At the time, John (the FH Reader) speculated on some of the circumstances involving the recording of this track ... in fact, he even sent us an interesting alternate mix of this #1 Hit with bongos added.
As a refresher, here is that piece again, along with my original comments derived from reading the liner notes to the "Best Of The Fleetwoods" CD, written by Darcy Sullivan.
I mentioned at the time that both Gretchen Christopher and Gary Troxel, original members of The Feetwoods, are also Forgotten Hits readers and contributors ... and hoped that they might see this piece and make a comment or two.
Well, they did ... so today we devote The Forgotten Hits Web Page to The Fleetwoods!!!
***
From what I've read and heard, The Fleetwoods were recorded outside of a normal, professional recording studio, possibly in a house, in or near their hometown. Whoever was heading these recordings (two producers I see), wanted to control all aspects, even have the vinyl records pressed by others with a custom imprinted record label name; this song release being "Dolphin 1" single, later to become Dolton Records.
As with other songs, when debating what version should be released, those versions would be saved. While the entire Mr. Blue album could have been issued in Stereo, as initially with other record companies, even Atlantic Records (until Tom Dowd helped), mixing Stereo was a problem because of the lack of necessary equipment.
Not discovered in EMI's vaults, here's what the Hit song, "Come Softly To Me", may have sounded like, with added bongo percussion, in Stereo ...
Part Producer, Bonnie Guitar, also resided in Washington, as did The Fleetwoods. Possibly even played acoustic guitar for The Fleetwoods recordings.Please Note: No animals were harmed during this construed theorizing!
Best,
John
That's actually a pretty cool sounding mix, John ... not at all intrusive and it absolutely seems to fit with the whole Fleetwoods sound.
According to Darcy Sullivan's liner notes in the Rhino "The Best Of The Fleetwoods" CD, the guy who first heard an a capella version of the trio singing "Come Softly To Me" was Norm Bobrow, a local club owner. Norm brought the tape to Bob Reisdorff, a Northwest Record Producer who was always on the look-out for new talent, and asked him if he thought he could do anything with it. Looking back, Reisdorff told Sullivan "It was a capella and way too long ... but it fascinated me. I said 'That's a hit if ever I heard one.'"
He brought The Fleetwoods (then calling themselves Two Girls And A Guy) into the basement studio of Joe Boles and, along with Dot recording artist Bonnie Guitar, tried to get a good take of the tune. Male vocalist Gary Troxel said "We must have recorded it 90-100 times because Boles didn't have the equipment to overdub."
Pleased with the new a capella results, Reisdorff then changed the name of the group to The Fleetwoods (not after the car as is often reported but rather after Olympia, Washington's telephone exchange!) and then, along with Bonnie Guitar (as co-producer), took the vocal track to Hollywood where they added acoustic guitar, bass and "a subtle percussion click" to the mix. (Sorry, John ... no bongos! In fact, other research I discovered claimed the percussion was simply Gary Troxel softly rattling his car keys!)
The end result quickly went from regional to national hit status, eventually reaching the #1 Spot on Billboard's Pop Singles Chart in April of 1959. Part of what made the track stand out was the fact that it didn't really sound like anything else out on the radio at the time.
Bonnie Guitar said "It was totally opposite of what the music business was doing at the time. Everything was what we called 'the hot sound, the Dot sound' ... really beefed up to sound exciting ... but The Fleetwoods had such a subtle, warm sound."
The group continued to record some of its material in this same fashion ... a capella vocals first, with instrumentation added later, after the fact ... virtually the complete opposite of the normal recording pattern. For whatever reason, it worked ... seven months later, they hit #1 again with "Mr. Blue".
I tried to get a first-hand accounting for you of these early sessions through either Gretchen Christopher or Gary Troxel, both original Fleetwoods members (and, as well as Forgotten Hits list members, also co-writers of their biggest hit song, "Come Softly To Me") but I didn't hear back from either of them in time for today's publication. (Hopefully at least one of them will see this posting and respond for a future issue.) kk
What follows are their responses, along with another email we received from one of our readers:
The really cool thing about FORGOTTEN HITS is that is reminds you of a song, you sing it for DAYS, and then dust off the 45 and play it again and again.
Come Softly to Me is a great song and, once you get it in your head, it is there for awhile. Interesting is that it was released on two labels ... DOLPHIN and LIBERTY ... and the Liberty was not a reissue. It also beat out its competition at the time, the version by RONNIE HEIGHT on Dore. I liked the song so much I bought all THREE!
Allan
Lol ... funny you should say that ... I'll bet "Come Softly To Me" has played in MY head for about fifteen hours this past week alone!!! The Ronnie Height version didn't chart in Cash Box ... but went to #45 on the Billboard Chart. Here in Chicago, however, the Ronnie Height version went all the way to #2, SHARING that position with The Fleetwoods' version. (kk)
Come Softly to Me is a great song and, once you get it in your head, it is there for awhile. Interesting is that it was released on two labels ... DOLPHIN and LIBERTY ... and the Liberty was not a reissue. It also beat out its competition at the time, the version by RONNIE HEIGHT on Dore. I liked the song so much I bought all THREE!
