Well, dear readers, I’ve often been asked if there were any albums I worked on wherein I did not enjoy myself. The fact is the answer is yes, but only once, and only for one specific reason and, for me, the reason was both a shock and nauseating, given my love of the performer involved. The album was the revival cast recording of Hello, Dolly! the final Channing tour. I was very keen to record it because I felt I could put my own stamp on it and have it be a very different beast from the original. Although Jerry Herman at first balked at the idea of using complete dance music, I won the day and I think he was ultimately glad about it. So, for the first time we have the wonderful dance music to I Put My Hand In, all of Dancing, and most especially, the complete Waiter’s Gallop. I attended a rehearsal in New York early on, but was told to lay low as Miss Channing was sometimes persnickety about people in the rehearsal room. That afternoon passed without incident and people ultimately learn that I’m just not the sort to be persnickety with. I was really looking forward to making the album and I met most of the cast that day, but not Miss Channing. Vinnie and I flew to Minneapolis, where we would be recording the show, at Paisley Park, Prince’s studio. Vinnie and I went to see the show twice – it was very good and Miss Channing was in excellent form. We met her backstage briefly and she said how much she was looking forward to recording it and how when recording the original they’d recorded for a week. I knew then that I was dealing with someone who’d basically lost their marbles – the original cast recording of Dolly was done, as were all cast albums in those days, in one long day. She also told us she’d been with the boys in the title song and they’d basically “done” the number in the recording studio. I just said nothing, because she clearly remembered nothing – no one would have recorded that number that way, not even back then.
The session began at nine and got off on the worst possible foot, with endless headphone problems – Vinnie was going berserk with all the complaints and we didn’t get a bloody take until after ten. Miss Channing arrived at noon. We’d created a wonderful space for her, with clear baffles so she could see and be seen, but so her sound wouldn’t bleed into other mics, and therefore if we had to do any pickups with her it would be easy. She immediately balked – said she wanted to be with everyone. I told her that we wouldn’t be able to isolate her and fix things, but she didn’t seem to care about that – UNTIL she missed a few words of a take and we had to go back and do the whole thing over again, even though the band and everyone else were fine. Eventually, without apologizing or saying anything, she went to her space. Her voice was in terrible shape – funny, it hadn’t been at either of the performances I’d attended. I suspected I was dealing with a head case and I was. I tried to be gentle and keep things light, making any comments I had very low-key and positive, but she didn’t even listen, so I finally had Mr. Herman talk to her and explain what I needed. He did, and this is what we heard on her open mic (and I have it on tape, folks) – “Jerry, they don’t understand performers, they’re just electricians.” That was it for me – I got on the talkback and said, “Miss Channing, this is the electrician and I’m telling you if you want to come off well on the album you should start listening because WE electricians know what we’re doing, and isn’t it funny that I’ve worked with the best people and the one thing they all love about me is that I understand performers better than anyone.” She said nothing – the day continued. I’d loved Miss Channing in all the Dolly incarnations all the way back to the first production, but I began to loathe her and with good reason. Her behavior was vile. We were regaled by stories of her unconscionable behavior by certain cast members. Even Jerry Herman said to me, “I’ve put up with it for forty years.” Funny, kooky Carol was anything but.
We came back to LA and I mixed the album. I began getting daily calls from Miss Channing’s obnoxious husband, Charles Lowe telling me we would have to do some fixes to Miss Channing’s vocals. I told him that that was MY decision, not his, not hers. But, after hearing the mix, Jerry begged me to do some pickups with her, and out of respect for Jerry I said yes. The tour was off for a week and she was in LA, so the plan was for her to come in to the studio and do her fixes – for one hour. We scheduled the day and the time. The day before I got a call from Mr. Lowe, saying, “Miss Channing cannot sing today.” We pushed the date. I got the same call – “Miss Channing cannot sing today.” After the fifth call and fifth time he said “Miss Channing cannot sing today, I yelled, “Today??? Miss Channing cannot sing PERIOD and if you want these tracks fixed you’d better set a date and keep it.” I hung up. The next thing I know, we’re going to Buffalo to do the fixes, only that got pushed to, so we went to Rochester to do them. We got to the studio – I planned things very carefully, doing the session on a matinee day so that I knew she couldn’t stay beyond a certain point. I was told her voice was very strong. Not when she came to the studio – it was what it always was. At one point, we were doing a fix and she stopped the take and actually said to the conductor, “Tim, why do I have to sing these songs in these keys? I’m not your WIFE, you know (Tim’s wife was playing Irene Malloy) – they pay to hear my LOW notes.” We recorded everything we needed to, and when I went in to thank her, I said we’d take the tapes back and put in all the fixes. She screamed, “No!” I said, “What do you mean, no?” She screamed, “I want to hear them now!” I said, “You want to hear a playback, is that what you mean?” She said, “Yes! I don’t want you playing back in LA!” I said, “Then just ask nicely to hear a playback and we’ll be happy to oblige – you were not clear and there’s no need to yell.” She put on her headphones and we played back all the fixes – and then she had no more time and had to leave for her matinee. We edited in the fixes, Mr. Herman was happy, and I was thrilled to be done with both Miss Channing and the album.
