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The Building Blocks in
the Wall of
Sound
HOME
RECORDING MAGAZINE
by David Simons
Home Recording sat down with noted
engineers Stan Ross, Dave Gold, and
For the rest of the story click NEWS
NEWS
Hollywood’s Gold Star Recording Studios - Epicenter of a
Music Revolution
by Kent Crowley
It was just another day of greatness at Gold Star Recording Studios on Santa
Monica Boulevard in Hollywood.
Jules Siegel, "Goodbye Surfing. Hello God." 1967
"Kid, you’re going out there a nobody, but you’re coming back a
star," is the classic show business cliché, and for 33 1/3 years,
Hollywood’s Gold Star Recording Studios founded by David S. Gold and Stan Ross
breathed life into that phrase for hundreds of major artists.
Between 1950 and 1984, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran,
Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Sonny & Cher, Buffalo Springfield, Duane Eddy,
Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, The Ronettes, Dick Dale, The Righteous Brothers,
Iron Butterfly, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass,
The Runaways’ Joan
Jett and Cheri Currie, Meat Loaf, The Champs, The Baha Marimba Band...even Alvin & The
Chipmunks among dozens of others, all had their first introduction to the art of
recording at the trailblazing studio that changed the course of modern music.
Located in the heart of Hollywood, Gold Star Studios’
efforts encompassed the entire entertainment industry and threw open the doors
of unbridled creativity to music, film, television, radio and Broadway artists
and impresarios such as Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, Sammy Fain,
Dimitri Tiomkin; legendary West Coast Jazz artists such as Gerry Mulligan, Chet
Baker, Oscar Moore, The
Hi-Los and the classic swing bands such as Louis Bellson’s.
As the recording ‘home’ of ABC-TV’s first
prime-time Rock & Roll Show ‘Shindig’; Gold Star Studios hosted
virtually every major pop artist of the 1960s.
And for established artists like Bobby Darin, The Who,
The Monkees, The Band, The Go Go’s, The Ramones, The Association, Art
Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Tommy Boyce and others;
Gold Star Studios provided safe creative harbor, an opportunity to revitalize
flagging careers, explore new sonic territories free of ‘bean-counter’
constraints or to pay homage to Gold Star’s rich heritage still
reverberating
in the walls of Gold Star’s ‘perfect’ echo chambers - the walls in
"The Wall of Sound".
And most importantly: Gold Star between 1950 and 1984
generated more National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) and Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) "Songs of the Century" and Grammy Hall
of Fame winners than any other independent studio in America.
Combining David S. Gold’s custom-designed and
hand-crafted technology with Stan Ross’ relentless creativity and
groundbreaking approach to recording as an art form, Gold Star Studios pioneered
or gave the first popular exposure to recording techniques and effects that
define modern music: from the first platinum album to such now - commonplace
audio effects and techniques as phasing, flanging, automatic double-tracking and
others.
Before they were two of modern music’s most esteemed
geniuses, Dave Gold and Stan Ross were two plucky, street-smart kids who
overcome almost insurmountable odds to build their dream studio - gleefully
hoodwinking Hollywood’s tight-knit songwriting community in the process.
Unencumbered by major record label restrictions, Gold
Star’s freewheeling "recording-is-art’ approach ultimately changed the
course of modern music and modern recording studio design while wrestling
America’s recording capital crown from New York, Nashville and Memphis.
Featured in hundreds of books, hit films,
documentaries, accredited college courses and magazine articles; Gold Star
Studios pioneered the single most important innovation in 20th Century music:
what Sir George Martin called "the recording - studio - as -
instrument" concept.
In the 1950s, recording equipment and console technology was primarily
designed for radio or television uses and available through professional audio
contractors. Today, entry level, semi-pro and professional recording technology
and software is as far away as your nearest music store and is as essential a
tool for songwriters, composers and musicians as pens and paper.
Today, entry-level musical instrument, amplification
and effects technologies routinely incorporate the sounds and effects that
shocked listeners and revolutionized the entertainment industry decades ago when
they first appeared on Gold Star recordings.
Today, recordings from "Summertime Blues"
though "Pet Sounds" through "End of the Century" still
resonate today with listeners of all ages because two brilliant, upstart Los
Angeles kids in 1950 envisioned the future of music - and made it happen at Gold
Star Studios.
Welcome to the website that celebrates the epicenter of
modern music: Hollywood’s Gold Star Recording Studios - where hundreds of
hungry young artists and esteemed ‘elder statesmen’ all captured their Days
of Greatness!
