House of Hits: The Story of Houston's Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music) by Roger Wood Andy Bradley Page A
Authors: Roger Wood Andy Bradley
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Though his style was still infl uenced by that of his idol Hank Williams, he was no longer merely imitating but creating something new.
However, sometimes a sequence of seemingly random circumstances can unexpectedly coalesce into a life-changing experience. Such was the case with the momentous recording session that yielded “Why Baby Why,” as the memories of several studio insiders reveal.
In
his
New Kommotion interview, fellow Starday recording artist Eddie Noack explains the situation that led to the then-rare phenomenon of the featured singer double-voicing the song all by himself.
George Jones wasn’t selling anything on Starday to begin with. So they were cutting George [singing] with Sonny Burns to help him—stuff like
“Heartbroken Me” [#165] and “What’s Wrong [with] You” [#188]. And they were going to do a third one, and this was the biggest break George ever had
[because] Sonny liked to drink, and he didn’t show up for a Burns/Jones session, and you know, it was “Why Baby Why.” Because Sonny did not turn up, George had to cut it on his own, and he overdubbed his own voice over it.
Thus, whether fans realized it or not, they were hearing the Jones voice har-monizing with itself on the catchy chorus of the song. Given that it was 1955, this technique was unusual, requiring some studio innovation.
Generally speaking, the technology that enables a singer to record a second vocal track, while wearing a pair of headphones and listening to prerecorded tracks of both the instrumentation and his own lead vocal, did not become common until the 1960s. To enable Jones to sing the background vocal part with himself on “Why Baby Why,” Quinn would have had to set up a small speaker in the studio. He could then play the track back to Jones at a very low volume while the singer added his second vocalization. Meanwhile, Quinn could then record the original track plus the more recently performed second vocalization to a second tape recorder. Because the editing technology of “punch-ins” (or “drop-ins”) was not yet established, Jones would have had to do all of his second vocal parts in a straight run-through of the song—after he and the band had already performed the complete song live in the studio as fl awlessly as possible. Given the double-voicing eff ect achieved on “Why 4 8
h o u s e o f h i t s
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 48
1/26/10 1:12:12 PM
Pappy Daily and George Jones,
publicity photo, 1963
Baby Why,” its fi nished sound depended not only on Jones’s fl awless singing with himself but also on innovative studio engineering by Quinn.
Glenn Barber, a regular Gold Star house musician at the time, off ers other details about the session that yielded this breakthrough record: One recording I remember was “Why Baby Why” by George Jones. When we did that session my little boy was in diapers, and my wife had him on her lap and was patting him on his butt to keep him quiet because there was no-p a p py d a i ly a n d s t a r d ay r e c o r d s
4 9
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 49
1/26/10 1:12:12 PM
where to sit except in the studio itself. Herbie [Remington] was on steel and Tony Sepolio on fi ddle. Doc Lewis played piano. . . . I also played on “Seasons of My Heart” [by Jones], and it was the same band as “Why Baby Why.” We pretty much always had the same band on these sessions.
Despite the ultimate success of those fi rst Jones recording sessions in Houston, musician Tony Sepolio reveals that it did not come easily. In an interview published by Andrew Brown in Taking Off , Sepolio recalls his role in and exasperated impressions of trying to collaborate with Jones:
“Why Baby Why.” I got the band for him. He called me. It took him all day to make it. I’m not used to that. . . . Man, it took him all day to make the darn thing. He’d get drunk. . . . He went through a fi fth of whiskey. He’d say, “Wait a minute, I forgot the chords,” stop right in the middle of
However, sometimes a sequence of seemingly random circumstances can unexpectedly coalesce into a life-changing experience. Such was the case with the momentous recording session that yielded “Why Baby Why,” as the memories of several studio insiders reveal.
In
his
New Kommotion interview, fellow Starday recording artist Eddie Noack explains the situation that led to the then-rare phenomenon of the featured singer double-voicing the song all by himself.
George Jones wasn’t selling anything on Starday to begin with. So they were cutting George [singing] with Sonny Burns to help him—stuff like
“Heartbroken Me” [#165] and “What’s Wrong [with] You” [#188]. And they were going to do a third one, and this was the biggest break George ever had
[because] Sonny liked to drink, and he didn’t show up for a Burns/Jones session, and you know, it was “Why Baby Why.” Because Sonny did not turn up, George had to cut it on his own, and he overdubbed his own voice over it.
Thus, whether fans realized it or not, they were hearing the Jones voice har-monizing with itself on the catchy chorus of the song. Given that it was 1955, this technique was unusual, requiring some studio innovation.
Generally speaking, the technology that enables a singer to record a second vocal track, while wearing a pair of headphones and listening to prerecorded tracks of both the instrumentation and his own lead vocal, did not become common until the 1960s. To enable Jones to sing the background vocal part with himself on “Why Baby Why,” Quinn would have had to set up a small speaker in the studio. He could then play the track back to Jones at a very low volume while the singer added his second vocalization. Meanwhile, Quinn could then record the original track plus the more recently performed second vocalization to a second tape recorder. Because the editing technology of “punch-ins” (or “drop-ins”) was not yet established, Jones would have had to do all of his second vocal parts in a straight run-through of the song—after he and the band had already performed the complete song live in the studio as fl awlessly as possible. Given the double-voicing eff ect achieved on “Why 4 8
h o u s e o f h i t s
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 48
1/26/10 1:12:12 PM
Pappy Daily and George Jones,
publicity photo, 1963
Baby Why,” its fi nished sound depended not only on Jones’s fl awless singing with himself but also on innovative studio engineering by Quinn.
Glenn Barber, a regular Gold Star house musician at the time, off ers other details about the session that yielded this breakthrough record: One recording I remember was “Why Baby Why” by George Jones. When we did that session my little boy was in diapers, and my wife had him on her lap and was patting him on his butt to keep him quiet because there was no-p a p py d a i ly a n d s t a r d ay r e c o r d s
4 9
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 49
1/26/10 1:12:12 PM
where to sit except in the studio itself. Herbie [Remington] was on steel and Tony Sepolio on fi ddle. Doc Lewis played piano. . . . I also played on “Seasons of My Heart” [by Jones], and it was the same band as “Why Baby Why.” We pretty much always had the same band on these sessions.
Despite the ultimate success of those fi rst Jones recording sessions in Houston, musician Tony Sepolio reveals that it did not come easily. In an interview published by Andrew Brown in Taking Off , Sepolio recalls his role in and exasperated impressions of trying to collaborate with Jones:
“Why Baby Why.” I got the band for him. He called me. It took him all day to make it. I’m not used to that. . . . Man, it took him all day to make the darn thing. He’d get drunk. . . . He went through a fi fth of whiskey. He’d say, “Wait a minute, I forgot the chords,” stop right in the middle of
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