Sunday, 5 July 2020

Tommy "Snuff" Garrett born 5 July 1939


Snuff Garrett (July 5, 1938 – December 16, 2015) was an American record producer whose most famous work was during the 1960s and 1970s.

Thomas Lesslie Garrett was born in Dallas on July 5, 1938. His father, also named Thomas, was a lawyer and bail bondsman. His mother was the former Lila Ables. He got his nickname in South Oak Cliff High School. It was derived from Levi Garrett, a 
popular brand of snuff.  He quit high school in the ninth grade, was hired as an errand boy at a local radio station and then left for Hollywood with the hope of getting into the music business, but the closest he got was selling records in a store on Sunset Boulevard. Returning to Texas, he talked his way into disc jockey jobs in Dallas, Wichita Falls and Lubbock.

At seventeen, Garrett was a disc jockey in Lubbock, Texas, where he met Buddy Holly. He is often still mentioned on the Lubbock oldies station KDAV on a program hosted by his friend Jerry "Bo" Coleman. Garrett also worked in radio in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he performed on-air stunts. On February 3, 1959, Garrett broadcast his own tribute show to Holly after he was killed (along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper) in a plane crash in Iowa.

Snuff with Bobby Vee
In 1959, Garrett became a staff producer at Liberty Records in Hollywood at the age of 19, after having joined the label to work in the promotions department. Although not a musician, Garrett showed he had a knack for finding hit songs, going on to produce a string of hits and becoming the label's head of A&R until he left Liberty in 1966. His first job as producer for the label was on Johnny Burnette's "Settin' the Woods on Fire" on July 9, 1959. Among Garrett's roster of artists were Bobby Vee, Johnny Burnette, Gene McDaniels, Buddy Knox, Walter Brennan, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, and Del Shannon.

Snuff  & Leon Russell 
He was also responsible for hiring Phil Spector for a short period as an assistant producer. Many of Garrett's hit singles came from songs by the Brill Building songwriters in New York City. Others who worked closely with Garrett include future recording star Leon Russell, who often arranged his productions, and Lenny Waronker, Liberty co-founder Simon Waronker's son who became a producer in his own right and eventually president of Warner Bros. Records. Later, after leaving Liberty, Garrett worked with Cher and Sonny & Cher and had his own record labels, Snuff Garrett Records and Viva Records, which the catalogue was licensed to Warner Bros during the 1980s.


                               

Between 1961 and 1969, he released a series of over 25 instrumental albums, featuring solo guitar work by Tommy Tedesco, on Liberty Records by "The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett", six of which appeared on the Billboard Top LPs chart. 
In 1966, Garrett produced an album by singer-songwriter Sonny 
Curtis on the Viva label, The 1st of Sonny Curtis, which contains some of Curtis' most popular tunes, including "Walk Right Back" "My Way of Life", "Hung up in your Eyes", and "I Fought the Law and the Law Won.” Garrett was invited early on to produce the Monkees, but a test session did not go well, with the Monkees preferring to work with Boyce and Hart.

In addition to his hits with Sonny & Cher for Kapp Records and MCA Records in the 1970s, Garrett also produced Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" for Bell Records (a song written by Lawrence's then-husband Bobby Russell), and Tanya Tucker's "Lizzie and the Rainman" for MCA. 
Both of these songs had been intended for Cher; but her husband and manager at the time, Sonny Bono, thought it might offend Cher's Southern fans. Other artists produced by Garrett in the 1970s included Brenda Lee and "singing cowboy" Roy Rogers.

Garrett worked regularly with the Johnny Mann Singers and the Ron Hicklin Singers on many projects, and was responsible for the new sound of The Ray Conniff Singers in the early 1970s 
(which employed the Hicklin Singers), producing two albums with Conniff. Garrett also produced several tracks by Nancy Sinatra in the mid-1970s that were issued by Private Stock Records. In 1976, Garrett set up a sub-label of Casablanca Records, Casablanca West. The label released just one album and two singles before folding. In 1978, Garrett produced the country-oriented soundtrack of Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way but Loose, which appeared on Garrett's latter-day label, Viva Records.

In 1976, when home video was in its infancy, Garrett bought cassette rights to the old RKO, Republic and Hal Roach (Laurel and Hardy) films for what United Press International termed "a pittance." By 1980, the 800-title library of his company The 
Nostalgia Merchant was earning $2.3 million a year. "Nobody wanted cassettes four years ago ... It wasn't the first time people called me crazy. It was a hobby with me which became big business", Garrett told UPI.

