Shel Talmy
Birth nameSheldon Talmy
Born (1937-08-11) August 11, 1937
OriginChicago, Illinois, United States
GenresRock, folk, folk rock, pop music
Occupation(s)
Years active1959–present
Websitewww.sheltalmy.com

Sheldon Talmy (born August 11, 1937) is an American record producer, songwriter and arranger, best known for his work in the UK in the 1960s with the Who, the Kinks and many others.[1]

Talmy arranged and produced hits such as "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, "My Generation" by the Who, and "Friday on My Mind" by the Easybeats. He also played guitar or percussion on some of his productions.

Early career

Talmy was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and from an early age he was interested both in music (early rock, rhythm and blues, folk music[2] and country music) as well as the technology of the recording studio. At the age of 13, Talmy appeared regularly on the popular NBC-TV television show Quiz Kids, a question-and-answer program from Chicago. He told Chris Ambrose of Tokion Magazine, "What it did for me was that I absolutely knew that this was the business I wanted to be in."

He graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles in June 1955, the same high school attended by songwriter Jerry Leiber, A&M label owner and performer Herb Alpert, Michael Jackson, and producer Phil Spector.

After working for ABC Television, he became a recording engineer at Conway Studios in Los Angeles where owner/engineer Phil Yeend trained him on three-track recording equipment. Three days later, Talmy had his first assignment, producing the record "Falling Star" by Debbie Sharron. According to journalist Chris Hunt, Talmy's move from television to audio recording was a result of "the rapid deterioration of his eyesight."[3]

At Conway, he worked with Gary Paxton, producer of The Hollywood Argyles "Alley Oop", surf band the Marketts, vocal group The Castells, R&B pioneers Rene Hall and Bumps Blackwell, and the elite group of session musicians famously-known as the "Wrecking Crew".

Talmy and Yeend often experimented with production techniques. They played with separation and recording levels and built baffles and platforms covered with carpet, using them to isolate vocals and instruments.

In an interview with Terri Stone in Music Producers, Talmy recalled that Yeend "would let me do whatever I wanted after our regular sessions were over, so I used to work out miking techniques for how to make drums sound better or guitars sound better. ... There really weren't many precedents, so we were all doing it for the first time together. It was all totally new."

British career

In the summer of 1962, Talmy went to Britain, supposedly for a 5-week European vacation. He went with little money and thought he might be able to work for a couple of weeks to earn some more.

Nick Venet, a good friend and producer at Capitol Records, gave him a stack of acetates to take along with him and use as if he had produced them, if it could get him a job.

Talmy met with Dick Rowe, head of Decca Records A&R, and played two of the acetates he was given to use. They were "Music in the Air" by Lou Rawls, and "Surfin' Safari" by The Beach Boys.[4] Rowe told him, "you start today".

Talmy joined Decca Records as an independent record producer (among the first in the UK) working with Decca's pop performers, such as Irish trio the Bachelors, leading to the release of the hit single "Charmaine".[4]

Once he struck out as an independent, Talmy also had success in the United States with his productions for Chad & Jeremy, including "A Summer Song" and "Willow Weep for Me"

In 1963 Talmy met Robert Wace, the manager of a group called the Ravens who later changed their name to the Kinks. He brought the Kinks into the studio and their third single, "You Really Got Me", became a landmark recording.

A long-running controversy about the song revolved around the use of future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page as a session musician on many of the Kinks' early recordings - and on the seminal guitar solo on "You Really Got Me" in particular. In an interview with rock writer and critic Richie Unterberger, Talmy set the record straight: "You know how many times I've answered that question? I wish I had a buck for each one. Jimmy Page did not play the solo on 'You Really Got Me,' he played rhythm guitar. He never played anything but rhythm guitar on that plus [the Kinks'] first album session. On 'You Really Got Me,' I used Bobby Graham on drums. Page played guitar because, at the time, Ray didn't want to play guitar, [as] he wanted to concentrate on his vocals. So I said, fine, let me get a rhythm guitarist, 'cause Dave [Davies] was playing the leads, and so I hired Jimmy."[5] Whoever started the rumor, Page no longer takes credit.

Talmy produced many more hits with the group up to 1967 including "All Day and All of the Night", "Tired of Waiting for You", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Well Respected Man", "Sunny Afternoon", and "Waterloo Sunset".

