Curt Boettcher
Encyclopedia
Curt Boettcher was an American
singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer
from Wisconsin
. His career spanned 1964 to 1983. (In his later years he altered the spelling of his name to "Boetcher" and "Becher," before reverting to the original spelling of Boettcher.)
Boettcher was a pivotal figure in the mid-1960s emergence of Sunshine pop
, influencing Brian Wilson
before the production of Pet Sounds
. Boettcher worked with The Association
, Gary Usher
, The Millennium
, Sagittarius
, and The Beach Boys
, among others. Curt Boettcher sang some background vocals on The Byrds
' The Notorious Byrd Brothers
album, a Gary Usher production.
, and a third (which apparently found them heading in a prototypical folk-rock direction) was recorded but not released. Under the influence of the recording producer Bob Morgan, the vocals were mixed up-front and enriched by double-tracking to sound like six voices. Morgan engineered a few easy-listening vocals where he used this technique. The group added drummer Ron Edgar (who later joined The Music Machine
) prior to recording their third album. (Edgar later worked with Boettcher in the bands The Ballroom and The Millennium.) According to music historian Joseph Lanza, the GoldeBriars' material tended to follow the standard folk formula of songs such as "Shenandoah," but "acoustically, their style blended the homespun and the sugarspun." Boettcher arranged a large number of the group's songs, but he also contributed as a songwriter. Bob Morgan, quoted in Lanza's Vanilla Pop, writes that Boettcher's childhood as a navy brat influenced songs like "Haiku" on the album Straight Ahead!. But the largest influence on Boettcher came from Bobb Goldsteinn
, an accomplished songwriter who would become "Boettcher's manager [and] confidant," as well as the lyricist behind some of the GoldeBriars' greatest hits. Goldsteinn took the group under his wing in 1964, on the heels of his success with the pioneering folk-dixie song "Washington Square", and helped set the groundwork for "Along Comes Mary" and "Cherish" by moving Boettcher into a more "pop" direction.
Following the demise of The GoldeBriars, Boettcher moved into production and songwriting work for others, including Tommy Roe
and The Association, as well as forming the group The Ballroom. Though the group signed to Warner Bros.
and recorded an album in 1966, it remained unreleased in its entirety until 2001. Curt Boettcher met both Brian Wilson and producer Gary Usher while working on the first single of Lee Mallory
, "That's the Way It's Gonna Be", issued on Valiant Records in 1966. Usher bought Boettcher's contract and signed him as a staff producer for Columbia Records. Usher called Boettcher to help Usher on his own project, Sagittarius. Some of the songs came from The Ballroom, while others were re-recorded with new arrangements.
Claudia, Boettcher's wife, has said that although Tandyn Almer wrote "Along Comes Mary", it was a very slow song. Curt worked with Almer, sang the vocal, and helped revise it to the up tempo version that was then given to The Association and became the group's hit single from their debut album that Boettcher produced.
Gary Usher's clout, as well as Boettcher's successful productions for The Association and Tommy Roe, allowed Boettcher to start working on his own studio project for Columbia Records
. In 1967, having been given carte blanche, he assembled a group of musicians and songwriters that he knew (including Sandy Salisbury
, Lee Mallory, Joey Stec
, and Michael Fennelly
), as well as a flank of top Los Angeles session musicians, and started recording an album under the group moniker "The Millennium". The album was co-produced by Keith Olsen
, who was a friend of Curt Boettcher since his college days. Their only album, Begin, was the most expensive album that Columbia had released at that point, and despite the release of several singles, it was a commercial failure. This has been partially attributed to Boettcher's reluctance to tour. The group did attempt a few live performances in Los Angeles, but the difficulty of reasonably replicating the album on stage presented a large enough challenge to disinterest Boettcher. Although the single "It's You" did become a substantial hit in several regions, there was no group to support it. "5 AM" became a hit as well, in the Philippines
.
The group recorded one final single, "Just About The Same" b/w "Blight", which wasn't issued at the time.
