After six decades, the studios on the lower level of the iconic Capitol Records building near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine remain a hotbed of musical activity. Just this year, Bob Dylan recorded his new album, Fallen Angels there, and Dave Grohl rehearsed for his Academy Awards in memoriam performance of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” in the building.
But in that 60-year run that has seen countless legends, from Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole to the Beach Boys and Paul McCartney, the place has also become a bastion of music history. That will be celebrated this weekend when Capitol Studios celebrates its 60th anniversary by opening its doors to the public.
Over Saturday and Sunday, the studios will host 12 VIP tours and 20 general admission tours. Priced at $100 and $50 respectively, all 32 tours are sold out, proving the chance to be a part of music history is a big deal for a lot of people.
If you can sell out 32 tours in one weekend, Paula Salvatore, Capitol Studios VP and Pat Kraus, SVP, Head of Studio, Production & Archive Services, understand the potential windfall of occasionally opening up the studios is too much to pass up.
“I think it’s a good idea to share with the public, and it’s for a good cause too. We’re helping music and education,” Salvatore said as she and Kraus recently sat with myself and fellow journalist Monica Molinaro for a chat about the studio’s history and future plans.
Though Salvatore admits even planning for the one weekend was difficult because the studio remains popular with musicians. “We’re so busy it’s hard to kind of plan it,” she says. “We were worried in May, what if B gets booked for the month, I can’t throw someone out. But it just works out. You kind of put a placement in the calendar and hopefully things work out. It’s a lot of that. It’s a lot of kismet that is constantly working in my favor. It’s a knack for booking that you don’t even know what it is.”
One added side effect of hosting the event this weekend is raising awareness of the studio and its continued relevance. The sold-out tours have turned into great PR for Capitol Studios. “With the press we’re getting too it’s getting people more aware that this is a viable place,” Salvatore says. “We’re not a museum, we’re actually living, breathing, working and [it’ll] maybe encourage more people to book time so they can come over.”
Talk to Salvatore, Kraus and Grammy-winning engineer Al Schmitt, and they can regale you with stories of musical heroes being in the building.
“One time Sting came in to do a little session. I saw him down the hall, he goes I’ve always marveled at this building from afar. Then he came back again and again,” Salvatore recalls. “U2 was doing a thing with their release so I said to Bono when he was here, ‘Oh, you were here with Tony Bennett doing a vocal. There have been a lot of legends here and now you’re one of them’ He turns back and goes, ‘That’s a high bar, Paula.’ People notice that. It’s so cool.”
More recently, Schmitt had the experience of recording Dylan in there and watching as Dylan used Sinatra’s microphone and commented after, “I have never sounded better.”
In his 44 years working inside Capitol Studios, Schmitt has seen and worked with too many music luminaries to name.
“There’s the Breezin’ album by George Benson that was done there. That was an amazing record, and I think we did eight songs, only six of them went on the album. Of the eight songs, six were the first take, so there was just a magic that happened there with everybody involved. That’s one," he said of his stand-out favorites. "The Sinatra duets album, which was the first time I ever got to work with Frank, that album is just amazing. The Unforgettable record with Natalie and her dad, it’s another one that was done there that I’m just so proud of."
“Paul McCartney is another one; I did the Kisses On The Bottom on the album. We did some of the work at Abbey Road and Studio 2, where all the Beatles things were done, but the majority of the work was done at Capitol in Studio A," he recalls. "And how impressed he was with the studio and how impressed I was with him. He is still one of my all-time favorite artists to work with. Diana Krall is another one.”
Celebrating a milestone like a 60th anniversary is a time to reflect, but also to plan ahead.
“There are a number of different aspects to how the studio is received today, and I like the way it’s perceived,” Kraus says. “We want to work a little bit on opening it up more, which is part of what we’re doing with these events around the sixtieth. So I think we want to continue down that path. We want to be at the forefront of representing recording studios and professional technology globally and how to use it. There’s an art to recording that we want to preserve and to practice, that’s important. So those are the kind of things I think about.”
