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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