Soon after The Millennium broke up, Boettcher's friend Gary Usher, fired by Columbia Records, started a record label called Together Records. He brought in Boettcher and Olsen as staff producers, and Boettcher was involved in several projects for the label. These included his first attempt at a solo album, as well as producing recordings for a Sandy Salisbury solo album, contributing to the second Sagittarius album, and co-producing with Olsen "The Moses Lake Recordings" by The Bards, which was a weird mixture of garage rock with psychedelia and sunshine pop elements. Though the Sagittarius album, entitled The Blue Marble
, did see release (and also notched a minor entry on the singles chart with a cover of The Beach Boys' "In My Room"), and several Sandy Salisbury singles were released, the label failed before any of his other work could be completed (though it was eventually released in the early 2000s). Among other Boettcher productions remaining unreleased are sessions for Twice Nicely, the band of the legendary Californian guitarist Waddy Wachtel
and the singer Judy Pulver (both author of Malachi Starhttp://waddywachtelinfo.com/CurtBoettcher.html that we can find on the only official solo album of Curt Boettcher), a single for Don Grady of The Yellow Balloon fame, sessions produced with Gary Usher of a duo of two guitarists called Tom and Dick (Dick being the songwriter David Batteau
who would wrote songs with and for Curt Boettcher in his California days). On the session of Tom and Dick, Ron Edgar was the drummer.
Following this, and without having a substantial hit in any form for several years, Boettcher's career started to stall. In 1971, he signed a deal with Elektra Records
at the insistence of Jac Holzman
, who was a huge fan of Begin. Even after telling Holzman that the album would take a long time to produce, Holzman still insisted, and Boettcher reluctantly started working on a solo album. His influence was soon bolstered after meeting a young multi-instrumentalist named Web Burrel, and taking a cue from the early entirely-solo albums by Emitt Rhodes
(the mixdown engineer on Rhodes' 1973 album, Farewell to Paradise), Boettcher decided to record the album in a similar fashion, using as few musicians as possible. After almost two years of work, There's An Innocent Face
http://waddywachtelinfo.com/CurtBoettcher.html was released in 1973. It differed from his early work (although, as posthumous collections show, it was a continuation of the direction that The Millennium had taken with their unreleased recordings), as it was a collection of songs with country
, sunshine pop, arena rock
, and folk
stylings. It was another commercial failure.
He attempted to record a follow-up album, tentatively titled Chicken Little Was Right, but it was never completed. A CD reissue by Rev-Ola Records shows that the arrangements were still to be worked out for most of the songs.
His output, both as a musician and producer, was severely curtailed afterwards, and he did little work during his last years. His best-known work following There's an Innocent Face is a 10-minute disco
version of the song "Here Comes the Night" by The Beach Boys, which was a moderate hit in 1979 and was included on L.A. (Light Album)
; it was a remake of the original recording from their 1967 album Wild Honey
. Curt Becher also did a disco version of Shortnin' Bread for The Beach Boys that can be found on some bootlegs. He also produced Mike Love
's solo album Looking Back With Love
. Others productions were largely ignored, such as the Geno Washington
album That's Why Hollywood Loves Me and The Diamonds' Live And Well album. He never had the opportunity to revive his career, and died in 1987 at Los Angeles County Hospital while being treated for a lung infection. Prior to his death, he set up the Valley Studios Center with musician Mark Antacky and engineer Dave Jenkins, and was recording music with Randy California
, the guitarist of Spirit
, that has never been released.
), and The Millennium's Begin is generally regarded nowadays as one of the finest pop albums from the late 60s, and has been described as a "bona fide lost classic".
It's quite hard to estimate the quality of Curt Boettcher productions as there is still a lot to be heard, such as the Kaleidoscope (the American group) sessions he produced in 1966.
Producer:
Related projects:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
from Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. His career spanned 1964 to 1983. (In his later years he altered the spelling of his name to "Boetcher" and "Becher," before reverting to the original spelling of Boettcher.)
Boettcher was a pivotal figure in the mid-1960s emergence of Sunshine pop
Sunshine pop
Sunshine pop is a subgenre of pop music originating in the United States, mainly the state of California, in the mid-1960s. Sunshine pop, by nature, is cheerful and upbeat music which is characterised by warm sounds, prominent vocal harmonies, as well as sophisticated productions...
, influencing Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
before the production of Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...
. Boettcher worked with The Association
The Association
The Association is a pop music band from California in the folk rock or soft rock genre. During the 1960s, they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival...
, Gary Usher
Gary Usher
Gary Usher was an American surf rock musician, songwriter, and record producer.-Biography:Usher's early life was spent in Grafton, Massachusetts. He attended Norcross Grammar School with his sister, Sandra, who was in the same class and was likely his twin. Gary was kiddingly called "Chicken Feed"...
, The Millennium
The Millennium
The Millennium was an American super group based in California, who were conceived by Curt Boettcher. The group consisted of psychedelic rock musicians, and they incorporated sunshine pop harmonies....