The amusing postscript is, of course, that the album was nominated for a Grammy Award. Last year, at the Hollywood Collector’s Show, I was signing. As was Miss Channing. I came the night before to set up the table and to make sure my friend Bert I. Gordon and I were sitting together. Miss Channing was there. I went up to her and said who I was and that I’d produced the Dolly album. She was smiling until I said the latter and then her eyes clouded over and she looked at me with that look I remembered so well, and said, “We never finished that album, did we?” I looked at her, smiled, and said, “Well, I think we did, because I was nominated for a Grammy for producing it and it’s sold really well for the last fourteen years.” Her “helper” looked at her and said, “Isn’t that great, Carol? A Grammy nomination.” Carol put on a phony smile and said, “Why yes, that’s very nice” and that was the end of the conversation. I remember after we’d wrapped the album a friend asked me how it was to work with Carol Channing. I said that I wanted to do a solo album with her, Carol singing all Kurt Weill songs, and that we’d call it Vile Sings Weill.
Happily, I have worked with some other legendary performers, all of whom were a dream to work with – Lauren Bacall, Elaine Stritch, Dorothy Loudon, Petula Clark – these were PROS, and they knew I was a pro, too, and there to help them be as good as they could be. They listened, they took direction, they understood how supportive a person I am in the studio and each of those experiences was fantastic for all of us.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it’s late, I’m tired, and I must get to bed at a reasonable hour, for tomorrow promises to be a very long day.
Yesterday, I got up early, but it was cold and gray out so I didn’t do the long jog. My helper came over and we addressed hundreds of boxes, and then affixed postage to them. We took a little break to have lunch at Hugo’s, then finished everything. By that time, I had to go to my recording session in Hollywood. I arrived at six, met my engineer (he’d assisted Vinnie on many of our sessions, so knew exactly what I expected and needed – and he did a great job). The cast of Ain’t Misbehavin’ and their musical director arrived around six-thirty and we all met. The ad guy from the Music Center was there with his staff. We began promptly at seven. The MD was sitting between my engineer and I, something I don’t like. But, I let him sit there and we did a take of the first number. It was very ragged, as I knew it would be, since they’ve only been rehearsing a few days. Before I could even say anything, the cast was asking the MD to be in the room with them for cutoffs and direction. That’s where he needed to be, and once that happened everything went smoothly. We did two takes, did two punches for vocal mistakes and moved on to the second number. The MD got comfortable with me finally, after I gave several notes to him about performances and they were things he was about to say – so he knew I knew what I was talking about and once that happens a certain comfort factor kicks in. And because I knew he’d done the recent revival recording, and because I knew what that must have been like because I knew who’d produced it, I said something to him about it, and boy was I right, and we just bonded and laughed and stories were told and it was great. We did the second song twice and that was that. We did a quick mix, the cast left, and we were done right on time.
Today, I’m getting up as early as I can so I can do the long jog no matter what, then go to the bank, then come back for a three-hour work session, at which point the Illya Darling CDs should arrive and I’ll package them up and get them all to the post office. And then I must finish the last page of questions for tomorrow’s LACCTAA event.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, have a work session, pack up hundreds of CDs, ship hundreds of CDs, do questions, and then hopefully get some “me” time in. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, various potential Kritzerland projects. DVD, Al Capone, starring Rod Steiger, plus the other Warner Archive DVDs I got. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all hopefully have a lovelier than lovely weekend.