One of their biggest clients was Screen Gems, whose roster included Brill Building writers like Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil - the first session IР’В ever saw was aР’В Goffin & King demo, with Carole singing and playing the piano while Gerry produced in the control room. They had two mono machines there and they mainly cut demos for songwriters. 'The studio where IР’В started was Dick Charles Recording in New York, located at 729 Seventh Avenue in Room 210. 'IР’В could not have entered the business at aР’В better time,РІР‚Сњ Szymczyk asserts. Photo: Michael Ochs ArchivesР”Р‡ebruary 1964 was the month that the Beatles arrived in America for the first time, launching the British Invasion that would also see acts such as the Animals, the Kinks, Manfred Mann,Р’В the Troggs and the Rolling Stones stormР’В the US charts. From left to right: Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Don Felder and Randy Meisner. So IР’В blew off college and persevered in moving up the food chain.РІР‚Сњ From Engineer To Producer However, when school started that August, IР’В was already well ensconced in the music business. 'By the time IР’В got out of the Navy in February 1964, IР’В had been accepted as aР’В student in communications, television and radio at New York University's Media Arts School. 'That really was my entrР“В©e into the music business, because when IР’В left the service IР’В got aР’В job as aР’В maintenance man in aР’В recording studio,РІР‚Сњ he recalls. Since Szymczyk was among the top five people in this regard, he was assigned to SONAR school, where he also acquired about four years of electronics training in just six months. When Szymczyk joined the Navy at the age of 17 in 1960, he took the requisite audiometer test that, as SONAR was based on pitch perception, judged recruits' likely ability to help locate Russian submarines. We got Elvis, Chuck Berry and Bill Haley, but inР’В terms of grittier stuff, that wasР’В the first time IР’В ever heard the real blues.РІР‚Сњ That station played aР’В lot of BB King, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and early blues records, none of which IР’В normally heard in Michigan as aР’В kid. But the antenna was just aР’В single dangling wire, and one night it touched my bed springs and suddenly it was aР’В huge antenna that picked up WLAC out of Nashville, Tennessee. The crystal itself was indiscriminately tuned to whatever channel it was on, and at first nothing came through. 'IР’В think IР’В ordered it from aР’В comic book - five bucks to build your own radio. 'IР’В guess IР’В learned by osmosis,РІР‚Сњ he now remarks, while explaining how aР’В crystal radio he assembled from aР’В kit sparked his interest in blues and R&B. When we recorded it the third time, that was the charm.РІР‚Сњ In The NavyР”Р„ native of Muskegon, Michigan, Szymczyk took an unconventional route to arrive at his chosen profession, starting out not as aР’В musical performer or technician but as aР’В SONAR (SOund Navigation And Ranging) operator for theР’В US Navy.

So, then we recorded it in the right key with largely the same instrumentation and aР’В smattering of lyrics, but after we'd developed the song aР’В little more and Henley and Frey had fineРІР‚вЂtuned the lyrics, we came to find out the tempo was too fast. 'However, once Don Henley began to write the lyrics, it turned out to be in the wrong key. 'The first version we recorded was just aР’В riff,РІР‚Сњ says Bill Szymczyk, who earned aР’В 'Producer Of The Year' Grammy for his efforts producing and engineering the album. So, it's interesting that the track itself underwent three different versions before emerging in the form that everyone knows.

Ostensibly, aР’В song about aР’В luxury hotel visit that crosses over to the dark side, but really an allegory about American materialism and excess - as well as the decadent LA lifestyle that many musicians experienced during the midРІР‚вЂ'70s - 'Hotel California' was aР’В pivotal track for the Eagles.Р”Р„t aР’В time when punk was starting to explode and albumРІР‚вЂoriented rock was all the rage, the song not only topped the US singles chart and scooped the Grammy for 'Record Of The Year' it also established the theme of - and lent its name to - the Eagles' autobiographical, multiРІР‚вЂplatinum LP that, courtesy of guitarist Bernie Leadon's replacement by Joe Walsh, saw the band make the transition from country rock to mainstream rock while achieving their greatest critical and commercial success. The Eagles on stage, Rotterdam, 1977.Photo: Redferns Producer BillР’В Szymczyk tells us howР’В it happened. Hotel California saw the Eagles abandon their country origins in favour of full-blown rock & roll, and made them one of the biggest selling groups in the world.

What is hotel california about