The Who and "My Generation"

Pete Townshend, guitarist of a band called the High Numbers, liked "You Really Got Me" so much that he wrote a similar number, "I Can't Explain", so that Talmy might produce his group. When the song was played over the telephone to Talmy, he agreed to hear the band.[6] Now called The Who, they were rehearsing at a church hall, and Talmy says it took about eight bars before he said "Yes!" The band was signed to his production company, Orbit-Universal. Talmy got the band a contract with Decca in America and with their subsidiary Brunswick in Britain, and produced recordings modeled on the band's high-energy live performances.

The intentional feedback on the band's second single, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", caused U.S. Decca executives to send back the recording, thinking that they had received a faulty pressing, and Talmy had to assure them it was intentional.[4]

Talmy and the Who created a historic recording in "My Generation", the group's third release. Entertainment Weekly later called "My Generation" the "quintessential rock single".

Talmy also produced The Who's first album, My Generation, a collection of original songs and R&B covers. However, tensions arose between Talmy and one of the band's managers, Kit Lambert.

Lambert 'fired' Talmy, but Talmy sued for breach of contract and won. Talmy called it a pyrrhic victory, as he would no longer produce any records by the Who.

Talmy held the original session tapes to the My Generation album, but a re-release was held up for years because of the ongoing dispute. This prevented a proper re-release of the LP until 2002, when things were finally settled in Talmy's favor. My Generation was subsequently remixed by Talmy and issued on compact disc with bonus tracks.

In his book Before I Get Old, Dave Marsh commented that the records that Talmy made with the Who "are technically among the best that the band ever did, and they have a distinct, original sound."

Thanks to his work with the Who and the Kinks, Talmy is considered at the forefront of the British music scene in the mid-1960s.

Production style and work with other artists

In a 1989 interview with writer Chris Hunt, Talmy described his approach to music production: "There are two categories of producers. Let me explain. First, one produces an artist the way 'they' want to hear to them, without a whole lot of regard to what the artist is really like, or how they see themselves. I'd like to think that I'm in the other category. I liked the artists that I produced – a lot, or else I wouldn't produce them, and what I wanted to do was enhance what they do already. I just wanted to make it better, more polished, put the best frame around it I could. The other 'category' of producers are divided between what I subscribe to, 'hands-on', i.e. being there from inception, and all through the recording to mastering."[7]

In another interview with musician/producer/songwriter Artie Wayne, Talmy dismissed the idea that great music production relies primarily on some kind of personal "magic": "[Laughing] The productions don't just materialize out of a clear blue sky. I spent a lot of time in the studio working out how to isolate instruments, how to mic drums, how to do all kinds of stuff. When I arrived in London, I started recording drums using twelve mics, which I had worked out how to do in Los Angeles. Everybody in London, at the time, were only using three or four mics. They said I couldn't do that because it would (create) phase. I said, 'Just listen to it, see if it does.  A month later everybody was trying to use 12 mics on the drums!'"[8]

Asked, in the same interview, if he always picks the songs for the artists he produces, Talmy replied: "I'm a hands-on producer, meaning that I always work with the artist on choosing material, doing the arrangements, getting musicians if necessary, choosing the studio and being there for the entire production on through the mixes and mastering."[9]

Talmy continued to work with other distinguished British performers throughout the 1960s, principal amongst whom was singer-songwriter David Bowie (then known by his real name Davy Jones). Talmy produced two singles in 1965 by two groups featuring Bowie, "I Pity The Fool" by The Manish Boys and "You've Got A Habit Of Leaving", where the singer was accompanied by The Lower Third. He is known to have a considerable amount of unreleased material by Bowie in his archive.

Another artist of lasting impact that Talmy produced was Australian group The Easybeats. Though successful in Australia, the act floundered when it first arrived in the UK in the summer of 1966. The first session under Talmy's direction produced the massive global hit "Friday On My Mind". Writing in the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin described the song as "one of the all-time great beat group singles of the '60s". Bowie later covered "Friday on My Mind" on his album Pin Ups. Talmy's work with The Easybeats stretched through to their 1967 album Good Friday, after which the band's management decided to dismiss him as producer.

Once established as an independent producer in early 1964, Talmy would be incredibly busy over the next five years, producing dozens of discs, largely in the beat and mod categories, genres with which he would be forever associated. These include records by Mickey Finn, The First Gear, The Sneekers, The Untamed, Ben Carruthers & The Deep, The Nashville Teens, The Thoughts, Colette & The Bandits, Wild Silk and many others. He was also hired to work with successful acts like Manfred Mann, for whom he produced the hits singles "Just Like A Woman" and "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James", and Amen Corner ("If Paradise Was Half As Nice" and "Hello Susie"). Talmy also produced the pioneering all-women quartet Goldie & The Gingerbreads, and produced other female acts such as Liz Shelley, Dani Sheridan, Vicki Brown and The Orchids.

