Schwartz Stories #4: Stephen Michael Schwartz and the Great Hollywood Rock Star BBQ of 1975

Rock cognoscenti meat the material grill at Sunset as the neat elite meet to eat'n'greet. It's condiments be damned as stars mustered at the storied studio to relish each other's catch-up!

(I Wish They All Could Be) California Grills

Stephen Michael Schwartz had just released his debut album for RCA in late summer 1974. Auditioning a touring band in early 1975 led to a Washington state gig opening for Paul Williams. Next up? Meeting with prospective producers for RCA Album #2.

One meeting led to a once-in-a-lifetime studio cook-out the likes of which would strain credulity imagining it could happen anywhere else…or, even at all!

Call it late spring 1975, as Stephen brings us up-to-date: “I can’t remember who suggested that Chris Huston and I meet with the prospects of Chris producing my next album.

“Chris was, at this time, primarily known as a top-notch engineer [dating all the way back to 1966] with a string of successful albums under his belt for The Who, Led Zeppelin, Todd Rundgren’s late ‘60s Nazz, Patti Labelle, and Eric Burdon.

“I didn’t know this at the time, but Chris and John Lennon [three years older than Huston] were childhood buddies, having grown up in Liverpool.  

“I should have known, upon our first meeting, from that unique English accent right out of the Hard Day’s Night film!”

Chris Huston (right) receiving a gold record for “Groovin’” in June 1967 with the Rascals’ Gene Cornish (now 78), two months after the #1 single’s Atlantic Records release. While produced by the band, Huston engineered the record. "Groovin'" is one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll,” and is also the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

“John Lennon wasn’t the only rock royalty friend Chris had, as I later would find out when he invited me to a little dinner at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood.

“That night, Chris picked me up at my Hollywood apartment, and we drove down to 6650 Sunset Boulevard, home of the legendary Sunset Sound Studios.”

Sunset Sound, circa 1978. Opened by Tutti Camarata in 1958 to record Walt Disney film soundtrack albums (“Bambi,” “Mary Poppins,” “101 Dalmatians,” and others), the studio (formerly an auto repair shop) took early advantage of the looming rock era, and soon became home to groundbreaking performers needing a reliable place to lay down tracks. “The building,” as reported by Junkman in a recent Vintagerock.com article, “has not changed much since its heyday in the 1970s, and that holds part of its charm, as well as its much-revered sound. As recording equipment gets upgraded, you just don’t mess with great acoustics. In other words, they ‘left well enough alone,’ and rightly so.”

“Entering the studio doors and walking down the hall was like viewing a mini-exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The walls were filled with photos of famous clients who graced this Mecca of the recording industry.

“I could have stayed in that hall for hours, but Chris ushered me into the main studio. Holding the heavy door open, I walked in and was absolutely amazed to see several picnic tables lined up for a barbecue, with a large grill fired up with hot dogs and hamburgers sizzling away!

Sunset Sound’s Studio 1, measuring 44 x 19 x 10ft. Tutti Camarata’s son, Paul, took over ownership of Sunset Sound “in the ‘70s,” according to ABC7Chicago.com in 2021. That same article quotes Sunset Sound’s Marketing Director, Drew Dempsey: “Janis Joplin had been in that studio the day that she died, and it was the last recording studio the Beatles were ever in all together.”

Clothes Encounters of the Thread Kind

“It was strange enough to have a ‘cook-out’ where the likes of The Stones, Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, The Doors, Zeppelin, and The Wrecking Crew once all set up their gear, but stranger still were the guests sitting at the table eating and talking away!

“It was a small gathering, maybe fifteen people in all. Sitting at the table were Carole King in denim blue overalls (no shirt or bra), Carly Simon and James Taylor, Stevie Wonder (and his girlfriend), Linda Ronstadt [who had just finished recording her 6th solo album, and second for Asylum, Prisoner in Disguise, released the following September], Peter Asher (her producer at the time), the owner of the studio and one or two of his guests, Chris Huston and me.”

Well, she’s wearing a shirt…here, anyway, and likely those very same denim overalls! Carole King, circa 1978 (a year or two after the Hollywood BBQ) photographed during an Austin, TX Pecan Street Studios recording session. Photo by Jim McGuire, who took the shots for Carole’s 1979 “Touch the Sky” album for Capitol Records.

Runnin’ With the Heard

“I was seated across from James and Stevie, and heard them discuss getting together and doing a song for James’ next album. In retrospect, I believe it was, ‘Don’t Be Sad ‘Cause Your Sun Is Down,’ a song James and Stevie co-wrote, which is on In the Pocket” [Taylor’s seventh and last album for Warner Bros. Records, released in June 1976, before signing with Columbia the following year].

The Taylor/Wonder co-write, “Don’t Be Sad ‘Cause Your Sun Is Down,” with Stevie Wonder on harmonica, was the B-side in some countries (Brazil, for one) of the “Shower the People” single. This is the 2019 Remaster:

“Sitting there, I had two distinct feelings in my body: One, I felt that I was right where I belonged amongst the stars, and two, completely aware that I was in the presence of musical giants; and yes, I felt small.

“Not invisible, just little. It helped a bit to see Carole King with a dab of mustard on the side of her mouth! We’re all human.

“It was a night I will never forget. Thank you, Chris.”

More Schwartz Stories? You might try Schwartz Stories #1, where Stephen sees Elvis in concert and meets him in 1974 Vegas, or Schwartz Stories #2, where Stephen plays a “private concert” (in 1972) of one original song for Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, or Schwartz Stories #3, where Stephen’s in a freeway race with a friend to be the first to buy a coveted, vintage guitar!