, Sagittarius
Sagittarius (band)
Sagittarius was an American late 1960s studio group, devised by the record producer and songwriter, Gary Usher.-History:Usher had been involved with music as a songwriter since the early 1960s , and soon branched out into production work...
, and The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
, among others. Curt Boettcher sang some background vocals on The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
' The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Notorious Byrd Brothers is the fifth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in January 1968 on Columbia Records . Musically, the album represents the pinnacle of The Byrds' psychedelic experimentation, with the band blending together elements of folk rock, psychedelic rock,...
album, a Gary Usher production.
History
Before forming The GoldeBriars, Boettcher produced a few recordings, but not in a professional setting. He formed the GoldeBriars in 1963 with the Holmberg sisters and Ron Neilsson. They recorded two albums released by Epic RecordsEpic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
, and a third (which apparently found them heading in a prototypical folk-rock direction) was recorded but not released. Under the influence of the recording producer Bob Morgan, the vocals were mixed up-front and enriched by double-tracking to sound like six voices. Morgan engineered a few easy-listening vocals where he used this technique. The group added drummer Ron Edgar (who later joined The Music Machine
The Music Machine
The Music Machine was an American garage rock and psychedelic band from the late 1960s, headed by singer-songwriter Sean Bonniwell and based in Los Angeles. The band sound was often defined by fuzzy guitars and a Farfisa organ...
) prior to recording their third album. (Edgar later worked with Boettcher in the bands The Ballroom and The Millennium.) According to music historian Joseph Lanza, the GoldeBriars' material tended to follow the standard folk formula of songs such as "Shenandoah," but "acoustically, their style blended the homespun and the sugarspun." Boettcher arranged a large number of the group's songs, but he also contributed as a songwriter. Bob Morgan, quoted in Lanza's Vanilla Pop, writes that Boettcher's childhood as a navy brat influenced songs like "Haiku" on the album Straight Ahead!. But the largest influence on Boettcher came from Bobb Goldsteinn
Bobb Goldsteinn
Bobb Goldsteinn is an American showman, songwriter, and artist. As a pop pioneer, he wrote The Village Stompers' international hit "Washington Square" and produced The GoldeBriars, Curt Boettcher's original Sunshine Pop singing group.-Early years:Bobb Goldsteinn was born in Philadelphia, where he...
, an accomplished songwriter who would become "Boettcher's manager [and] confidant," as well as the lyricist behind some of the GoldeBriars' greatest hits. Goldsteinn took the group under his wing in 1964, on the heels of his success with the pioneering folk-dixie song "Washington Square", and helped set the groundwork for "Along Comes Mary" and "Cherish" by moving Boettcher into a more "pop" direction.
Following the demise of The GoldeBriars, Boettcher moved into production and songwriting work for others, including Tommy Roe
Tommy Roe
Tommy Roe is an American pop music singer-songwriter.Best-remembered for his hits "Sheila" and "Dizzy" , critic Bill Dahl wrote that Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the late 1960s, but Roe cut some pretty decent rockers along the way, especially early in his...
and The Association, as well as forming the group The Ballroom. Though the group signed to Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and recorded an album in 1966, it remained unreleased in its entirety until 2001. Curt Boettcher met both Brian Wilson and producer Gary Usher while working on the first single of Lee Mallory
Lee Mallory
Lee Mallory was a singer, songwriter and guitarist who was part of such projects as The Millennium and Sagittarius. His most successful single was a cover of the Phil Ochs/Bob Gibson song "That's The Way It's Going To Be". The song, produced by Curt Boettcher, reached #86 on the charts and was a...
, "That's the Way It's Gonna Be", issued on Valiant Records in 1966. Usher bought Boettcher's contract and signed him as a staff producer for Columbia Records. Usher called Boettcher to help Usher on his own project, Sagittarius. Some of the songs came from The Ballroom, while others were re-recorded with new arrangements.
Claudia, Boettcher's wife, has said that although Tandyn Almer wrote "Along Comes Mary", it was a very slow song. Curt worked with Almer, sang the vocal, and helped revise it to the up tempo version that was then given to The Association and became the group's hit single from their debut album that Boettcher produced.
Gary Usher's clout, as well as Boettcher's successful productions for The Association and Tommy Roe, allowed Boettcher to start working on his own studio project for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. In 1967, having been given carte blanche, he assembled a group of musicians and songwriters that he knew (including Sandy Salisbury
Graham Salisbury
Graham Salisbury is an American author. He has written many books including Under the Blood Red Sun, his most famous novel. He lives with his family in Lake Oswego, Oregon....