In late 1965, Talmy and impresario Arthur Howes formed their own label, Planet Records, distributed by Philips Records. Although the venture was not successful, the label did release the initial discs by Talmy's discovery The Creation,[10] now considered amongst the most iconic of mod/psychedelic groups, who often used pop-art imagery. These included "Making Time"[4] and "Painter Man". Their later work with Talmy such as "How Does It Feel To Feel" was issued on Polydor and Talmy has said that he did some of his most essential work with the Creation.

Though he is famous primarily for his contributions to rock music, Talmy also worked with musicians from the folk scene, including Pentangle, Roy Harper and Ralph McTell. He has also worked in the pop, orchestral, pop and punk categories.

He produced the early Roy Harper albums Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith and Folkejokeopus in 1967. In 1968 and 1969 Talmy produced the influential first three albums by the folk supergroup, Pentangle, as well as their hit single "Light Flight". In the late 1960s Talmy worked with American artists Lee Hazlewood and Tim Rose and supervised film music with his favored arranger David Whitaker. For CBS, he produced Music to Spy By and The Revolutionary Piano of Nicky Hopkins, both arranged and conducted by Whitaker.

By the early 1970s, Talmy did less record work and pursued his other interests in the book publishing and film making worlds. He was however still in demand as a producer and worked on records by The Small Faces, String Driven Thing, Fumble, Coven, Chris White, Mick Cox Band, Blues Project, Rumplestiltskin[10] and others. He had  production deals with the Bell and Charisma labels in the 1970s. Amongst his final UK productions was a collector's item single by punk group, The Damned ("Stretcher Case Baby" / "Sick of Being Sick").

Talmy returned to the United States in 1979. Though he reduced his workload, Talmy continued to be sought after to produce artists. He has produced albums by Fuzztones, Nancy Boy and Sorrows. Most recently he has produced records by Hidden Charms and Strangers In A Strange Land.

In 2003, a tribute to Talmy was aired on the radio program Little Stevens Underground Garage. In 2017, Ace Records began issuing a series of compilations from Talmy's vintage catalog, including the career anthology Making Time - A Shel Talmy Production, produced by Alec Palao.

Personal life

Shel Talmy now lives in the Los Angeles area. He is a long-time member of the high IQ association the Triple Nine Society. He is the brother of American linguist Leonard Talmy. According to Chris Hunt, Talmy eventually became almost completely blind due to a "hereditary condition that has hampered him for most of his adult life."[3]

Selected discography

The Kinks

Singles

Albums

Note: Talmy also produced numerous tracks that would appear on later albums, singles, and archival collections.

Dave Davies

The Who

Singles

Albums

Note: Talmy also produced numerous tracks that would appear on later archival collections.

David Bowie

Singles

  • "I Pity the Fool" b/w "Take My Tip" (as The Manish Boys) (1965)
  • "You've Got a Habit of Leaving" b/w "Baby Loves That Way" (as Davy Jones) (1965)

Note: the 1992 Bowie collection Early On features five additional vintage tracks from Talmy's archive.

The Easybeats

Singles

Album

The Creation

Singles

  • Making Time b/w Try & Stop Me (1966)
  • Painter Man b/w Biff Bang Pow (1966)
  • If I Stay Too Long b/w Nightmares (1967)
  • Life Is Just Beginning b/w Through My Eyes (1967)
  • How Does It Feel To Feel b/w Tom Tom (1967)
  • Midway Down b/w The Girls Are Naked (1968)
  • For All That I Am b/w Uncle Bert (German release) (1968)
  • Bonney Moroney [sic] b/w Mercy Mercy Mercy (German release) (1968)

Album

Manfred Mann

Singles

Album

Roy Harper

Singles

  • Midspring Dithering b/w Zengem (1967)
  • Life Goes By b/w Nobody's Got Any Money In The Summer (1967)

Albums

The Bachelors

Singles

  • Charmaine b/w Old Bill (1963)
  • The Bachelors EP (1963)
  • Faraway Places b/w Is There A Chance (1963)
  • Whispering b/w No Light In The Window (1963)

Album

  • Presenting The Bachelors (1963)

