"I had no idea what I was doing in the studio the first time. I had 40 pounds to spend at 5 or 6 pounds an hour. I was looking at the clock and it was 5:55 PM - time was nearly up. We had recorded three songs so I said 'Right, that's it.' The engineer said, 'What about mixing' (we were working on four-track), and I said, 'What's that?' He explained it to me; I said, 'You do it and I'll pick it up in the morning.' A year-and-a-half later I was an 'expert' and wouldn't let anybody else touch anything," he says.
In June of '63 the Stones' first single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On" was released and went to No. 21 in the UK. The follow-up in November was a cover of the dreaded Beatles' "I Wanna Be Your Man," which did even better rising to UK No. 12. By February of '64, they reached the UK Top 10 with Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," which also cracked the Top 50 in the U.S.
"Once we got going, we had to keep coming up with a new single every six weeks. We did a couple of singles, an EP [The Rolling Stones], then an album [England's Newest Hitmakers: The Rolling Stones]. One of the keys to production is to pick the right environment for the act to function in. For an example, after the first (largely disastrous) American tour in '64, as a reward for being pros, I took the Stones to Chess to record at the home of their idols," Oldham says.
While he was both the Stones' manager and producer, Oldham's greatest contribution to the group was "making them write. The Stones weren't writing yet, and I realized for them to keep pumping out the singles they had to come up with their own material. A group not being able to write is like flying an airplane without a parachute. 'Tell Me (You're Coming Back),' from the first album, was the first song Mick and Keith wrote that the group recorded. It was a great beginning; once they mastered writing singles, there was a period from '65 to '67 where we couldn't go wrong. We would cut four or five tracks a day. There were no prisoners: if a song wasn't happening after 20 minutes, next case," he says emphatically.
Article comments
1 - Ed Driscoll
Eric,
I just saw this. Terrific interview--I didn't even know Oldham was still alive!
He can't be that much older than Mick, Keith and Charlie. Is he still active in the music business?
Ed
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Ed! Yeah, he's about their age. He's been in Colombia for many years - married a Colombian woman. He produces some South American bands, hangs out, does this and that. He's been writing memoirs the last few years.
3 - Ron Ross
Thanks for an excellent interview. Andrew is indeed still in the music business, currently working with the Scottish group, V-Twin.
I am the editor of the first volume of ALO's "triography," "Stoned." You can read excerpts from the book at www.channeledbymodem.com I've also put up a number of rare video clips from Ready Steady Go, Shindig, and the TAMI show.
Ron Ross
stoned@channeledbymodem.com
4 - Eric Olsen
Thanks very much Ron, I'm glad you liked the interview. Very nice to hear from you. I have seen the site and it is excellent. I, haven't talked to Andrew in a while, so I am very pleased he is doing some music work.
Your book is very fine, by the way.
5 - Giorgio Gomelsky
There are a few inexactitudes here. After he missed out signing the
Beatles, Dick Rowe, head of Decca Records, had gone to Liverpool's
Cavern club (the hotspot at the time for all-the-rage "Mersey Beat")
to see what was going on (remember Liverpool was the "sticks" for
Londoners) and if he could pick up a few local acts. It was George
Harrison - who had actually come to the CrawDaddy with the rest
of the mop-heads, upon my invitation after they finished shooting
their first (#1 pop TV show) Thank Your Lucky Stars appearance
at nearby Twickenham Studios (my club was directly on the
road back to London) - was there that night, who pointed him to the
CrawDaddy and the Stones, I remember the night Dick showed up,
I was very surprised, I mean the man was not a blues fan after all,
and he looked rather flustered not knowing what to make of the Stones.
Andrew showed up quite a few weeks later - by that time Dick Rowe
was pretty desperate not to miss out on the new scene and the
coincidentality of George Harrison's observation and his own visit to
the club, must have greatly helped in making up his mind to sign the
band. Not exactly a great "pitching" achievement for Andrew :-) !
giorgio
6 - toni medina
I am looking to buy the instrumental version of Bitter Sweet Symphony. Can you tell me if this version was done by you. Or where i can get this, thanks.
7 - Eric Olsen
it's the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra
8 - Bob A. Booey
Forgive my ignorance, but is this the same "Bittersweet Sympathy" as the song by The Verve from the 1990s that sampled a Stones riff (I think "The Last Time")?
Or is that another song by the same name?
That is all.
9 - JR
It's the same. I think what we're reading here is that The Verve sampled a symphonic version of "The Last Time" played by the the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra.
10 - Eric Olsen
yes, good point, "Bittersweet Symphony" is the Verve title, the sample isn't actually from the Stones but from Oldham's orchestra doing Stones songs
11 - Andrew
The Verve didn't just sample the orchestral version of the Stones song: The Last Time, they took the whole piece from Andrew's Orchestra, in my view, and wrote some brilliant lyrics to it. Anythime I hear the orchestral version I sing the Verve's lyrics. Orchestral Version here:
12 - shaylie
hi i really want the intrumental to the verve bitter seewt symthany or the orchestral version by Oldham's orchestra were can i get no were on the net has it(that i can download!) thanks :)