Chairman at the Board, Bill Schnee
Chairman at the Board, Bill Schnee
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Chairman at the Board
Recording the Soundtrack of a Generation

Author: Bill Schnee

Narrator: Bill Schnee

Unabridged: 8 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/24/2021

Synopsis

After his high school band was dropped by Decca Records, Schnee began his quest to learn everything he could about making records. Mentored by technical guru Toby Foster, mastering guru Doug Sax, and recording legend Richie Podolor at his American Recording Studio, he immediately began recording the top acts of the day as a freelance engineer/producer in Hollywood. Clive Davis soon hired him to work for CBS where he partnered with famed music producer Richard Perry. Schnee went on to record and/or mix many of Perry's biggest albums of the 70s and 80s, including those by Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Art Garfunkel, and the Pointer Sisters.

With his deft personal touch with musicians, he continued to engineer and/or produce the likes of Marvin Gaye, Thelma Houston (the Grammy-nominated, direct-to-disc album I've Got the Music in Me), Pablo Cruise, Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs, the Jacksons, Huey Lewis and the News, Dire Straits, and Whitney Houston.

With over 125 gold and platinum records, and two Grammys for Steely Dan's Aja and Gaucho, Schnee has been called a living legend—recognized and respected in the industry as the consummate music man with an incomparable career that he lovingly shares with listeners in humorous detail.

About Bill Schnee

Bill Schnee is an internationally renowned producer, engineer, and mix master. He has engineered and produced an extremely wide variety of artists that include Three Dog Night, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Huey Lewis, Pablo Cruise, Steely Dan, the Jacksons, Marvin Gaye, Boz Scaggs, Dire Straits, Ringo (with all the Beatles), Carly Simon, the Pointer Sisters, and Whitney Houston, including her mega-single "I Will Always Love You." Schnee has been personally nominated eleven times for the Best Engineered Recording Grammy and has won twice for Steely Dan's Aja and Gaucho. He currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife, Sallie.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dave on June 26, 2021

I mainly read this book by producer/engineer Bill Schnee for his insight on his work with Steely Dan and his contribution on perhaps their best album "Aja" but it was neat to read about Schnee's work with Boz Scaggs, Mark Knopfler, and Carly Simon as well. I found him to be very honest and direct a......more

Goodreads review by Jeremiah on June 05, 2022

I can't get enough of books like this. (Another great one is On The Record by Al Schmitt) Bill Schnee engineered or mixed or produced some of the biggest records and acts of all time. He was working during the golden era of session musicians and the West Coast AOR sound. The disagreements about mixe......more

Goodreads review by Donna on July 03, 2022

Good book especially if you're interested in music. I read it with a friend and really enjoyed the stories of the recording artist the author worked with. I felt it could have been a little less technical since some of it was out of my understanding of the sound boards and I would have enjoyed more......more

Goodreads review by Tom Kingsley on October 10, 2023

Great recounting of how the greatest songs and stars came to be. Particularly hi-lights the role of collaboration from studio musicians (vocal and instrumental) many who were stars themselves. Also great blueprint of how to make a song for songwriters, composers, artists, producers, and engineers.......more

Goodreads review by Aaron on February 25, 2025

Excellent, informative and entertaining book by a man who engineered some of the best albums of the rock era.......more

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