.

Whew. Lot of typing there, and I apologize for any typos. I will proofread it, but I sometimes miss mistakes while proofreading. And though I still type very fast, especially when typing my own stuff when I'm probably typing close to 80 wpm (which is why you sometimes get long posts that I hope aren't too terribly boring), I really hate to copy anything, which always reminds me of typing classes and makes me tense up and make mistakes while trying to avoid them.

Anyway, I wanted people here, especially Joe Cocker fans, to see that and know what he went through to get that perfect vocal recorded.

It's amazing to me that they ever managed to accomplish so much recording with the technology available then.

Here's that track:

[highplainsdem]

1. Just discovered that YouTube has video of Cocker's "Bye Bye Blackbird" --

and as Tony wrote there, he as well as Jimmy Page are credited for guitar, with that included in the YouTube description:

Studio Personnel, Mix Engineer, Associated Performer, Guitar: Tony Visconti
Producer: Denny Cordell
Associated Performer, Drums: Clem Cattini
Associated Performer, Bass Guitar, Piano, Organ: Chris Stainton
Associated Performer, Guitar: Jimmy Page
Associated Performer, Background Vocalist: Madeline Bell
Associated Performer, Background Vocalist: Sunny Wheetman
Associated Performer, Background Vocalist: Rosetta Hightower
Composer: Ray Henderson
Author: Mort Dixon

[Wolf Frankula]

2. Are sure that's Joe Cocker

and not John Belushi?

Wolf

[Drum]

3. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

Another SNL great (an alum at this point): Jimmy Fallon appearing with—and as—Neil Young.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2gkqby