"jangly" guitarist on J. DeShannon's "When You Walk In The Room" (Q for Ron Furmanek)

I recently purchased the "Definitive Jackie DeShannon" collection CD
put together by Ron Furmanek circa 93/94...

I'm fascinated with the guitar part on "When You Walk In The Room".

I don't think I'm alone - that sound started showing up in many
other places - most notably on Byrds' LPs.


I'm curious if Ron Furmanek can help name the guitarist.

Over in rec.music.beatles on usenet, someone said they were
willing to bet Glen Campbell as the mystery guitarist.

Certainly a good guess - but I tend to think it may have
been Deshannon herself who played that guitar.

And I'm not ready to rule out Roger McGuinn because
Ms. DeShannon worked with the Byrds....

Ron - were there any tell tale signs in the studio
documentation ? Or perhaps on studio chatter ??


And can you confirm that the piano player on
"Breakaway" was Leon Russell ? Sounds a lot
like Leon to my ears...

 

I don't know the answer to your questions ... but another possibility on guitar is Tommy Allsup ... he played on a lot of Liberty records from early '60 thru mid '64 ...

Allsup has the following quotes in Michael "Doc Rock" Kelly's '93 book "Liberty Records - A History of the Recording Company and Its Stats 1955 - 1971" ...

"I did [guitar work for] almost everyone on the label"

"We also started Leon Russel out."

"I used to have Glen Campbell show up at my sessions when I couldn't do them. I was there just a little while before he was."

 

Can't answer your question, but you may be interested in this :

To quote from notes in an Ace compilation disk with JdS's Needles and Pins, "Sonny and I were all hanging out with her" Nitzsche told Ken Barnes. "I had that riff for a long time. That wasn't a 12 string guitar, it was lots of gutars played in unison. Sonny always used to try and take credit for it." (Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche wrote Needles and Pins")

I sure remember how much more soulful Jackie's original recordings seemed after growing up with the Searchers sound.

 

It could also be Carol Kaye. She played on a few of DeShannon's songs.

http://www.carolkaye.com/www/library/guitarhits.htm

mud-

 

If it was a Sonny Bono session, it must have been The Wrecking crew. So it may have been Tommy Tedesco, Billy Strange, Glen Campbell, etc.

 

Hi Mikey ... I don't think Sonny did any production work for Liberty ... I am pretty sure Snuff Garrett produced Cher's Imperial material ...

 

Yea, but Jack Nitzsche has said that Sonny was there during the session in other interviews.

besides, the Wrecking crew did lots of work for Snuff Garret, like EVERY Gary Lewis record. My bet is that its the Crew on When You Walk In The Room.

 

With so many suggestions, I'm wondering if the identity of the guitarist
is not as important as the person who came up with the riff...


I'll agree with the above quote concerning Jackie's "Needles and Pins".
It doesn't sound like a 12 string guitar... it sounds as stated above
(like "lots of guitars played in unison")

If Nitzche came up with the riff for "Needles and Pins" - its possible
he also wrote the riff for "When You Walk In The Room"... with perhaps
two different guitarists playing the "same" part an octave away??

I was guessing DeShannon because she seems to be quite creative.
But apparently Nitzche was too... in any case, I'm not aware of
an earlier example of that sort of sound...


On a related note, anyone know if Bono/Nitzche came up with the "PinsZAH" inflection for "Needles and Pins" ? It's used in
other parts of the song (e.g. "Get down on my kneesZAH")
but its there sometimes and other times it isn't... I'm wondering
if it was intentional or a happy accident...


It's kind of like Van's spelling of the last two letters in Gloria.
"G" "L" "O" "R" "I-yiyi-yeaaaaahhh"... The inflection might
drive a grammer teacher nuts... but its MUCH better

(I love the spelling instructions on Van's double CD set from
San Francisco - circa mid-90s)

 

I seem to recall an interview with Jack Neitzsche where he credits Sonny Bono with the
"Pinzah" thing. Must have been an Italian thing!

 

I seem to recall - and I'll have to check a couple of sources - that McGuinn & Co DID back Jackie on a version of WYWITR, as a favor for letting them record DON'T DOUBT YOURSELF BABE (IIRC).

 

Jackie's version was recorded in 1963 - before there were Byrds (Pre-flyte, if you will )

 

The Byrds backed Jackie on a recording called "Splendor in the Grass" (it appears on the Byrd Parts compilation CD). By the way, Chris Hillman did a cover of WYWITR a few years ago for a solo album.

 

I found a webpage for "the jackie deshannon appreciation society"...

Tons of information there...

I found mention of some songs she recorded with The Byrds (other
than "Splendor In The Grass")... they were apparently never released
properly... at least in the 60s... they may actually have surfaced
on a Byrds compilation... I think some of them are on the CDs sold
by the JDAS...

There is mention that The Byrds played "When You Walk In The Room"
at a 1965 gig in Rockford, IL. Presumeably they played it everywhere
they went on that tour.

But as for the specific question I asked, the answer is Glen Campbell
played it - but Jackie wrote it.

There is a Goldmine interview where this specific question was asked.

To quote:


"Q: Concerning your classic song "When You Walk In The Room"
did you write that on the guitar and was that guitar lick written
by you as well?"

A: Yes, I wrote it on the guitar and I did write that lick. Glen
Campbell, however, played it on the actual session. It was
really funny. I has such nerve. Glen could have played it
perfectly, but I didn't want that. I wanted more raunch and
funky like I played it. Glen thought people were going to
think he played badly. I kept saying, 'Well never mind,'
because I'm not a great musician by any means. He was
very sweet to help me out. It was a very different approach
in those days."

 

The way I remember it is that the Byrds recorded "Don't Doubt Yourself" as a thank-you to Jackie, who was very supportive of the group when they first started.

 

Yea, I went back to the source (Rogan), and except for the fact that, yes, DDY was in fact recorded as a thank-you for her support, and that they backed her on the SITG demo and that WYWITR was recorded without them ... well, except for all that, I was pretty much correct, wasn't I? I mean, I got the Birds and Jack D Shannon right, didn't I?