Artist:Jack Nitzsche
Song:The Lonely Surfer
Album:Teen Beat Vol. 5
Jack Nitzsche was a jack of all trades of the Los Angeles studio scene and a member of The Wrecking Crew studio musician collective. He rarely recorded as a leader but he scored a top 40 hit with the 1963 instrumental single The Lonely Surfer. Later he got into composing film music and he won an Oscar. He was born Apr. 22, 1937 in Chicago but he grew up on a farm in Newaygo, MI. His parents were German immigrants. Nitzsche moved to Los Angeles in 1955 looking to get into jazz. Specialty Records A&R exec Sonny Bono hired Nitzsche as a music copyist. He worked for Capitol Records when he wrote Bongo Bongo Bongo for Preston Epps. He was an arranger and conductor for Phil Spector and he worked on all of Spector's hits. And of course he worked with The Wrecking Crew. Meanwhile, Nitzsche and Bono wrote the song Needles and Pins for Jackie DeShannon. The Searchers scored a big hit with that. It looks like Spector got Nitzsche a record deal with Reprise recording instrumentals. Spector wrote the liner notes for the 1963 album The Lonely Surfer. The album was mostly movie themes. But Nitzsche and his producer buddy Marty Cooper wrote The Lonely Surfer and it reached #37 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's considered today to be an instrumental classic and you can get it on this all instrumental various artists CD from Ace Records. Jimmy Bowen produced the album. Johnny Vidor provided the strings. He usually worked with Spector. Musicians included Don Randi and Leon Russell on piano, Bill Pitman, Ray Pohlman and Tommy Tedesco on guitar, David Gates of Bread on bass and Hal Blaine on drums. All are Wrecking Crew members. Nitzsche only recorded two albums for Reprise. While working on the 1964 TV special The T.A.M.I. Show, Nitzsche met The Rolling Stones and played piano on several of their albums. He also brought in slide guitarist Ry Cooder. After working with Buffalo Springfield, Nitzsche joined Neil Young's band after they split up. He was in Young's band until he left in 1974 after substance abuse problems. Then Nitzsche got into films and was nominated for an Oscar for the score of the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He won an Oscar for writing the song Up Where We Belong with Will Jennings and Buffy Sainte-Marie for the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. He and Buffy were married from 1982-89. Nitzsche continued to have drinking problems and even appeared on an episode of COPS brandishing a gun. He suffered a stroke in 1998 and died on Aug. 25, 2000 at age 63. Here's a video for The Lonely Surfer by Jack Nitzsche.
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