Garrett lived in Bell Canyon, California in a ranch built for himself. He was was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, a month before he died of cancer at his ranch on December 16, 2015, at the age of 77

(Edited from Wikipedia & NY Times)

4 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett - South of the Border” go here:

www.filefactory.com/file/2f4apkorv8rx/Jascd%20%20912%20%20Tommy%20Garrett%20-%20The%2050%20Guitars%20Of%20Tommy%20Garrett%2050%20Guitars%20Go%20South%20Of%20The%20Borders%20Volumes%201%20%26%202.rar

1. GUADALAJARA
2. COME CLOSER TO ME
3. FRENESI
4. BE MINE TONIGHT
5. ADIOS
6. LA VIRGEN DE LA MACARENA
7. BESAME MUCHO
8. YOU BELONG TO MY HEART
9. LA BAMBA
10. PERFIDIA
11. SOUTH OF THE BORDER
12. GRANADA
13. EL RANCHO GRANDE
14. MEXICALI ROSE
15. CIELITO LINDO
16. FANTASIA MEXICANA
17. MAGIC IS THE MOONLIGHT
18. MALAGUENA
19. MEXICAN HAT DANCE
20. AMOR, AMOR
21. ESTRELLITA
22. GREEN EYES
23. LA PALOMA
24. VAYA CON DIOS



The '50 Guitars' project was Garrett's entrée to the lucrative US MOR albums' market, conceived as a cross between The Ventures and the Ray Conniff Singers, but with an appeal to younger, R&R record buyers. His 'guitar orchestra' featured the cream of America's session guitarists, including Barney Kessel, Tommy Tedesco, Bill Pitman, Laurindo Almeida, Bob Bain, Howard Roberts, Tiny Timbrell, José Barroso, Al Viola, René Hall, Milt Norman, George Smith, Tony Rizzi, etc.

The first LP in the series, 'Go South Of The Border', featuring a dozen well-known Latin songs arranged to evince a strong Mexican feel, was released in the Summer of 1961 and made the US LP charts.The similarly-styled follow-up volume 'Go South Of The Border Vol.II' was released the following year. (Jasmine notes)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

For “50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett - Six Flags Over Texas & Go Country” go here:

http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/yq5urg


SIX FLAGS OVER TEXAS
1. YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS
2. STREETS OF LAREDO
3. COTTON FIELDS
4. SAN ANTONIO ROSE
5. THEME FROM 'GIANT'
6. ABILENE
7. TEXAS, OUR TEXAS
8. RED RIVER VALLEY
9. BIG D
10. THEME FROM 'THE ALAMO' (The Green Leaves Of Summer)
11. HOUSTON
12. SIX FLAGS OVER TEXAS
GO COUNTRY
13. WABASH CANNON BALL
14. I CAN'T HELP IT
15. TENNESSEE WALTZ
16. WILDWOOD FLOWER
17. AM I LOSING YOU
18. JUST OUT OF REACH
19. SUGAR FOOT RAG
20. MISSING YOU
21. YOU WIN AGAIN
22. WHEN MY BLUE MOON TURNS TO GOLD
23. OH LONESOME ME
24. SEND ME THE PILLOW YOU DREAM ON


This is Jasmine's second release from the files of 'The Fifty Guitars of Tommy Garrett' which features two further albums from 1962, 'Six Flags Or Texas' and 'Go Country'. These LPs have lost none of their early 60s appeal and probably due to Ernie Freeman's arrangements as much as anything are unlikely to ever become 'old -fashioned'.
A must for fans of instrumental Rock & Roll. (Jasmine notes)

A big thank you to Odin for active links.

boppinbob said...


Below is a selected discography taken from various music blogs. A big thank you to all credited up-loaders.

(1) John Burrows @ Heartbreak Hotel (N.B. no art work)
(2) Zokyat @ Only Instrumental Music
(3) Jose Sandoval @ A Walk In The Black Forest
(4) Luis @ Entre Musica (PASSWORD: ludovico)
(5) Georgy @ georgy-hi-fi-story

1962 – Visit Hawaii (1)

https://od.lk/fl/OV8xMDMxNDU0Nl9mZEhkVg

1962 – The 50 Guitars In Love (1)

https://od.lk/fl/OV8xNzkwMjkyN18

1963 – Maria Elana (2)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/3d98e79dbhinlfh/The_50_guitars_Of_Tommy_Garrett_-_Maria_Elena.rar/file

1964 – Bordertown Bandido (1)

https://od.lk/fl/OV8xNDc3MzM4M18

1964 – Go Italiano (1)

https://od.lk/fl/OV8yNjQzOTc0XzljdFdQ

1965 – Espana (4)

https://dfiles.eu/files/qfsaody0l

1965 – Return To Paradise (1)

https://od.lk/fl/OV8xNDc3NjE3M18

1966 – Love Songs From South Of The Border (1)

https://od.lk/fl/OV8xNzkwMzE4NF8

1966 – The 50 Guitars Take You To Mexico (1)

https://od.lk/fl/OV8xNzg4MjYwNl8

1968 – Spanish Eyes (3)

https://mega.nz/file/5ZEkXS4b#zqxlwX9yrt7R19tJcatV2cqRUWVBmrnqeyTYzjdJKMI

1969 – The Sound Of Love (5)

https://yadi.sk/d/dmd_zzPg3X5WFV

Creedmoor said...

Another stellar assortment, most new to me. Keep those birthdays coming. Thanks!

ausman said...

It's amazing that no reissue label has ever compiled a release spotlighting Snuff's many productions throughout his life. He had many more hits than Spector, yet, whereas the latter has numerous CD issues spotlighting his work, Garrett has none. Two years ago I put together a 6 CD set of Snuff's productions covering the years 1959 up to his final years ("The Man With Ears For a Hit") and it illustrates just why he was the most successful record producer of the 1960/70s.