Allan
Lol ... funny you should say that ... I'll bet "Come Softly To Me" has played in MY head for about fifteen hours this past week alone!!! The Ronnie Height version didn't chart in Cash Box ... but went to #45 on the Billboard Chart. Here in Chicago, however, the Ronnie Height version went all the way to #2, SHARING that position with The Fleetwoods' version. (kk)
The Ronnie Height Version (nowhere NEAR as good as the original to MY ears!) ...
... and The Fleetwoods' chart-topping version
Hi Kent,We were on the road to a Street Rod event so I wasn't able to respond until now. The information taken from the Rhino liner insert is the correct story and is truly The Very Best ever written for us. It also includes color photos of all the albums and release dates of every single and album.
Gary
Unfortunately, that CD is now out of print (but you WILL find new and used copies here (through Amazon.com) -- Click here: Amazon.com: Best of: Fleetwoods: Music
Meanwhile, a new "Super Deluxe" version of their Greatest Hits has come out on Capitol:
Click here: Amazon.com: Very Best of: Fleetwoods: Music
... and it features some of the a cappella versions we told you about in our piece above. (kk)
Gretchen Christopher went into much greater detail in her response, taking our original posted piece paragraph by paragraph and filling in a number of the facts ... here is the DEFINITIVE story on these early Fleetwoods recordings. (Note: Our FH Reader John's original comments are shown in green ... and Gretchen's responses are shown in blue.)
>>>From what I've read and heard, The Fleetwoods were recorded outside of a normal, professional recording studio, possibly in a house, in or near their hometown. (John)
I (Gretchen Christopher) first recorded "Come Softly" (my melody and lyrics, with classmate Barbara Ellis singing harmony to my lead and Gary Troxel singing background) on my father's semi-professional tape deck, in our living room overlooking the bay (Olympia's Henderson Inlet). I took the tape to Seattle Record Promoter Bob Reisdorff who then launched his own label, Dolphin Records, to professionally record and release "Come Softly." The vocals were professionally re-recorded, a cappella, at Joe Boles Studio (basement studio, in West Seattle). Guitar and bass were later overdubbed in Hollywood. "Mr. Blue" was recorded a cappella by Kearney Barton at Northwest Recorders in Seattle - as was most of the album by the same name. Though we re-recorded "Outside My Window" at Liberty, most of our recordings were done at Hollywood's finest studios, United (and Western), where we Fleetwoods recorded live with instruments, such hits as "Tragedy" and the jazz solo "Blues Go Away" - among many other of our 11 Billboard Hits and 15 albums. (Gretchen)
>>>Whoever was heading these recordings (two producers I see), wanted to control all aspects, even have the vinyl records pressed by others with a custom imprinted record label name; this song release being "Dolphin 1" single, later to become Dolton Records. As with other songs, when debating what version should be released, those versions would be saved.
The last sentence (above) doesn't really make sense to me, but I can confirm that the co-producers were Bob Reisdorff and Bonnie Guitar. Of course the label would be custom designed, with Dolphin's own logo of three fishes. It was, however, unusual that the first release would be called Dolphin 1, as most new labels pretended to be long-established by putting a larger number on the first release. We Fleetwoods were Dolphin 1 and became #1 in the nation, twice - the first group in the world to have two #1 Records top the Billboard Hot 100 in a single year (1959).
>>>While the entire Mr. Blue album could have been issued in Stereo, as initially with other record companies, even Atlantic Records (until Tom Dowd helped), mixing Stereo was a problem because of the lack of necessary equipment.
The MR. BLUE album sounded fine in mono, but the first copy I received in Stereo was a disaster, and had to be replaced. The original recordings, were a cappella, very simple, and never intended to be released in stereo.
>>>Here's what the Hit song, "Come Softly To Me", may have sounded like, with added bongo percussion, in Stereo ... (Paste link into your browser and give a listen ... actually, not bad at all!!!)
http://www.angelfire.com/empire/abpsp/images/softly-s.mp3I (Gretchen Christopher) first recorded "Come Softly" (my melody and lyrics, with classmate Barbara Ellis singing harmony to my lead and Gary Troxel singing background) on my father's semi-professional tape deck, in our living room overlooking the bay (Olympia's Henderson Inlet). I took the tape to Seattle Record Promoter Bob Reisdorff who then launched his own label, Dolphin Records, to professionally record and release "Come Softly." The vocals were professionally re-recorded, a cappella, at Joe Boles Studio (basement studio, in West Seattle). Guitar and bass were later overdubbed in Hollywood. "Mr. Blue" was recorded a cappella by Kearney Barton at Northwest Recorders in Seattle - as was most of the album by the same name. Though we re-recorded "Outside My Window" at Liberty, most of our recordings were done at Hollywood's finest studios, United (and Western), where we Fleetwoods recorded live with instruments, such hits as "Tragedy" and the jazz solo "Blues Go Away" - among many other of our 11 Billboard Hits and 15 albums. (Gretchen)
>>>Whoever was heading these recordings (two producers I see), wanted to control all aspects, even have the vinyl records pressed by others with a custom imprinted record label name; this song release being "Dolphin 1" single, later to become Dolton Records. As with other songs, when debating what version should be released, those versions would be saved.
