Monday, August 8, 2011

(376) FRED NEIL : STUDIO MUSICIAN : CAPITOL RECORDS ARTIST

FRED NEIL : What a voice! And a great person!
Freddy was six foot two, a freckled face, red hair. I met him in Saint Petersberg, Florida in December of 1957. He paled around with me and Ersel Hickey in New York and became a real good friend. He was a lot of fun - very comical - a prankster.

One time as I was walking across Broadway with some business people, I heard a loud voice, someone yelling for me with some profanity thrown in. I turned around and there he was, laughing at me. Freddy was turned loose in a big city.

Fred had a couple records on Capitol Records but his claim to fame was the song "Everybody's Talking," the movie Midnight Cowboy's theme song.

NICK VENET WAS THE PRODUCER ON THIS HIT.

Fred signed a contract with Southern Music. a division of Hill and Range, and became a big writer.

I wrote a song for Buddy Knox called "Bye Bye Helloa" and Freddy played all the instruments on the demo. It was recorded in a little studio in the Brill building. Freddy also worked in the studio with Bobby Darin.

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