Rhino Records once said that Steve Barri's productions of the late 60's and early 70's made other records of the time sound like "demos". That assessment is most clearly shown to be true when his records of the time, which were usually produced under the extraordinary sound supervision of engineer Phil Kaye, are transferred to CD today. Simply put, they still sound GREAT. They stand the test of time because they were so professionally and meticulously constructed, with such a superior sense of spatial positioning of the instruments and care to full sound and orchestration, and such a knack for choosing the right instruments, musicians, singers and styles for particular songs, that today's digital studios could add nothing artificially that Barri hadn't already put there in reality. His preference for using full horn and string sections and using top-notch studio musicians sometimes upset the artists he worked with, mostly because they couldn't reproduce that sound on stage, but those artists had very little in the way of complaints when the records proved time and time again to be huge commercial successes.Barri's productions are also a heaven-send for audiophile headphone listeners. Although they were almost all geared for the monophonic, compressed sound of AM radio, Barri's records are filled with tiny, artful touches that can be clearly distinguished when listening carefully on good stereo equipment - strange and unique instrumental runs quietly support and enhance the overall sound, odd instruments and fills appear at surprising places with suprising effects, a sudden explosive bass run or melodic piano tinkle surprises and delights the listener at unexpected places, and there's always a little special "extra something" thrown in on the fade - a Barri trademark - just to reward listeners for listening all the way through.
1942 - 1964
Barri was born Steven Barry Lipkin in Brooklyn, New York, on February 23, 1942. His family moved to California when he was still a child. He began his career as a songwriter, submitting his songs to Screen Gems Music, which was run at the time by Lou Adler. Adler liked Barri's songs, and got him his first recording when Barri's song, "Suzie Jones", was recorded by the Nortones in 1959. Barri recorded a few unsuccessful solo singles, and then teamed with singer Carol Connors, a former member of the Teddy Bears. When none of the singles under her name were successful, they then formed a group of their own, the Storytellers, with Carol's sister. Their debut single "When Two People (Are In Love)" was put out on Dimension Records in 1963, again with the help of Lou Adler, who produced the single. Adler then paired Barri with another promising young New York-born songwriter, Phil Schlein (P.F. Sloan), and the new team immediately began writing songs for Adler's stable of artists, which included Jan and Dean, Johnny Rivers ("Secret Agent Man" was a Barri/Sloan song) and Terry Black. Herman's Hermits had a big hit with Sloan & Barri's "A Must To Avoid". The Turtles and the Searchers were among other outside groups that had hits with Barri/Sloan songs. Barri and Sloan (below, left to right) also recorded themselves, as The Fantastic Baggys, with an album called Tell 'Em I'm Surfin' (1964) which has become something of a cult classic and has been reissued on CD.
Two more Fantastic Baggys albums were issued, with Sloan and Barri having increasingly little to do with the recordings, until by the third album the only Sloan & Barri track was the song "Only When You're Lonely", a song mistakenly drawn from another of their studio projects - The Grass Roots!
1965 - 1967
In 1965 Adler founded Dunhill Records with Jay Lasker and Bobby Roberts (Roberts performed in an act called the Dunhills, and thus the name). He brought Barri and Sloan with him to the label and asked them to work on records and songs in the exploding folk-rock musical movement of the time. They had a huge success with Dunhill artist Barry McGuire when his recording of Sloan's song "Eve of Destruction" went to #1. They also began recording themselves again, this time choosing the name The Grass Roots for their songs. When their first single, "Mr. Jones (Ballad of a Thin Man)" became a regional hit in California, Barri and Sloan, not wishing to tour, hired a band called the Bedouins to tour and record as the Grass Roots. The group's lead vocalist, Bill Fulton, recorded a new lead vocal in place of P.F. Sloan's for the song "Where Were You When I Needed You", and that Dunhill single became the first Top 40 hit for the Grass Roots. Amidst disputes with Barri and Sloan, the Bedouins had by this point already decided not to continue as the Grass Roots, and departed to San Francisco to make it on their own. Barri and Sloan then put together the line-up of the group that would officially become the Grass Roots - Rob Grill, Warren Entner, Creed Bratton and Rick Coonce. The new line-up recorded the album Let's Live For Today (1967), with Barri and Sloan producing, recording and performing their own songs right alongside the group. Barri hired a lyricist to adapt the title song, orginally an Italian song which had been a hit for a group called the Rokes, into an English version, and this became the first Top 10 hit for the Grass Roots, with Rob Grill singing the lead with Warren Entner. That year Sloan departed the fold, leaving Barri to oversee the musical future of the Grass Roots. Barri gave the group several more of Sloan's songs to record, which appeared on their Feelings and transitional Lovin' Things albums, but by that point Barri was the sole producer, and the group was being transmogrified into an entirely different-sounding outfit with the addition of horns and compositions in a rock/soul style.
