Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever”
"Strawberry Fields Forever" is an exceptional song, built from crazy arrangements and two entirely separate recordings of the track.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: The Eagles’ “Hotel California”
Producer/engineer Bill Szymczyk looks back at capturing the Eagles' evergreen, number-one single, "Hotel California."
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: David Bowie’s “Heroes”
Tony Visconti pulls back the veil to reveal how David Bowie's seminal "Heroes" was created in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing”
A stinging critique of the 1980s even as they happened, Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" had a lengthy genesis, as related here by engineer...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Track: The Chambers Brothers, “Time Has Come Today”
Not too many people these days know about the Chamber Brothers, but when their first Columbia album, The Time Has Come, was released in...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Jennifer Warnes’ “First We Take Manhattan”
Jennifer Warnes, bassist Roscoe Beck and engineer Billy Youdelman share how the unlikely Leonard Cohen cover—and the album around it—came to be a hit.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
Decades later, it's difficult to put into words just how bold and fresh and affecting those opening lines were in 1969.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters”
You know the movie and you know the classic track, but do you know how the song really came to be?
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”
While it started as a songwriting exercise inspired by Alice Cooper, "Psycho Killer" became the New Wave standard-bearers' calling card.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: The Dream Academy’s “Life in a Northern Town”
Every once in a while, a song comes totally out of left field, far away from the mainstream, and for some inexplicable reason becomes...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Don McLean’s “American Pie”
Maybe you had to be there. But in the summer and fall of 1971, it seems that everyone was talking about Don McLean's...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm”
“When we first recorded ‘Riders on the Storm,’ it was a nice, light song—but when we got into mixing it is when it all...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: The Cars’ “Just What I Needed”
The Cars' self-titled album is a quintessential new wave classic, taking the sound of the 50s and making it modern and new.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: k.d. lang’s “Constant Craving”
Nashville still had the door closed for us in country, so we figured, ‘What the hell, we’ll do exactly what we want,’ says producer...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Big Brother & The Holding Company’s “Piece of My Heart”
Janis Joplin got her start in folk music, surprisingly enough.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: John Fogerty’s “Centerfield”
John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” is the only song formally “inducted” into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.—it plays there ’round the clock.
Archives
Shel Talmy: The Mix Interview
In the October 1990 issue of Mix, legendary producer Shel Talmy sat down to look back at his days producing The Who and The...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy”
Although Steve Winwood was just shy of 19 when he formed the group Traffic in the spring of 1967, he was already a veteran...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: The Grateful Dead’s “Touch of Grey”
In the summer of 1987, the Grateful Dead made it into the Top 10 with the only hit single of their 30-year career: “Touch...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Jackson Browne’s “Late For The Sky”
Browne and the late legendary engineer Al Schmitt look back at the masterful title track of 1974's "Late For The Sky."
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Liz Phair’s “Supernova”
Building on the success of her debut album, Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair came back with a rockin' ode to her boyfriend, "Supernova."
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers’ “Tomorrow People”
Two albums into his career, Ziggy Marley took a gamble on working with a producer team that had never made records for anyone other...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Track: Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy”
The story of the recording of this Classic Track begins far from Texas, in Switzerland at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1982.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Eddie Money, “Two Tickets to Paradise”
Eddie Money burst onto the scene at an interesting time, with New Wave, Blue Collar Rock, Country Rock and more all in full-flower. Money...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Love’s “My Little Red Book”
A look back at the first charting single from Love.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Chubby Checker’s “The Twist”
There have been dance fads as long as people have danced to novelty records -- but few have had the enduring appeal of Chubby...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”
Ray Charles' best-known hit was first improvised on-stage to fill time at the end of a gig...and became legendary.
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”
"Let's Get It On" embraces love and lust, the spiritual and the carnal fused together in an uplifting union. Recording it was not as...
2015
Cool Spin: Pink Floyd, ‘The Endless River’ (Columbia)
This first CD of “new” Pink Floyd music in 20 years (still without Roger Waters) was largely put together by David Gilmour, co-producer Phil...
Classic-Tracks
Classic Tracks: Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks’ “I Scare Myself”
One of the most interesting and engaging groups to burst onto the pop music scene in the early 1970s was a San Francisco Bay...
news
Marcella Araica: Making Waves in Miami Recording
Even as women continue to make great strides in areas from politics to corporate boardrooms, they are still rare in the recording business outside...
news
Richard Thompson: Home Alone for ‘Acoustic Classics’
Richard Thompson’s latest album, Acoustic Classics, is an unexpected gift to his many devoted fans—solo acoustic versions of 14 of his finest songs, spanning...
news
First Aid Kit: Haunting Americana from Sweden (and Nebraska)
Like a lot of people, my first exposure to the duo known as First Aid Kit—Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg—came from seeing their...
news
Atlanta Mixer/Engineer Miles Walker
When you look at all that Atlanta-based mixer/engineer Miles Walker has accomplished in the decade-plus since he graduated with honors from Berklee College of...
news
Railroad Earth Hits Its Stride with ‘Outlaws’
Those who describe the music of Railroad Earth as “jamgrass” are to be forgiven. After all, the band’s sound is often dominated by a...
Films-TV
Jersey Boys: Stage Hit Makes Realistic Transition to Screen
Has the live singing in the hit film adaptation of Les Miserables changed the game for everyone else making an on-screen musical? Is the...
Films-TV
Superhero Science and Technology: Marvel’s Avengers Come Alive in New Interactive Exhibit
There seems to be no limit to the number of spinoffs that can be generated from the world of Marvel Comics superheroes. The flood...
news
Producer/Engineer/Musician Bryan Bell: Making a Laptop/Studio Hybrid Work
If you’ve never heard of Nestler & Hawtin, a pair of soulful young singer-songwriters from Oregon, don’t fret. They’ve barely ventured outside of their...