Curt Boettcher
Curt Boettcher, later
Curt Boetcher and
Curt Becher (
1944–
1987) was an
American singer, songwriter, musician, and
record producer from
Wisconsin. His career spanned
1964 to
1983.
Boettcher was one of the most important personalities of
Sunshine Pop in the
1960s, even influencing
Brian Wilson before the production of
Pet Sounds. Boettcher worked with
The Association,
Gary Usher,
The Millennium,
Sagittarius, and
The Beach Boys, among others. Curt Boettcher sang some background vocals on
The Byrds'
The Notorious Byrd Brothers album, a Gary Usher production job.
He started out working with a folk quartet in the early 60s called
The GoldeBriars. Two albums were released by
Epic Records, and a third (which apparently found them heading in a prototypical folk-rock direction) was recorded but was rejected for release. The group had added drummer
Ron Edgar prior to recording their third album, who would later join
The Music Machine before working with Boettcher again in
The Millennium.
Following the demise of
The GoldeBriars, Boettcher moved into production and songwriting work for others, including
Tommy Roe and
The Association, as well as forming a group called
The Ballroom. Though the group signed to
Warner Bros. and recorded an album in
1966, it remained unreleased in its entirety until 2001. However, Boettcher met both
Brian Wilson and producer
Gary Usher while working on the album. Usher, in particular, was so impressed that, when working on an album for a studio project released under the name of
Sagittarius, he called in Boettcher to contribute several of his songs from the
Ballroom album, which were basically the recordings that Boettcher had originally produced (albeit with a stereo mix).
Gary Usher's clout, as well as his successful productions for
The Association and
Tommy Roe, allowed Boettcher to start working on his own studio project for
Columbia Records. In 1968, having been given
carte blanche, he assembled a group of musicians and songwriters that he knew (including
Sandy Salisbury,
Lee Mallory,
Joey Stec and
Michael Fennelly), as well as a flank of top
Los Angeles session men, and started recording an album under the group moniker
The Millennium. Their only album,
Begin, was the most expensive album that
Columbia had released at that point, and despite the release of several singles, it was a commercial failure. This has been partially attributed to Boettcher's reluctance to tour. The group did attempt a few live performances in
Los Angeles, but the difficulty of reasonably replicating the album on stage presented a large enough challenge to disinterest Boettcher, and though the single
It's You did become a substantial hit in several regions, there was no group to support it (surprisingly enough,
5 AM also became a hit as well, in the
Philippines).
Though the lack of success for the album took a heavy toll upon the group, they did release one final single,
Just About The Same b/w Blight. They also recorded several songs for a follow-up album, though the album was never completed.
Soon after
The Millennium broke up, Boettcher's friend
Gary Usher started a record label called
Together Records. He brought in Boettcher as a staff producer, and Boettcher was involved in several projects for the label. These included his first attempt at a solo album, as well as producing recordings for a
Sandy Salisbury solo album, an instrumental treatment of
Brian Wilson compositions for a small orchestra, and contributing to the second
Sagittarius album. Though the
Sagittarius album, entitled
The Blue Marble, did see release (and also notched a minor entry on the singles chart with a cover of
The Beach Boys'
In My Room), and several
Sandy Salisbury singles were released, the label folded before any of his other work could be completed (though it was eventually released in the early 2000s).
Following this, and without having a substantial hit in any form for several years, Boettcher's career started to stall. In
1971, he signed a deal with
Elektra Records at the insistence of
Jac Holzman, who was a huge fan of
Begin. Even after telling Holzman that the album would take a long time to produce, Holzman still insisted, and Boettcher reluctantly started working on a solo album. His influence was soon bolstered after meeting a young multi-instrumentalist named
Webb Burrel, and taking a cue from the early entirely-solo albums by
Emitt Rhodes, Boettcher decided to record the album in a similar fashion, using as few musicians as possible. After almost two years of work,
There's An Innocent Face was finally released in
1973. It differed from his early work (though, as posthumous collections show, it was a continuation of the direction that
The Millennium had taken with their unreleased recordings), as it was a collection of songs with
country,
sunshine pop,
arena rock, and
folk stylings. Despite its eclectic nature, it was another commercial failure.
He did attempt to record a follow-up album, tentatively titled
Chicken Little Was Right, but it was never completed. His output, both as a musician and producer, was severely curtailed afterwards, and he did very little work during the last years of his life. His best-known (if not highly regarded) work following
There's An Innocent Face is a 10-minute
Disco version of the song
Here Comes The Night by
The Beach Boys, which was a moderate hit in 1979 and was included on
L.A. (Light Album), though it is generally considered to be vastly inferior to the original recording from their
1967 album
Wild Honey. He also produced
Mike Love's solo album
Looking Back With Love, which many
Beach Boys fans regard as the worst album ever associated with the group. Unfortunately, he never had the opportunity to revive his career, and he died in
1987, following a lung operation.
Critical opinion of Boettcher's work and importance varies, as some find his work outside of
The Millennium to be rather lightweight and aloof, arguing that the technical quality of his productions and arrangements are often offset by subpar material (style versus substance).
Gary Usher, however, maintained until his dying day that Boettcher was "light years" beyond
Brian Wilson as a producer, though this is certainly open to debate. In spite of all of this, his output has achieved a substantial cult following, particularly amongst
sunshine pop aficionados and in countries where
sunshine pop is popular (such as
Japan), and
The Millennium's
Begin is generally regarded nowadays as one of the finest pop albums from the late 60s.
*
There's an Innocent Face (1973, Elektra Records)
*
www.curtboettcher.com - An exhaustive website on Curt Boettcher*
All Music Guide entry