SOME HISTORIC GOLD STAR ‘FIRSTS’
(* indicates National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) and Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) "Songs of the Century")
La Bamba - Ritchie Valens* (first Spanish language Rock & Roll hit record) Oh,
Donna - Ritchie Valens* (first ‘flanged’ or automatically
double-tracked hit record)
I Got You Babe - Sonny & Cher* (first Sonny & Cher hit)
To Know Him is to Love Him - The Teddy Bears (first Phil Spector hit)
Inna Gada da Vida - Iron Butterfly (first platinum album)
If I Were a Carpenter - Bobby Darin (Bobby Darin’s comeback hit)
This Guy's in Love with You - Herb Alpert & Bert Bacharach (Herb Alpert’s
first hit as a vocalist)
Grazing' in the Grass - Hugh Masakela (first American hit by African group)
Tequila - The Champs* (co-produced and co-arranged by Stan Ross)
All I Really Want to Do - Cher (Cher’s first solo hit)
Utee - Rosa Lee Brooks (Jimi Hendrix’ first recorded guitar solo)
He's a Rebel - The Crystals (first "Wall of Sound")
The Birds and the Bees - Jules Aiken (first ‘chorused’ guitar on a hit
record)
That's All I Know- Art Garfunkle (Art Garfunkel’s first solo hit)
Zip A Dee Do Dah - Bobb E. Soxx & The Blue Jeans (first distorted lead
guitar on a hit record)
The Big Hurt - Toni Fisher (first phase-shifting or ‘phasing’ effect)
The Happy Whistler - Don Robertson (improvised on the spot by Stan’s
innovative volume control technique)
Jungle Hop - Don & Dewey (first electronically distorted guitar)
The Runaways - The Runaways - (First album by all-female Rock & Roll band)
I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times - The Beach Boys (first use of Theramin on
a pop record)
And some other fun Gold Star facts:
* David Gold created the effect and in some respects the idea that culminated in
the creation of "Alvin & The Chipmunks", which
is why the ‘father’ was named ‘David’;
* As a teenager, Stan Ross studied recording from a pioneer of modern disc
recording - Bert B. Gottschalk;
* Unlike virtually every other studio in the western world, David personally
designed and hand-crafted the technology on which the classic Gold Star and
‘Wall of Sound’ recordings were recorded;
* Stan innovated a custom filtering effect that allowed Rosemary Clooney to
‘duet’ with her recently deceased sister during the filming of her 1980s
biopic;
* The ‘Wall of Sound’ was the sound of walls and David’s pioneering
flexible recording console designs. Gold not only designed the chamber, but
personally hand-crafted the acoustical wall coating. The legendary Gold Star
‘perfect’ echo chamber was the result of years of painstaking
experimentation and actually survived the March, 1984 fire that destroyed
Hollywood’s most famous and influential recording studio;
* Although recorded at a rival studio, Stan Ross was called upon to salvage what
later became one of the most important songs of the 1960s - "For What
It’s Worth" by Buffalo Springfield - when the band was unable to come up
with a satisfactory performance . Stan fashioned a ’drum’ from a guitar wrapped in
paper supplemented by a kick drum played by hand. It worked. Stan approved
the final mix and, after two failed singles, Buffalo Springfield finally had a
career;
* David’s innovative studio designs were later appropriated by other
studios
- including Herb Alpert’s A&M studio B. Gold Star was one of the very
first ‘compact’ studios that followed the logic of efficient sound
reproduction rather than the conventional cavernous record company studios
designed to accommodate big bands and orchestras;
* One of Stan’s earliest field recording assignments was for then -Congressman
Richard M. Nixon’s infamous ‘Pink Lady’ campaign;
* David personally recorded Ronald Reagan’s promos with the stars of each
weeks show for four seasons of the historic ‘General Electric’ TV broadcasts
at his ranch, Universal or his home. GE Theater and his speaking engagements
were a training ground that led to
Reagan’s first successful run for California governor and then President;
* Stan once produced a hit record by utilizing the controls to ‘follow’ a
bandleader who was teaching a melody to the various assembled musicians prior to
the actual session.
* After he attained stardom, Neil Young insisted on David Gold personally
mastering all of Neil’s solo albums to ensure the highest quality sound
reproduction.
* When The Champs were unable to complete the B-side to a recording, Stan
improvised a new arrangement on the spot and gave them their one and only hit:
“Tequila”.
©copyright 2002 Gold
Star Recording Studios, David Gold