How a Simple Act of Kindness Brought Joy to Multiple Generations through Music
I'm sharing the miracle that happened, when after 50 years, the kindness of others suddenly brought my 1961 45 rpm recording back into my life, as well as into the lives of my children, grandchildren, family, and friends.
Shel Talmy, record producer for The Who, The Kinks, David Bowie, and many others, recently shared a Facebook post that highlighted his work on producing my two singles, “Falling Star” and “Cruel Way to Be”, when I was just 16 years old in 1961. He also explained as to why my singing career came to a halt! This was Shel Talmy’s first-ever production. Please enjoy the recordings:
In addition to YouTube, the recordings can also be found on Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon Music under the name of Debbie Sharron (my performing name).
More information about Shel can be found at www.sheltalmy.com. Please enjoy his full post below!
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BLUEPRINT OF MY FIRST PRODUCTION
Hi to all, and many thanks to the increasing number of readers for these vignettes, your presence is most appreciated!
Today’s post will be about my first production and relates to my getting requests about how I began producing, so here's the story.
After college, I went to work for ABC-TV for a year and a half, starting out as a “page”, and progressing through the ranks to doing cue cards, the dialog for the on-camera talent being televised before teleprompters.?
This meant holding and balancing a handful of cue cards above the TV camera lenses on a moving "dolly" that the operator kept in constant motion. In addition to all that, I needed to follow what the talent was reading so I could flip to the next card on time-- all this while making sure I didn't get my feet in the way of the moving camera dolly, so jerking it to a stop and earning a few well-chosen four-letter words from the camera operator! LOL, this was not easy!?
I did cue cards for a ton of shows, from Lawrence Welk and Liberace, to specials with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Perry Como. FYI, most were terrific to work for—others, not so much!?
Next step up was stage managing, which started with kiddie shows and a promotion or two. But...around this time, I realized I'd now been too exposed to the politics of what goes on, working for a TV network, and I did not like it.?
Okay, I acknowledge I was young and most likely not equipped to handle a work-place populated by sharks with sharp teeth. I finally concluded life was way too short to put up with it, and I made the decision to quit. No, I was not gifted with a gold watch on my departure!
I never considered that I'd left a reasonably well-paid job, with no prospects of what to do next to making a living. (the ignorance and arrogance of youth . . .)?
In the early 60s in L.A., where music had already secured a firm foothold in current and future events for the entertainment biz, a major hangout for the biz was a restaurant and bar in West Hollywood called Martoni's.?
My good friend and fellow graduate from the music school, Fairfax High, Ike Benoun, was selling consoles and all other necessary gear to L.A. studios, so he knew almost everybody.
That included Phil Yeend, owner and operator of Conway Studios on Highland Ave., just south of Sunset Boulevard.?
So on a night that Ike and I went to Martoni's, Ike intro’ed me to Phil, who was English, and a thoroughly nice guy, and whom I bonded with on contact! He wanted to know what I'd been doing, so I told him about the ABC saga and how I was trying to find out what to do next.
And that's when I got lucky. Timing is everything--Phil was looking for somebody to train to be a recording engineer at the studio, and asked if I was interested. LOL Yes please! I said, and that's how I wound up as the new trainee at Conway, which turned out to be the career-changing opportunity that has occupied and fulfilled me from 1961 until now and for as long as I'll still be around to enjoy it!?
I did dozens of sessions as a recording engineer, that included recording the great “Wrecking Crew” group of elite musicians.?
Virtually every engineer I knew who had come up through the ranks, concluded that they could easily produce as well as the studio clients, for whom they were just the engineers, and most likely, were gonna be a helluva lot better at it.?
Almost, without reservation, they were correct, and I was no exception on how they were thinking. So voila!--there were a slew of fledging producers.?
Now comes the back story!?
This is about Debbie (sometimes spelled Debby) Sharron, the singer who was my first production in 1961. Debbie's father was a Rabbi who'd seen the writing on the Hitler wall and so got out before Adolf invaded Poland in September,1939, when he would have probably been sent to a concentration camp. His destination was the U.S. and New York.
Debbie was born in NYC in 1945, and probably started singing in the cradle!
At age 4, standing outside her grandfather's jewelry store, she just began singing, and was heard by a film agent who contacted her mom, having heard that dad was dead set against Debbie being in showbiz. Debbie's mom was for it though, and so, having received the needed SAG card, Debbie appeared in the film, "Gun Crazy", aka "Deadly is the Female". starring Peggy Cummins, John Dall and, if anyone remembers the McCarthy era, the banned author Dalton Trumbo wrote the script under a pseudonym.
Soon after that, the family moved to Los Angeles.?
Still wanting to pursue a showbiz career and doing her best to ignore the opposition, in 1953 Debbie, now an eight-year-old, was requested to audition for the University Players, starring Alan Arkin, and was hired to play his daughter in the play showing at the famous Wilshire Ebell Theater. She proved to be a natural actress.?
The following year she appeared again with Alan Arkin at the Wilshire Ebell in a play entitled “L'Chiam”, and there was another repeat for Debbie in 1955 in the play "The Witch" with Arkin that was also staged at the Wilshire Ebell.?
Skipping ahead several years to 1961, now that I was in my “gonna be a producer” determination, started searching for someone to produce and heard of a girl who'd just won a singing contest. I got to hear what she sounded like and I liked what I heard.
I contacted her and we arranged to meet at Conway's studio.
This was Debbie Sharron, who was now a very attractive 16-year old. I asked her to sing for me, accompanied by my guitarist friend I'd booked to play for her as he knew all the current songs.?
I liked her vivid personality and so said, "let’s do it-- I'll find a couple of songs and we'll record here.”?
To put the 1961 music scene in perspective, doo-wop and teen ballads dominated the charts, and when I heard the song ‘Falling Star’, written by Walter Kent and Walter Farrar, I chose it as an excellent tune for Debbie to sing. I then added a song I'd written called ‘Cruel Way To Be’, which was also in the current genre.?
I set a date for the recording that I later found out fell on a religious holiday, and so Debbie’s Orthodox Rabbi father forbade her to show up at the studio...?
Debbie chose to ignore his “command" although I learned she was very upset about defying her father. Still, she asked her best school friend, Shari Lesser to drive her to the studio, and was in control of herself when she arrived.?
We recorded both songs in this session, with Russ Titelman, a writer and later Warners A&R man, doing backing vocals.?
The record got a lot of play, but did not get into the charts. I understand that it's still a favorite for lots of listeners playing it today.?
Re my first production, I'm my own best critic. I think it was okay, bordering on good, but that LOL, I definitely improved with succeeding productions!?
Debbie's show-biz career came to a crashing halt not much later, when she was pushed into a young marriage by her father in accordance with his religious values at the time, for which a continued singing career would not be acceptable.?
But as Debbie told me, what resulted was that she had four beautiful daughters from that marriage. Eventually that it ended in divorce and Debbie has been happily remarried for many years to Ken Bitticks, and they are still my special friends after all this time!
__________________________________________________________________________I am wishing all of you and your loved ones many joyful surprises in your lives!?I am also grateful for the amazing Alec Palao who surprised me with a delivery of CDs from Ace Records that included “Cruel Way To Be” on Shel’s Girls CD.?
I hope you can think of many things to feel gratitude for as Thanksgiving Day is rapidly approaching.?
Please remember Debby’s 3 G’s – Get Informed, Get Organized, Get Moving!??
Please visit www.DebbyBitticks.com.
I send you 3 kisses for the PAST, PRESENT, and the FUTURE!
LOVE this all the way around!!! ? ? ?