STARR SISTERS

Aus den Erinnerungen von AL HAZAN hier etwas über
die STARR SISTERS, die bei United Artists und auch auf
Lute Records (z. B. 6003 "The Boy In The Study Hall") aufnahmen:

Starr Sisters - Ready For A Change / All Because Of You - United Artists 569 - 1963

"One day in early 1963, Lester Sill called me and asked if I would meet him at his office at 6550 Sunset Boulevard. He said he wanted to introduce me to a group called The Starr Sisters with the idea that I might produce them on a record. As you can tell by their photo, they were three young, very attractive girls and I was charmed by their disarming personalities. Lester let me and the girls become better acquainted and establish a rapport while he spoke with their mother and father. The girls informed me they had made a demonstration recording singing the old standard song "Dream", written by Johnny Mercer. After playing their record and hearing their harmonic style, I was very impressed and gladly agreed to produce them.

I told the girls I wanted to go over some new material the following Monday and asked them if they would like me to come to their parent's home in the San Fernando Valley. I figured it would be more convenient to work with them over there rather than having the whole family go to the trouble of coming to the office in Hollywood. I drove out to their house about three times a week, spending a few hours each time, and we all had a lot of fun trying out different songs and rehearsing them. They were a very hospitable and lovely family.

I finally booked the studio time at Gold Star and called the usual group of musicians for the session. I hired Hal Blaine on drums, Glen Campbell and Ray Pohlman on guitar, Carol Kaye on Fender bass and Leon Russell on piano, a group of wonderfully talented studio sidemen.

The week before the session, I drove my recently purchased used 1962 Corvette Stingray up to the San Francisco bay area to visit one of my sisters. I remember arranging the basic rhythm instrumentals for the Starr Sisters in my head as I drove. Driving on the open highway without any stop signs or the noise of the city to disturb my concentration was always a convenient way for me to compose songs and arrange my sessions. It was something I often did in the sixties.

By the time I returned to Los Angeles I was ready to record. I only wrote "chord charts" for the musicians. There were no lyrics or music notes on these charts, only slash marks to indicate each beat of the measure with the chord symbols written above them, to be played on the appropriate beat. The charts gave the musicians the overall structure of the song. I would then take a few minutes to teach them in more detail the actual rhythm I wanted them to play. This all took place right before the session began while my engineer, Stan Ross, set up the mikes.

I chose to record the Starr Sisters on four songs I had written. The titles were "All Because of You", "Ready for a Change", "No time Like the Present" and "Our Love". These songs were chosen strictly for their commercial value and to present the Starr Sisters as a Top 40 group. I completed recording the four rhythm tracks within the three hours I had booked in Studio A that day, however It wasn't until a week later, at a follow up session, also done at Gold Star, that I added Jack Nitzsche's arrangement for the string section.
Once all the instrumentation was completed, and after the musicians left, I had the girls do their vocals. They were obviously excited to be able to record the songs at long last after so many rehearsals. Their performances were flawless. I ended up by blending the three tracks, namely the rhythm section, violin section, and the lead vocals into a final package.

For some reason, I never heard anything about a release date for the Starr Sisters after I completed that record back in the Sixties. However, I recently discovered that "All Because of You" and "Ready for a Change" came out at some point in 1963 on United Artists Records without my knowledge. Why that information was kept from me by Lester Sill I can only guess." Al Hazan

xx

...