How They Made Songs in the '60s

[Carl]

Many great musicians and producers are spending a lot of time these days trying to capture the sound of those great records from the '60s. But what exactly happened at one of these sessions?

Ralph Casale was a first call session guitarist for most of the decade, and he was kind enough to not only explain how these session ran, but to provide some amazing photos as well.

Some of the hits Ralph played on include Dawn (Go Away) by The Four Seasons and Lightin' Strikes by Lou Christie. What surprised me was how much these session players contributed to the creative process, and how productive they were. They would knock out 3-4 songs in a 3-hour session, and some days do multiple sessions. These were the guys who could play just about anything at a very high level, and also show up on time - thus eliminating most musicians from this line of work.

Have a look at Ralph's story and see if that's how you pictured these songs being made:

Session Pro Ralph Casale