Chad & Jeremy

Singles

Album

Amen Corner

Singles

Album

  • The National Welsh Coast Live Explosion Company (1969)

Pentangle

Singles

  • Travelin' Song b/w Mirage (1968)
  • Way Behind The Sun b/w Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (US release) (1968)
  • Once I Had A Sweetheart b/w I Saw An Angel (1968)
  • Light Flight (theme from "Take Three Girls") b/w Cold Mountain (1969)

Albums

Selected singles productions

  • Sean Buckley & The Breadcrumbs – It Hurts Me When I Cry b/w Everybody Knows (1965)
  • Ben Carruthers & The Deep – Jack O' Diamonds b/w Right Behind You (1965)
  • Tony Christie & The Trackers – Life's Too Good To Waste b/w Just The Two Of Us (1966)
  • Colette & The Bandits – A Ladies Man b/w Lost Love (1965)
  • The Corduroys – Tick Tock b/w Too Much Of A Woman (1966)
  • The Damned – Stretcher Case Baby b/w Sick Of Being Sick (1977)
  • The Dennisons – Lucy (You Sure Did It This Time) b/w Nobody Like My Babe (1964)
  • Blair Emry – Annabelle b/w Driving On The Wrong Side (1970)
  • Faint Heart And Fair Lady Band – So Long Susie b/w Sing A Little Sunshine Song (US release) (1970)
  • The Firing Squad – A Little Bit More b/w Bull Moose (1964)
  • The First Gear – A Certain Girl b/w Leave My Kitten Alone (1964)
  • Follow The Buffalo – September Song b/w Long Gone Stayed At Home (1971)
  • The Fortunes – Caroline b/w If You Don't Want Me Now (1964)
  • Ray Gates – It's Such A Shame b/w Have You Ever Had The Blues (1966)
  • Wayne Gibson & The Dynamic Sounds – b/w Kelly / See You Later Alligator (1964)
  • Goldie & The Gingerbreads – That's Why I Love You b/w The Skip (1965)
  • Johnny B. Great – Acapulco 1922 b/w You'll Never Leave Him (1964)
  • The Hearts – Young Woman b/w Black Eyes (1964)
  • Dave Helling – Christine b/w The Bells (1965)
  • Hidden Charms – Dreaming Of Another Girl b/w Long Way Down (2015)
  • Jon Mark – Baby I Got A Long Way To Go b/w Night Comes Down (1965)
  • Kenny & The Wranglers – Somebody Help Me b/w Who Do You Think I Am (1965)
  • Steven Lancaster – San Francisco Street b/w Miguel Fernando Stan Sebastian Brown (1967)
  • The Lancastrians – We'll Sing in the Sunshine b/w Was She Tall (1964)
  • Perpetual Langley – Surrender b/w Two By Two (1966)
  • Van Lenton – Gotta Get Away b/w You Don't Care (1965)
  • The Liberators – It Hurts So Much b/w You Look So Fine (1965)
  • Houston Wells – Blue Of The Night b/w Coming Home (1965)
  • Lindsay Muir's Untamed – Daddy Long Legs b/w Trust Yourself A Little Bit (1966)
  • Tony Lord – World's Champion b/w It Makes Me Sad (1965)
  • Magic Alley – Set Yourself Free b/w The Answer Lies In Love (US release) (1970)
  • Margo & The Marvettes – Say You Will b/w Cherry Pie (1964)
  • Ralph McTell – Heroes And Villains b/w Sweet Girl On My Mind (1978)
  • The Mickey Finn – The Sporting Life b/w Night Comes Down (1965)
  • Kenny Miller – Restless b/w Take My Tip (1965)
  • The Nashville Teens – I'm Coming Home b/w Searching (1967)
  • Shel Naylor – One Fine Day b/w It's Gonna Happen Soon (1964)
  • Oliver Norman – Drowning In My Own Despair b/w Down In The Basement (1967)
  • The Orchids – Gonna Make Him Mine b/w Stay At Home (1963)
  • Eddie Phillips – City Woman b/w Duckin' & Weavin' (1977)
  • Platinum – Without You b/w If You Saw Johnny Now (1970)
  • Porky – I'm An Artist b/w Flag (1971)
  • The Pros & Cons  - Whirlybird – Part I b/w Whirlybird  - Part II (US release) (1965)
  • The Rising Sons – Talk To Me Baby b/w Try To Be A Man (1965)
  • The Rockin' Vickers – Dandy b/w I Don't Need Your Kind (1966)
  • Cloda Rodgers – Believe Me I'm No Fool b/w End Of The Line (1963)
  • The Sallyangie – Two Ships b/w Colours Of The World (1969)
  • Debbie Sharron – Falling Star b/w Cruel Way To Be (US release) (1962)
  • Liz Shelley – No More Love b/w I Can't Find You (1966)
  • Dani Sheridan – Guess I'm Dumb b/w Songs Of Love (1966)
  • Small Faces – Lookin' For A Love b/w Kayoed (By Luv) (1977)
  • The Sneekers – Bald Headed Woman b/w I Just Can't Go To Sleep (1964)
  • The Sundowners – Where Am I b/w Gotta Make Their Future Bright (1965)
  • The Talismen – Castin' My Spell b/w Masters Of War (1965)
  • The Thoughts – All Night Stand b/w Memory Of Your Love (1966)
  • The Untamed – I'll Go Crazy b/w My Baby Is Gone (1965)
  • Wild Silk – (Vision In A) Plaster Sky b/w Toymaker (1969)
  • The Zephyrs – She's Lost You b/w There's Something About You (1965)

