There's No Place Like Hollywood - making the CD


Journal Page Four:  Making the CD


The original cast of "There's No Place Like Hollywood"

Heidi Godt
10/1 - Original cast members HEIDI GODT and PATTI DIAMOND rejoined us today as we started recording the original cast CD of "THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOLLYWOOD" at Private Island Trax Studios in Hollywood.  The studio is appropriately located in a Hollywood landmark:  THE CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD complex on Sunset Blvd. one of the oldest "shopping malls" extant.  The studio once belonged to Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills and Nash.  I've recorded several albums there; I love the place.  It just feels good!

Patti Diamond

In the lobby at Private Island Trax to begin recording. 
I played candid cameraman throughout the sessions and the pictures are on this page.

The accompaniment to some of the songs could be pre-recorded by drummer DAVE LOFTI and I before the actors came into the studio, but other songs have tricky tempo changes where the band (piano, bass and drums) has to follow the actor, not the other way around.  So we're starting with those songs, and we finished four today, right on schedule.  In fact, CLAY ADKINS got his Elvis song "Bump" in one take!  Many of our busy actors had to leave before the end of the session, so the only two girls left to scream for "Elvis" were AMY COLLETT and MELISSA BRANDZEL.  They screamed their little hearts out ... between giggles.  There was a lot of laughing today.  It's a joy to work with people you genuinely like! 

Amy & Melissa
 There's an "in" joke in "Bump" for those who listen.  At every performance JEFF GRIGGS would imitate Clay and yell "Sell it!" upstage (away from the audience).  It's on tape now for posterity's sake.

Jeff Griggs in front on the right:  "Sell it!!"

Stephanie Andersen as Louella Parsons, Anette Michele Sanders as Rita Hayworth, Amy Collett as Betty Grable and Melissa Brandzel as Hedy Lamar in "Pin-Up Girls"
9/5 - Last nights session started with a make-shift photo shoot.  When RICK FRIESAN, Ducy Lee's premiere album designer, took the production shots of the show (including the artsy one on the left for the "Pin-Up Girls" number) original cast member PATTI DIAMOND had left the show, replaced by the fabulous ANETTE MICHELE SANDERS (2nd from the left).  I had no picture of Patti to put on the CD.  She  and SCOTT DAVIDSON would be together to record their comedy duet "Jeanette and I".     BUT ... Rick was out of town!  I frantically called my buddy radiologist ED ZARAGOZA.  Ed grabbed his camera and we set up in front of the studio recording booth in the costumes I nabbed closing night of the show.  Ed got this  great shot which I plan to use on the back cover of the CD!

Patti & Scott as Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy
9/5 (continued) - STEPHANIE ANDERSEN and HEIDI GODT arrived for their respective solos and stayed  all night, everyone cheering on everybody else.  I've made a lot of albums and this patently NEVER happens!  But, perhaps because this incarnation of the show is closed now, this cast truly likes hanging out together.  And engineers BRIAN FRIEDMAN & IAN CONE and drummer DAVE LOFTI have definitely become part of the family.  We're having altogether too much fun!

Dave Lofti

 

Stephanie, Heidi and Patti

Fashion-challenged Ian and Brian

Heidi Godt
My primary concern in making this CD is to translate everything that was primarily visual on stage to an aural experience and the two big numbers we recorded last night were chief concerns of mine.  "Listen to Mammy" featuring Stephanie as Hattie McDaniel has her stripping off the "Mammy" drag to reveal a sophisticated woman underneath.  And Heidi Godt's "Special" - the emotional heart of the show - is sung to the cement footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.  In both cases, the ladies came through brilliantly.  I couldn't be more pleased!

Scott Davidson and the Company singing "Busby Berkeley"
10/7 - Whew! This was a long night!  The full cast came in and the usual level of hysteria was quickly regained ... but as always the cast worked hard between the laughs and we got a lot of "gold" recorded.  We started off with everyone singing the "Busby Berkeley" number.  In the show - which has no intermission - this song segues directly into the "Hollywood Canteen" section.  I decided to come to a full ending for the CD.  This means the cast had to learn it and record it in one sitting!  They did wonderfully.  SCOTT DAVIDSON and CLAY ADKINS as Busby Berkeley and Fred Astaire, respectively, were especially good.

Re-learning "Busby Berkeley"

David Barnathan
The winners of the longevity award for the evening were unquestionably DAVID BARNATHAN and MELISSA BRANDZEL.  David recorded a "scratch vocal" for his song as Gulch, the evil Hollywood Agent at about 8:30pm and then had to hang around until after midnight to finish it!  Meanwhile, the background singers finished their tracks on that song and we moved to three consecutive star turns for Melissa!  First she was Hedy Lamarr in "Pin-Up Girl"  (with PATTI DIAMOND as Rita Hayworth and AMY COLLETT as Betty Grable) then she was Greta Garbo in "Divas" (with Patti again as Betty Davis and STEPHANIE ANDERSEN as Mae West) and then she sang her featured number as the schizophrenic Theodosia Goodman/Theda Bara in "Kiss Me, My Fool"!  (Patti gets first-runner-up for longevity and a gold star for her turn as Ms. Davis!)  Melissa faced every challenge with amazing "cool" and her wonderful voice.