, Lee Mallory, Joey Stec
Joey Stec
Joey Stec is an American songwriter, singer, guitarist, producer and president of Sonic Past Music.- Biography :In 1967, he became a member of progressive rock band The Millennium. In 1969 he joined the The Blues Magoos, and formed the The Dependables...
, and Michael Fennelly
Michael Fennelly
Michael Fennelly is an American musician known for his work as a singer and songwriter in the 1960s and 1970s, notably in The Millennium and Crabby Appleton....
), as well as a flank of top Los Angeles session musicians, and started recording an album under the group moniker "The Millennium". The album was co-produced by Keith Olsen
Keith Olsen
Keith Olsen is one of the most prolific and successful music producers in the industry.-Career:With over 120 albums produced netting a 1 in 4 Gold or better ratio, of which more than 24 are Platinum or better, and more than 14 are multi-Platinum, sales from Keith Olsen’s work exceeds 110 million...
, who was a friend of Curt Boettcher since his college days. Their only album, Begin, was the most expensive album that Columbia had released at that point, and despite the release of several singles, it was a commercial failure. This has been partially attributed to Boettcher's reluctance to tour. The group did attempt a few live performances in Los Angeles, but the difficulty of reasonably replicating the album on stage presented a large enough challenge to disinterest Boettcher. Although the single "It's You" did become a substantial hit in several regions, there was no group to support it. "5 AM" became a hit as well, in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
The group recorded one final single, "Just About The Same" b/w "Blight", which wasn't issued at the time.
Soon after The Millennium broke up, Boettcher's friend Gary Usher, fired by Columbia Records, started a record label called Together Records. He brought in Boettcher and Olsen as staff producers, and Boettcher was involved in several projects for the label. These included his first attempt at a solo album, as well as producing recordings for a Sandy Salisbury solo album, contributing to the second Sagittarius album, and co-producing with Olsen "The Moses Lake Recordings" by The Bards, which was a weird mixture of garage rock with psychedelia and sunshine pop elements. Though the Sagittarius album, entitled The Blue Marble
The Blue Marble (album)
The Blue Marble was the second Sagittarius album, released in 1969 by the newly formed Together Records. The title song is by Lee Mallory and Gary Usher. By and large a Gary Usher creation, the album remained in obscurity for most of its post-release, due to the collapse of Usher's Together...
, did see release (and also notched a minor entry on the singles chart with a cover of The Beach Boys' "In My Room"), and several Sandy Salisbury singles were released, the label failed before any of his other work could be completed (though it was eventually released in the early 2000s). Among other Boettcher productions remaining unreleased are sessions for Twice Nicely, the band of the legendary Californian guitarist Waddy Wachtel
Waddy Wachtel
Robert "Waddy" Wachtel is an American musician, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work...
and the singer Judy Pulver (both author of Malachi Starhttp://waddywachtelinfo.com/CurtBoettcher.html that we can find on the only official solo album of Curt Boettcher), a single for Don Grady of The Yellow Balloon fame, sessions produced with Gary Usher of a duo of two guitarists called Tom and Dick (Dick being the songwriter David Batteau
David Batteau
David Batteau is an American singer-songwriter. Batteau is the son of Blanca Batteau and Dr. Dwight Wayne Batteau, of Harvard University and Tufts University. He is the brother of singer/songwriter Robin Batteau.-History:...
who would wrote songs with and for Curt Boettcher in his California days). On the session of Tom and Dick, Ron Edgar was the drummer.
Following this, and without having a substantial hit in any form for several years, Boettcher's career started to stall. In 1971, he signed a deal with Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
at the insistence of Jac Holzman
Jac Holzman
Jac Holzman was the founder, chief executive officer and head of both Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records.-Biography:He founded Elektra Records in his St. John's College dorm room in 1950 and Nonesuch Records in 1964...
, who was a huge fan of Begin. Even after telling Holzman that the album would take a long time to produce, Holzman still insisted, and Boettcher reluctantly started working on a solo album. His influence was soon bolstered after meeting a young multi-instrumentalist named Web Burrel, and taking a cue from the early entirely-solo albums by Emitt Rhodes
Emitt Rhodes
Emitt Lynn Rhodes is an American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer born February 25, 1950 in Decatur, Illinois. When he was five his family moved to Hawthorne, California. Considered by many as "the one man Beatles," his solo recordings of the early 1970s show a clear...
