The
recording of "Nobody But Me"
The history of making the record, as told by Ting Markulin,
THE HUMAN BEINZ
In the spring of 1967 "THE HUMAN BEINGZ"
were signed to a recording contract by Capitol Records and were scheduled
to record at Cleveland Recording studio in the
summer of 1967.
When we signed the contracts, our name was misspelled "THE
HUMAN BEINZ". The " G "
was missing and Capitol said it would be corrected before any records were
released, so we, THE BEINGZ said o.k. and that
we would do our scheduled session.
So,
in the summer of 1967, we set up our equipment, at Cleveland
Recording, to record a "single" for our first release. We
had decided to do a song from a Sonny & Cher album. The song was "You
Don't Love Me". It was one of the songs we played very well live and
we thought it would turn out great on a record. We were wrong.
We
tried to get a groove going, in the studio, but nothing worked.
We tried for about three hours and were getting tired and depressed when our
producer "Lex" told us to take a break and come into the booth.
In the booth, Lex told us to relax and to just go back to the studio and play
one of the songs that we enjoyed playing and jamming on. I (Ting)
suggested we do "Nobody But Me " as
we had just changed the names of the songs (shouted out) a short while ago.
The Jerk, The Twist, etc. were replaced with Boogaloo and Shingaling, etc.
We all agreed and went back into the studio and played "Nobody
But Me" the same way that we did it live.
Now let me explain that when we did this song live it was about seven minutes
long and we did a huge jam in the middle. Dick Belley did all kinds of leads,
I (Ting) did all kinds of feedbacks and Mel was
a wildman on the bass.
We played the song this way in the studio for Lex; and when we finished he
was very excited and said, "That's it! That's the
song! That's a hit!".
Thus began the process of recording "Nobody But
Me".
The first thing Lex told us was that the jam would have to be eliminated to
make the song about two minutes long for airplay.
Now, before I go any further, I want to clear up a lot of rumors about
the people who played on our recordings:
Mike Tatman was the only drummer to play on our recordings,
period.
Mel Pachuta was the only bass player to play on our
recordings, period.
Dick Belley was the only lead singer and lead guitar
player to play on our recordings, period.
I (Ting) played rhythm
guitar on all but one song "Close Your Eyes".
Jim Murray,the author, played the guitar.
Lex, our producer, played all piano and keyboard parts
on all of our recordings, period.
We all played percussions, tamborine, handclaps, back
up vocals, etc. on all of our recordings.... Nobody but us, period.
The Cleveland Symphony played all orchestra and horn
parts on all but one record, "This Little Girl of Mine " in which
the horn parts were done by studio musicans in L.A. Nobody else did anything
on our recordings. No instruments, No singing, No percussions, No sneezing,
No farting, No nothing.
Now, getting
back to the session, Cleveland Recording had
an eight (8) track machine; which meant that we could put each instrument
on it's own separate track. We first structured the song to make it the right
length, and just played it over and over to make sure we all knew the new
structure. Now it was time to record. We all played the song but, only the
drums, bass and the feedback intro were recorded. Once we had a tight recording
of the drums and bass we started adding the other instruments. Next, I (Ting)
played acoustic twelve string for a rhythm track and then I (Ting)
played chops with a six string electric.
Dick put in the lead guitar next and then we all put in different percussions.
Lex then added the organ to help build the ending of the song and then I put
the feedback in the middle behind the lead. We had run out of tracks long
before this but our engineer 'Ken Hamman' had
"bounced " tracks; which means he mixed some tracks together so
that we could re-use the ones he opened up.
Dick then sang the lead vocal track and then Dick and I sang the backup and
harmony vocals.
The next thing that happened
was really something. We all were listening to the song as a rough mix with
all the tracks playing and Lex kept saying the ending needed something to
add more excitement. At that time I drank a lot of Pepsi and had left an empty
bottle in the studio. Well, we were listening to the song again and Mel walked
into the booth with the empty Pepsi bottle and a drumstick and began hitting
he bottle in double time at the end of the song!
Lex said that was what he was looking for. Mel played it on a track and that
sound was mixed into the song. Lex said that was it; the song was complete
and we mixed it.
"Nobody But Me" took two days to complete.
It was done, and so we moved on to do the "B" side....... but that's
another story.
Ting, Leader and rhythm guitar of "THE HUMAN BEINZ"
Discography
45's
US Releases
unless noted
Year
1966
THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING/GLORIA
THE PIED PIPER/MY GENERATION
- Gateway 828
1966 MY GENERATION/EVIL
HEARTED YOU
HEY JOE/SPIDER MAN - ELYSIAN 3376
1967
NOBODY BUT ME/SUENO - Capitol
5590
(released in the UK on Capitol CL 15529)
1968
TURN ON YOUR LOVE LIGHT/IT'S FUN TO BE CLEAN
- Capitol 2119 (released in the UK on Capitol CL 15542)
1968 EVERYTIME WOMAN/THE FACE - Capitol 2198
1969
I'VE GOT TO KEEP ON PUSHING/THIS
LITTLE GIRL OF MINE
(Non-LP) - Capitol CL 2431
1969 HOLD ON BABY/THIS LITTLE GIRL OF MINE - released in japan only
Discography
LP's
Year
1968 NOBODY BUT ME -
Capitol ST 2906
Nobody But Me clip
(mp3)
1968 EVOLUTIONS - Capitol ST 2926
1968
NOBODY BUT ME - Gateway
GLP 3012
(One
side of an LP shared with the Mammals containing Gateway 45's.
The members of The Human Beinz never performed or personally recorded with
the Mammals,
and never received any royalties from those releases.)
1969 LIVE IN JAPAN - (Toshiba)
1969 Human Beinz Greatest Hits - released in japan only
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