1968 - 1975
Dunhill Records was acquired by ABC Records in 1967, and Barri was assigned the position of Director of Artists & Repertoire (A&R) at the newly-amalgamated label. In addition to his duties as house producer, Barri was instrumental as A&R Director in signing several major acts to ABC/Dunhill, including Steppenwolf, A Group Called Smith, Three Dog Night, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, the James Gang, Jim Croce, Rufus (featuring Chaka Khan), Steely Dan, Gayle McCormick (formerly of Smith), Jimmy Buffett, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, the Four Tops, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Dusty Springfield, and others. He also mentored the careers of two extraordinary songwriting teams, Michael Price & Dan Walsh, and Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter, both of whom he signed to ABC/Dunhill's publishing arm, Trousdale Music in 1969. Both teams had their first major compositions recorded on the Grass Roots album of that year, Leavin' It All Behind. Price & Walsh ended up writing five of the Grass Roots' 21 charting hits - nearly a quarter of their output! - and four of those five made the Top 40, with the fifth, "Love Is What You Make It", a near-miss. Lambert & Potter also wrote two Top 40 hits for the Roots, as well as the smash "Don't Pull Your Love (Out)" for Hamilton Joe Frank & Reynolds (originally offered to and turned down by the Grass Roots), the enduring "It's A Cryin' Shame" for Gayle McCormick, and they co-produced with Barri all of the Four Tops' ABC/Dunhill recordings, writing such smashes for them as "Keeper of the Castle", "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)" and "Are You Man Enough". Lambert & Potter continued to have success on their own well into the 70's, including producing #1 hits for Glen Campbell and the Righteous Brothers and forming their own label, Haven Records -- to which the Grass Roots would sign after leaving Dunhill/ABC!.
Barri had a pretty "dizzying" year of his own as a producer in 1969, when besides charting hits with the Grass Roots, Smith and Mama Cass, he hit #1 with his production of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy", featuring an innovative, off-kilter string arrangement by Jimmie Haskell. His success as a pop producer on ABC/Dunhill continued through the label's prime years in the early 70's, where he also produced a number of extraordinary albums that never yielded any hits, including albums for Mike Kennedy (former lead singer of Los Bravos of "Black Is Black" fame), Kinky Friedman, Dusty Springfield, and Dennis Lambert (Lambert's one outing as a singer), as well as some great singles for Cherokee (aka the Robbs). But his many successes included a chain of hits (which didn't make no prison) for the Four Tops, many more with the Grass Roots, and a #1 for Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods in 1974, "Billy, Don't Be A Hero" (aka "William, Don't Be A Hero") :) The next Heywoods single, a Top 20 hit called "Who Do You Think You Are", ranks among Barri's finest pop productions, an exquisite example of the art of record production at its very best. He also produced a major comeback album for blues legend Bobby "Blue" Bland, the 1974 album Dreamer. The lead-off song from that album, "Ain't No Love (In the Heart of the City)", written by Michael Price and Daniel Walsh, besides being a minor chart hit for Bland, has been covered by at least 18 artists, including the hard rock group Whitesnake, and is Price & Walsh's most-recorded composition.
1976 - 1982
As ABC/Dunhill was being dissolved after being bought out by MCA, Barri joined the staff of Warner Bros. Records as an A&R Director and producer. During this time he enjoyed an interesting, and very successful, phase of his producing career as "King of the TV Theme Hits". He'd had a #1 with "Theme From S.W.A.T." by the Rhythm Heritage, a group of studio musicians which he assembled and co-produced with Michael Omartian, on ABC just before he left the label. Then, on Warners, he had a #1 hit with "Welcome Back" by John Sebastian (theme from the TV series "Welcome Back, Kotter"), and a Top 5 hit with "Happy Days" by Pratt & McClain. At Warners he also produced records for Cher, former Union Gap member Kerry Chater, and the brother-act Couchois, whose "Walkin' the Fence" single is an undeservedly-overlooked classic.
1982 - 1986
Barri's former boss at Dunhill Records, Jay Lasker, became President of Motown Records in 1982, and hired Steve Barri to become the Vice President of A&R at the label. Barri, having worked with the Four Tops and always having been a fan of the Motown sound, jumped at the chance to work with the Motown stable of artists. He initiated Motown's "Command Performance" series of classic Motown artist compilations on CD, the first Motown re-issue series to feature really excellent sound. During his tenure at Motown, Barri acted as executive producer on multi-Platinum albums by the Commodores, Lionel Ritchie, and Rick James. He signed the Mary Jane Girls and former "Star Search" winner Sam Harris to the label. As a producer, he had a Top 40 hit with Harris on "Sugar Don't Bite".
1986 - 1998
Barri left Motown in 1986 and did a number of different things during the next dozen years. Notably, in 1989 he produced a Top 10 single for the techno-pop group Animotion, "Room To Move". Also notably, he produced the album for the teenage girl-group the Triplets, who had a Top 15 hit in 1991 called "You Don't Have to Go Home Tonight" and also covered Barri's "Where Were You When I Needed You" on their album. He briefly worked for Capitol Records during this period, and also with Left Bank Management, where he worked with artists such as Meatloaf, Richard Marx, Joey Lawrence, Stephanie Mills, and the Cranberries. Barri produced two albums for Joey Lawrence, and had a Top 20 hit with him in 1993, "Nothin' My Love Can't Fix". Barri also moved into jazz during this period, and became an A&R executive at the JVC Records label.
1998 - Present
In 1998 Barri signed to Gold Circle Entertainment as a producer and A&R exec. This company runs two labels, Gold Circle and Samson Records, and their artist line-up includes Pat Benatar, Roland Orzabal (formerly of Tears For Fears), John Waite, Glen Phillips (formerly of Toad the Wet Sprocket), and David Crosby. In 2000 Barri co-produced an album called No Static At All by Garden Party, which is a jazz instrumental tribute to Steely Dan, the band that he signed to their first record deal in 1970! Also working with him at Sampson Records as a producer on this project - old friend and cohort Michael Price, of the Price/Walsh songwriting team that Barri signed and mentored back in 1969! (Hey, Samson Records staff, there's a great band out there called the Grass Roots that you really ought to consider signing! You'd probably work really well together!) On August 13, 2001, Steve Barri was named Senior Vice President of A&R for Gold Circle Records.
Copyright © 2002 by G.I.I.I.I., a United States of America corporation. All photographs are the property of their original copyright holders.