(the mixdown engineer on Rhodes' 1973 album, Farewell to Paradise), Boettcher decided to record the album in a similar fashion, using as few musicians as possible. After almost two years of work, There's An Innocent Face
There's an Innocent Face
There's an Innocent Face was the only solo album that Curt Boettcher ever finished during his life. He was assisted throughout the recording by a young multi-instrumentalist named Webb Burrel. He was somewhat enamored by the early Emitt Rhodes solo albums, and wanted to make the album in a similar...
http://waddywachtelinfo.com/CurtBoettcher.html was released in 1973. It differed from his early work (although, as posthumous collections show, it was a continuation of the direction that The Millennium had taken with their unreleased recordings), as it was a collection of songs with country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, sunshine pop, arena rock
Arena rock
Arena rock is a term used to describe rock music that utilised large arena venues, particularly sports venues, for concerts or series of concerts linked in tours...
, and folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
stylings. It was another commercial failure.
He attempted to record a follow-up album, tentatively titled Chicken Little Was Right, but it was never completed. A CD reissue by Rev-Ola Records shows that the arrangements were still to be worked out for most of the songs.
His output, both as a musician and producer, was severely curtailed afterwards, and he did little work during his last years. His best-known work following There's an Innocent Face is a 10-minute disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
version of the song "Here Comes the Night" by The Beach Boys, which was a moderate hit in 1979 and was included on L.A. (Light Album)
L.A. (Light Album)
L.A. is The Beach Boys' twenty-third studio album, their last released in the 1970's, and their first as part of their contract with CBS Records...
; it was a remake of the original recording from their 1967 album Wild Honey
Wild Honey (album)
-Singles:* "Wild Honey" b/w "Wind Chimes" , 23 October 1967 US #31; UK #29* "Darlin'" b/w "Here Today" , 18 December 1967 US #19; UK #11....
. Curt Becher also did a disco version of Shortnin' Bread for The Beach Boys that can be found on some bootlegs. He also produced Mike Love
Mike Love
Michael Edward "Mike" Love is an American singer/songwriter and musician with The Beach Boys. He was a founding member of the band along with his cousins Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine, and continues to perform with the band to the present day...
's solo album Looking Back With Love
Looking Back with Love
Looking Back With Love is Mike Love's only solo album. It was released in 1981 under Boardwalk Records. The track "Be My Baby" was produced by Brian Wilson, who also sings background vocals on the cut....
. Others productions were largely ignored, such as the Geno Washington
Geno Washington
Geno Washington is an American R&B singer who released five albums with The Ram Jam Band between 1966 and 1969, and eight solo albums beginning in 1976.-Early to late 1960s:...
album That's Why Hollywood Loves Me and The Diamonds' Live And Well album. He never had the opportunity to revive his career, and died in 1987 at Los Angeles County Hospital while being treated for a lung infection. Prior to his death, he set up the Valley Studios Center with musician Mark Antacky and engineer Dave Jenkins, and was recording music with Randy California
Randy California
Randy California was a guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the original members of the rock group Spirit, formed in 1967.-Biography:...
, the guitarist of Spirit
Spirit (band)
Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.- The original lineup :...
, that has never been released.
Critical opinion
Critical opinion of Boettcher's work and importance varies, as some find his work outside of The Millennium to be rather lightweight and aloof, arguing that the technical quality of his productions and arrangements are often offset by subpar material (style versus substance). His output has achieved a substantial cult following, particularly amongst sunshine pop aficionados and in countries where sunshine pop is popular (such as JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
), and The Millennium's Begin is generally regarded nowadays as one of the finest pop albums from the late 60s, and has been described as a "bona fide lost classic".
It's quite hard to estimate the quality of Curt Boettcher productions as there is still a lot to be heard, such as the Kaleidoscope (the American group) sessions he produced in 1966.
Discography
- The GoldeBriars -The GoldeBriarsThe GoldeBriarsThe Goldebriars were an early 1960s folk quartet, which is most notable for including a young Curt Boettcher as a guitarist and vocalist. The group also included two sisters, Dotti and Sheri Holmberg, with Ron Neilson, as lead guitarist and banjo player...
(1964, Epic) - The GoldeBriars -Straight AheadStraight AheadStraight Ahead may refer to:* Straight-ahead jazz*Straight Ahead , 1961*Straight Ahead , 1961*Straight Ahead!, a 1964 The Goldebriars album*Straight Ahead , 1968...
