House of Hits: The Story of Houston's Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music)

House

of Hits

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b r a d a n d m i c h e l e m o o r e r o o t s m u s i c s e r i e s
u n i v e r s i t y o f t e x a s p r e s s

a u s t i n

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The Story of

Houston’s Gold Star/SugarHill

Recording Studios

by
andy bradley
and
roger wood
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Copyright © 2010 by the University of Texas Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

First edition, 2010

Requests for permission to reproduce material

from this work should be sent to:

Permissions: University of Texas Press

P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819

www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html

The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements

of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).

Designed by Lindsay Starr

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bradley, Andy, 1951–

House of hits : the story of Houston’s Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios / by Andy Bradley and Roger Wood. — 1st ed.

p. cm. — (Brad and Michele Moore roots music series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

isbn 978-0-292-71919-4 (cl. : alk. paper)

1. SugarHill Recording Studios. 2. Gold Star Studios. 3. Sound recording industry—Texas—Houston—History. I. Wood, Charles Roger, 1956– II. Title.

ml3792.s84b73 2010

781.6409764'1411—dc22

2009044441

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Contents

Foreword
by Deniz Tek
vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction:
The Case for Greatness
xi

1.
The Raid 1

2.
Domestic Crude 6

3.
The Independent Quinn 11

4.
Gold Star Records 18

5.
Label’s Demise, New Studio’s Rise:

Recording in the House
32

6.
Pappy Daily and Starday Records 41

7.
The Big Studio Room Expansion 61

8.
Daily’s Dominance and D Records 70

9.
Little Labels:
Blues, Country, and Sharks
82

10.
Into the ’60s and Quinn’s Last Sessions 92

11.
Duke-Peacock:
The Gold Star Connection
104

12.
The HSP Corporation Experiment Begins 121

13.
A House of Rock, Despite the Muck 135

14.
The HSP Aftermath and a New Direction 145

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15.
International Artists Record Company:

The Psychedelic Business Plan
158

16.
Disillusioned Dissolution 177

17.
Meaux Moves In, SugarHill Ascends 181

18.
The Freddy Fender Phenomenon 191

19.
The Later ’70s and Early ’80s 204

20.
Meaux’s Final Phase 212

21.
Modern Music (Ad)Ventures 219

22.
Emergence of a RAD Idea 231

23.
Millennial Destiny 236

24.
Still Tracking in the Twenty-fi rst Century 245

appendix a 255

Catalogue of Interviews

appendix b 259

Chart Records from the House of Hits

appendix c 267

Selected Discographies: A Partial History

appendix d 311

Chronology of Gold Star/SugarHill Engineers

Bibliography 313

Index 319

v i

h o u s e o f h i t s

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Foreword

first came to sugarhill studios
in the year 1991. I had been out of the business of recording for a decade and was eager to get back into the studio. My friend and former bandmate in Radio

Birdman, Chris Masuak, had asked me to help out on an album he was doing with his group the Hitmen. I fl ew in to Houston’s Hobby Airport, and we stopped at a Two Pesos for cheap tacos on the way.

The building is on Brock Street in a quiet and old neighborhood. Although in the city, it has a rural feel. It rains a lot, so stuff grows fast here. Primal life energy fl ows freely. Trees, vines, fl owering shrubs of all kinds mingle with old stuff lying around and threaten to engulf the pavement. If people went away, there would be no sign of civilization within a decade. Small mid-century vintage wood-frame houses needing paint line the street, some with beer coolers on the front porch. Kids and dogs run around outside, their shouts mingling with a hint of charcoal smoke and the aroma of tortillas. I got the feeling there was some voodoo in that humid air.

Inside the building, the small reception area has some glass cases displaying Gold Record awards, album covers, and other memorabilia. Down the narrow hallway, Studio B is on your left; the original gold star emblem is emblazoned in the fl oor. Go on down past there, through the coff ee lounge, and into the control area with the big Neotek desk that adjoins the big room known as Studio A. You suddenly get hit with the impression you are in a parallel world. It looks like an old Mexican cantina, but with a grand piano out front—a surreal juxtaposition, but somehow perfect. There are painted palm trees and white adobe walls fronting the various booths. Staff members told me that Freddy Fender wanted those palms in there, and they just left ’em. I felt immediately at home. If I could aff ord the rent, I’d live there.