Melissa Brandzel
In fact when we started to record Melissa's vocal to  "Kiss Me, My Fool" we faced an additional challenge:  I realized I had set too fast a tempo for the pre-recorded trax!  Melissa and I quickly switched to "Plan B" and recorded a live piano/vocal version that drummer DAVE LOFTI is going to have to match at a later session.  (We have two more!)  The slightly slower tempo gave Melissa the opportunity to milk this comedic number for all it's worth. 
Before we finally got to David, the "Pin-Up Girls" heated up the studio in their number, the "Divas" brought down the house (that Stephanie is just plain funny!) and Patti, Scott and JEFF GRIGGS got jiggy with their bad selves in David's "The Bottom Line".  We had an entourage this evening with  backstage dresser and family member Eric Lipska, my friend Wayne McDonald and Amy's teenage sister in attendance.  Also there was the financier for this project ED ANDERSON.  I think he had the best time of anyone.

Finally, David and I could settle down to his tricky number.  Every song in this show is a tribute to a specific time and place and musical style in the movies.  "The Bottom Line" is a contemporary piece (think "boy bands") and comments on the "sequel" mentality of today's studios.  David's nasty character gets younger and younger as the show progresses, and by this time is practically an obnoxious teenager.  David achieved just the right mix of teen pop and mean acting!  It's my favorite song in the show!

Patti, Amy & Melissa, the "Pin-Up Girls"

"The Bottom Line" - David, Jeff & Scott
O-Town better watch their backs!
10/11 - We finished the recording part of this project today with two back-to-back six-hour sessions ... and Brian and I needed every minute to get everything done!  The day started with AMY COLLETT and JEFF GRIGGS recording two very different kinds of songs:  First the robust "Don't Think Small" as Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks and then the spooky, cautionary "Be Careful What You Wish For" as Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.  It was like working with four different people!  Four months of performing the show helped a lot, I'm sure, and Amy and Jeff were finished in record time.

Amy and Jeff

Clay Adkins
Not so for the next part of the session.  CLAY ADKINS tore through "Bananas" like he did in every performance, but the next song was a real challenge.  One of the songs cut from the show was a duet for Cher and Barbara Streisand called "Larger Than Life" which I'm including as a bonus track on the CD.  (These characters  appeared in the show but didn't sing.)  Without benefit of weeks of rehearsal, Clay impersonated both women - both distinctive icons - and made it funny!  It took four and a half hours.  And the song works.  Clay is simply amazing.  I can't listen to these tracks without laughing! 

Anette Michele Sanders
10/11 (continued) - After a quick dinner break, Brian and I returned to the studio to welcome back drummer DAVE LOFTI.  He had to put a drum track to my piano track for Melissa's "Kiss Me, My Fool" which was done in haste with no click track to play to!   Kids, don't try this at home.  He got it in one take.  Young, cute and talented.  Can't stand him.

Two members of our company from the beginning were ANETTE MICHELE SANDERS and BRYAN SHINE.  As noted above, Anette replaced Patti in the show and actually did her part more times than Patti did!  Bryan was the understudy to all the men in the show and learned all their parts, actually going on for Clay one night.  I wanted to include them on this CD to honor their hard work.  (GINA NEAL would have been part of this too, but she got married and went on her honeymoon when we were recording!  As you can see, Gina has her priorities straight!)

Gina Neal

Anette and Bryan joined DAVID BARNATHAN and myself to record another song cut from the show and included as a bonus track.  It's  a quartet for movie fans in love with movie stars called "Once Again, I'm In Love".  Like Clay's song, we had to create the number right there in the studio.  It's so good, I'm ending the CD with it!  And I'm including one of the demo tracks I recorded 'way back when.  (I warned you about this!)  "A Night Like This" is the song written for the Hollywood Canteen scene that opened the 2nd Act and was then cut.

Bryan Shine
10/11 (continued) -  I finished out the rest of the night putting the bass tracks on all the songs and planning the final mix with Brian.  We start tomorrow - just me, Brian, lots of lovely music tracks and a six-pack of Diet Pepsis!

Amy Collett, Melissa Brandzel, Heidi Godt & Jeff Griggs
10/29 - The final mix is finished!  BRIAN FRIEDMAN and I fiddled and picked and cleaned and changed and did all those hundreds of little things that make a professional recording sound so professional.  We recorded each final mix directly into the ProTools program in the studio computer and then edited those recordings into the final mix for the CD.  When we were done, Brian asked rather plaintively if there was anything else I needed to record for the album.  He had such a good time on this project he didn't want it to stop!  I, on the other hand, can't wait to hold the finished product in my hot little hands.  I gave Brian a copy of the Master CD so he can listen to CLAY ADKIN's "Bananas" song whenever he needs to cheer up!

The folks at Private Island Trax Studios surprised me with an end-of-mix ice cream cake on the last day which I promptly offered to everyone else in the studio.  (The rap group in Studio A seemed especially pleased!)  Altogether, this has been one of the best recording experiences I've ever had.

Brian's cheer-me-up song:  "Bananas"

Just for fun, here's a picture of Bryan Shine, Amy Collett and Stephanie Andersen I took at our opening night party at Micelli's in Hollywood.
10/29 continued - My favorite CD designer is RICK FRIESEN who took the production photos that will be in the booklet for the CD and who designed the whole look of the project based on the original poster by SHIRLEY HILLARD and incorporating my requests.  I wrote a synopsis of the show and a brief history of it as well.  That plus 15 photos and a lot of credits make a full and happy little booklet!  Rick and I are editing it now and the final step - delivering the negatives of the art and the Master CD to my packaging company - should be sometime next week!  The end is near!

 
11/1 - Well, tomorrow I take everything to DocDATA, a company that will print the CDs and the booklets, put all the pieces together and shrink wrap everything.  On the left is your first look at the cover of the new CD!  The next thing you'll read in these pages is an announcement of  the CD as a "New Release" (my two favorite words!)  Any reviews I get of the album will go on my "Ducy Lee Reviews" page, but this Journal will continue with news of future productions of  "There's No Place Like Hollywood".  Thanks for reading. - Wayne Moore