Selected album productions

  • Axiom – If Only . . . (1971)
  • Band Of Joy – Band Of Joy (1978)
  • Blues Project – Lazarus (US release) (1971)
  • Vicki Brown – From The Inside (1977)
  • Coven – Blood On The Snow (US release) (1974)
  • Mick Cox Band – Mick Cox Band (US release) (1973)
  • Bill Davies With The David Whitaker Orchestra - . . . And a Touch of Love (1966)
  • Foresight – Foresight (1974)
  • Fumble – Poetry In Lotion (1974)
  • Fuzztones – In Heat (1989)
  • Lee Hazlewood – Forty (1969)
  • Nicky Hopkins – The Revolutionary Piano Of (1967)
  • Bert Jansch – Birthday Blues (1969)
  • Jon & Alun – Relax Your Mind (1963)
  • Jon and the Nightriders – Charge of the Nightriders (Enigma) (1983)
  • Kristine – I'm a Song (1976)
  • Nancy Boy – Nancy Boy (US release) (1996)
  • Tim Rose – Love - A Kind Of Hate Story (1970)
  • Rumplestiltskin – Rumplestiltskin (1970)
  • Seanor & Koss – Seanor & Koss (US release) (1972)
  • Sorrows – Love Too Late (US release) (1981)
  • Spreadeagle – The Piece Of Paper (1972)
  • String Driven Thing – The Machine That Cried (1973)
  • Velvet Glove – Sweet Was My Rose (1974)
  • David Whitaker – Music To Spy By (1966)
  • Chris White – Mouth Music (1976)

Selected film soundtrack work

Selected archival collections

  • Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Hot City (unreleased 1974 album produced by Talmy) (2009)
  • The Best Of Planet Records (2000)
  • Making Time: A Shel Talmy Production (2017)
  • Planet Mod (2018)
  • Planet Beat (2018)
  • Shel's Girls (2019)

Selected writings

  • Whadda We Do Now, Butch?, Pan Books Ltd., 1978
  • Hunter Killer, Pan Books Ltd., 1981
  • The Web, Dell, 1981

References

  1. ↑ Paltrowitz, Darren (May 18, 2020). "Legendary Rock Producer Shel Talmy Talks Jewish Roots and Moving to England". Jewish Journal.
  2. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. "Shel Talmy". Richieunterberger.com. Retrieved March 31, 2020. Ralph McTell, who I recorded, by the way, was basically a folk singer.
  3. 1 2 "Chris Hunt | Shel Talmy interview". Chrishunt.biz. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Shel Talmy Interview Part 1". Richieunterberger.com. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  5. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. "Shel Talmy Interview, Part 1". Richieunterberger.com. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  6. ↑ Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who [Video Documentary - 2007]
  7. ↑ Hunt, Chris (1989). "THE GODFATHER OF FUZZ: SHEL TALMY INTERVIEW". chrishunt.biz. Chris Hunt. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  8. ↑ Wayne, Artie. ""I was There Before It Happened": - Shel Talmy Interviewed by Artie Wayne". spectropop.com. Artie Wayne. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  9. ↑ Wayne, Artie. ""I was There Before It Happened": - Shel Talmy Interviewed by Artie Wayne". spectropop.com. Artie Wayne. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  10. 1 2 "Shel Talmy Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
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