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Behind the control room there is a narrow staircase that leads up to Huey Meaux’s old tape archives. I went up there and had a quick look around the dusty shelves, and was astonished to lay hands on original four-track masters of the 13th Floor Elevators and the Sir Douglas Quintet, among others numerous and amazing. Those tapes were as hot and heavy in my hands as a box of plutonium. I felt like Indiana Jones fi nding the Ark.

SugarHill and the Houston music scene have living treasures too. All it took was a phone call from Andy to get Grady Gaines (who played with Little Richard, among others, back in the 1950s) to come down and blow tenor sax on one of my sessions. After the killer tracks that he recorded, and the fan photos we had to take of Grady in his blue cardigan with Chris and me, I handed him a wad of cash. He said, “You boys can call me anytime!” A great moment at SugarHill, but maybe the greatest was Huey Meaux wandering into the control room during a playback. He listened for a minute, then shook his head. He looked up and said, “Y’all need to record in
mono.
”

Magic is a recurring theme in this history. Maybe it is the central theme.

Much has been said and written about other magical studios—Abbey Road, Olympic, the Hit Factory, to name a few. There is certainly more to these places than bricks, mortar, wires, and electrons. Take the trip through these pages, and enjoy the ride. But after you read about SugarHill magic, be sure to get hold of some of the wonderful recordings made here. When you listen, you’ll hear it and you will feel it, somewhere in the beat. You’ll know, because it will make you want to dance.

deniz tek

Billings, Montana

v i i i

h o u s e o f h i t s

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Acknowledgments

he coauthors heartily thank
Andrew Brown, whose knowl-

edge of and passion for the history of independent recording in Texas inspired and informed this book.

Andy Bradley adds: Thanks to the numerous musicians and

engineers, past and present, who participated in our research. The staff at SugarHill Studios and my business partners have gone the extra mile. My wife Donna gave me the idea and kept me focused. And I must acknowledge my two mentors, Bill Holford and Calvin Owens. Bill galvanized my love of analog recording and taught me how to edit with a razor blade. Calvin taught me patience and, with his many sessions featuring big brass and strings, how to record such instrumentation eff ectively. Johnny Bush, a Texas legend and my friend, has given me invaluable insight into country music. Roger Wood’s involvement has been critical in developing and documenting the narrative and preparing the manuscript.

We have lost quite a few colleagues since the inception of this project. May this book keep their memories alive.

Roger Wood is grateful to Marla, his wife. He also thanks his many friends who love the music and stories of Texas and the Gulf Coast, especially James Fraher, Edwin Gallaher, Mack McCormick, John Nova Lomax, Tomas Escalante, Pete Mitchell, Reg Burns, Chris Gray, William Michael Smith, Pete Gordon, Ruben Duran, Chris Strachwitz, Rick Mitchell, Gary Hartman, Tom McClendon, the folks at KPFT-FM radio, and his two brothers, Glen and Terry.

For professional support and more, he thanks Alan Ainsworth of Houston Community College—Central, Andy Bradley and the SugarHill staff , as well as Theresa May and Allison Faust of the University of Texas Press.

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Roger Wood’s involvement in the writing of this book was supported by an Individual Artist Grant Award provided by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.

quotations from our many oral historical sources, unless otherwise indicated, come from the interviews documented in Appendix A, which follows the main text.

Quotations from, or references to, published sources are each cited by the relevant writer’s name and other necessary identifying data, corresponding to full documentation in the Bibliography.

Most of the photographs in this book come from the in-house archives of SugarHill Studios, and unless otherwise indicated, the photographers are unknown. We thank Tony Endieveri, Doug Hanners, Frank Juricek, Gaylan Latimer, Gina R. Miller, and Chris Strachwitz for the use of additional images.