(1964, Epic) - The Millennium -Begin (1968, Columbia)
- Curt Boettcher -There's an Innocent FaceThere's an Innocent FaceThere's an Innocent Face was the only solo album that Curt Boettcher ever finished during his life. He was assisted throughout the recording by a young multi-instrumentalist named Webb Burrel. He was somewhat enamored by the early Emitt Rhodes solo albums, and wanted to make the album in a similar...
(1973, Elektra) - Curt Boettcher -Chicken Little Was Right (2004, Revola)
Producer:
- The Association - And Then... Along Comes the AssociationAnd Then... Along Comes the Association-Credits:*Produced by Curt Boettcher for Our Productions*Engineered by Gary Paxton and Pete Romano...
(1966, Valiant) - Tommy Roe - It's Now Winters Day (1967, ABC)
- Jameson - Color Him In (1967, Verve)
- Eternity's Children - Eternity's Children (1968, Tower)
- Sagittarius - Present TensePresent TensePresent Tense is the first Sagittarius album, released in 1968 by Columbia Records. Though the record was basically a Gary Usher solo project, he enlisted many top LA session musicians, and heavily utilized Curt Boettcher as a songwriter, musician, vocalist, and producer Present Tense is the first...
(1968, Columbia) - Sagittarius - The Blue MarbleThe Blue Marble (album)The Blue Marble was the second Sagittarius album, released in 1969 by the newly formed Together Records. The title song is by Lee Mallory and Gary Usher. By and large a Gary Usher creation, the album remained in obscurity for most of its post-release, due to the collapse of Usher's Together...
(1969, Together) - Song - AlbumAlbumAn album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
(1971, MGM) - Mike Love - Looking Back With LoveLooking Back with LoveLooking Back With Love is Mike Love's only solo album. It was released in 1981 under Boardwalk Records. The track "Be My Baby" was produced by Brian Wilson, who also sings background vocals on the cut....
(1981, Boardwalk)
Related projects:
- Your Gang - Your Gang (1966, Mercury)
- Friar Tuck - Friar Tuck and his Psychedelic Guitar (1967, Mercury)
- Chad & Jeremy - Of Cabbages and KingsOf Cabbages and KingsOf Cabbages and Kings is an American Noise rock band from Chicago, Illinois. Its name is a quote from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.-Band history:...
(1967, Columbia) - Chad & Jeremy - The Ark (1968, Columbia)
- The Byrds - The Notorious Byrd BrothersThe Notorious Byrd BrothersThe Notorious Byrd Brothers is the fifth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in January 1968 on Columbia Records . Musically, the album represents the pinnacle of The Byrds' psychedelic experimentation, with the band blending together elements of folk rock, psychedelic rock,...
(1968, Columbia) - Paul Revere & The Raiders - Hard 'N' Heavy (With Marshmellow) (1969, Columbia)
- Michele - Saturn Rings (1969, Mercury)
- Emitt Rhodes - Emitt RhodesEmitt RhodesEmitt Lynn Rhodes is an American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer born February 25, 1950 in Decatur, Illinois. When he was five his family moved to Hawthorne, California. Considered by many as "the one man Beatles," his solo recordings of the early 1970s show a clear...
(1970, Dunhill) - Emitt Rhodes - Farewell to ParadiseFarewell to ParadiseFarewell to Paradise is the fourth and final solo album by Emitt Rhodes. An eclectic mixture of rock, pop, jazz-funk and soul."Those That Die" is the B-side of "Tame The Lion" single, a furious anti-war song...
(1973, Dunhill) - Andy Goldmark - Andy Goldmark (1973, Warner)
- Elton John - Blue MovesBlue MovesBlue Moves is the eleventh studio album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1976. It was also his second double album , and his first album released by his own Rocket Records Ltd...
(1976, MCA) - Bruce Johnston - Going PublicGoing PublicGoing Public is the fifth studio album by Christian pop rock band Newsboys, released in 1994. The album was the band's second commercial success , and it featured "Shine," one of their most popular songs....
(1977, Columbia) - Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean BluePacific Ocean BluePacific Ocean Blue is Dennis Wilson's only solo album, released in 1977. After several attempts, starting in 1970, to release his own project, some of which made it to the finished album, Wilson recorded the bulk of Pacific Ocean Blue in the months spanning the fall of 1976 to the following spring...
(1977, CBS/Caribou)