| I had a
lot of contact with the Four Tops at Motown. On several
occasions, my wife or I would take winter session breaks with the
Tops, consisting of listening to music in the car, heater blasting
and sipping brandy. I was
also part of the team that got out "It’s
the Same Old Song" in 24 hours. In a previous article, I recounted
how the producing and writing team started at 2:00 in the afternoon
to record the new Tops single and how we worked through the night to
get 1500 hand-cut records in DJ hands by 2:00 p.m. the next day. After
Motown, my partner (Greg Reilly) and I started this recording studio
called Superdisc. I got a chance to record the Tops for an album
that was released by ABC Records. The Tops are always ready in the
studio. They can walk into the studio, up to the microphone and "hit
it" in perfect harmony. No warm up is necessary for these veterans.
As an Engineer, however, I like to have a run-through to get levels
and set the compressor. As a result, the Tops were always waiting on
me in the studio. After a while, I realized that every time they
sang they had the same level and tone as they did two days ago or
two weeks ago. As a result, I could use the same microphones and
same console/compressor settings every time they came in – this
helped speed up the setup. In all of my career I never had
experienced more consistent vocal artists.
The cold, snowy and
icy winter thus year reminds me of the session breaks and of another
incident I had with the tops during another icy winter.
While I
was recording their album project, the Tops had a rehearsal studio
in Detroit with 4-track recording. One day, in the middle of winter,
I pulled into the alley and parking strip behind the Top’s studio.
When I got ready to leave, I got stuck in the ice. I had well used
tires. The Tops came out to help push me out. Lawrence suggested
that we put a board under the wheel that was spinning in the ice, to
gain traction. After the board was in place, the tire continued to
spin and the board went flying into Oppie’s leg. I was so
embarrassed that I went out and bought a brand new set of tires the
next day. |
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