The last sentence (above) doesn't really make sense to me, but I can confirm that the co-producers were Bob Reisdorff and Bonnie Guitar. Of course the label would be custom designed, with Dolphin's own logo of three fishes. It was, however, unusual that the first release would be called Dolphin 1, as most new labels pretended to be long-established by putting a larger number on the first release. We Fleetwoods were Dolphin 1 and became #1 in the nation, twice - the first group in the world to have two #1 Records top the Billboard Hot 100 in a single year (1959).
>>>While the entire Mr. Blue album could have been issued in Stereo, as initially with other record companies, even Atlantic Records (until Tom Dowd helped), mixing Stereo was a problem because of the lack of necessary equipment.
The MR. BLUE album sounded fine in mono, but the first copy I received in Stereo was a disaster, and had to be replaced. The original recordings, were a cappella, very simple, and never intended to be released in stereo.
>>>Here's what the Hit song, "Come Softly To Me", may have sounded like, with added bongo percussion, in Stereo ... (Paste link into your browser and give a listen ... actually, not bad at all!!!)
We Two Girls 'n' a Guy (Gretchen, Barbara and Gary) had performed "Come Softly" at the Olympia High School Senior Talent Assembly, a cappella, and two weeks later at the Olympia Community Center teen dance, accompanied by just bongos. In the recording studio, Reisdorff and Guitar emulated both versions but with added instrumentation.
Bob Reisdorff gave me acetates of both versions to listen to (with and without bongos). The non-bongo version was released and became the #1 Hit, but later, Liberty couldn't find the master and had to use the bongo version on a compilations of hits.
>>>Part Producer, Bonnie Guitar, also resided in Washington, as did The Fleetwoods. Possibly even played acoustic guitar for The Fleetwoods recordings. (???)
Bonnie and I spoke recently over lunch (near her home in Soap Lake, WA) after my family fulfilled my mother's final wishes in Wilbur, WA.
(see www.thefleetwoods.com/tributes.htm#Helen_Gray_Christopher ).
I gifted Bonnie with an inscribed copy of my solo CD, GRETCHEN'S SWEET SIXTEEN (SUITE 16), which is a 2007 Billboard Critics' Pick for 10 Best Albums of the Year and contains new recordings of "Come Softly" - a cappella- and "Come Softly To Me" with guitar, bass, and car keys for percussion, just like the original release. Bonnie said she did play acoustic guitar on our originally released recording. Perhaps there were two guitars, rhythm and lead, for at other times Bonnie had said she got Roy Lanham to overdub guitar onto our recordings, in Hollywood. When Roy died, this was one of the credits in his obituary.
Bob Reisdorff gave me acetates of both versions to listen to (with and without bongos). The non-bongo version was released and became the #1 Hit, but later, Liberty couldn't find the master and had to use the bongo version on a compilations of hits.
>>>Part Producer, Bonnie Guitar, also resided in Washington, as did The Fleetwoods. Possibly even played acoustic guitar for The Fleetwoods recordings. (???)
Bonnie and I spoke recently over lunch (near her home in Soap Lake, WA) after my family fulfilled my mother's final wishes in Wilbur, WA.
(see www.thefleetwoods.com/tributes.htm#Helen_Gray_Christopher ).
I gifted Bonnie with an inscribed copy of my solo CD, GRETCHEN'S SWEET SIXTEEN (SUITE 16), which is a 2007 Billboard Critics' Pick for 10 Best Albums of the Year and contains new recordings of "Come Softly" - a cappella- and "Come Softly To Me" with guitar, bass, and car keys for percussion, just like the original release. Bonnie said she did play acoustic guitar on our originally released recording. Perhaps there were two guitars, rhythm and lead, for at other times Bonnie had said she got Roy Lanham to overdub guitar onto our recordings, in Hollywood. When Roy died, this was one of the credits in his obituary.
Thank you, Gretchen ... as always, we try to print and circulate the TRUTH about these legendary recordings and artists ... or, at the very least, "the most accurate truth" out there ... so we certainly do appreciate your first-hand insight. Thank you so much! (kk)
Kent,
I'm glad you are dedicated to accuracy, as I am, too. Hope this is helpful to you. If any further questions, please feel free to contact me again. Oh, and please send me the copy of this when it is published.
Thank you,
Gretchen
I'm glad you are dedicated to accuracy, as I am, too. Hope this is helpful to you. If any further questions, please feel free to contact me again. Oh, and please send me the copy of this when it is published.
Thank you,
Gretchen
The very rare, original a capella version ... The Fleetwoods' #1 Hit sprang from this bare-bones track, recorded back in 1958.
When John (who sent in this original inquiry) heard that Gretchen had addressed his questions and concerns literally line by line, he reacted the ONLY way one could under the circumstances:
Whoa!!!!!! You rock, Kent!!!! Thanks!
You're right ... we do!!! ... and you're welcome!!! (kk)
