1. Curtis Roy Boettcher, sometimes credited as Curt Boetcher or Curt Becher, was an American singer, songwriter, arranger, musician, and record producer from Wisconsin.
20 Facts About Curt Boettcher
1. 2.
Curt Boettcher was a pivotal figure in what is termed "sunshine pop", working with the Association, the Millennium, Sagittarius, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Tommy Roe, Bobby Jameson, Elton John, Gene Clark, Emitt Rhodes, Tandyn Almer, the Beach Boys, and others.
3.
Curt Boettcher was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to Peggie and Arland Boettcher.
4.
Curt Boettcher's father was a Navy pilot in World War II and later worked at the Pentagon.
5.
Curt Boettcher entered the University of Minnesota in fall 1962, where in 1963 he formed the folk quartet The GoldeBriars with the Holmberg sisters, Dotti and Sheri, and Ron Neilsson.
6.
In 1966, through his production partnership Our Productions, Curt Boettcher produced the debut album by The Association, And Then.
7.
Curt Boettcher sped up the tempo and recorded a demo on which he sang the vocal.
8.
Curt Boettcher is said to have met both producer Gary Usher and Beach Boy songwriter Brian Wilson while producing and mixing the first single by Lee Mallory, "That's the Way It's Gonna Be", issued on Valiant Records in 1966.
9.
In 1967 he enlisted Curt Boettcher to collaborate on a personal project, a studio band called Sagittarius, under whose name he had produced a single, "My World Fell Down", which became a minor hit.
10.
Usher and Curt Boettcher became the studio group, and an album was completed and released in 1968 under the title Present Tense.
11.
The group staged a few live performances in Los Angeles, but the difficulty of replicating the album in concert posed a large enough challenge to dissuade Curt Boettcher from sustaining the band.
12.
Curt Boettcher brought in Boettcher and Olsen as staff producers, and Boettcher was involved in several projects for the label.
13.
In 1971, at the insistence of Elektra Records founder-president Jac Holzman, who was a huge fan of Begin, Curt Boettcher signed a deal with Elektra.
14.
Curt Boettcher warned Holzman that the album would take a long time to produce, and started working on a solo album.
15.
The project got a boost when Curt Boettcher met a young multi-instrumentalist named Web Burrell; taking a cue from the early one-man albums by Rhodes, Curt Boettcher decided to record the album in a similar fashion, using few musicians other than Burrell.
16.
Curt Boettcher attempted to record a follow-up album, tentatively titled Chicken Little Was Right, but it was never completed.
17.
Curt Boettcher contributed backing vocals to recordings by Tanya Tucker, Helen Reddy, Eric Carmen and Dennis Wilson.
18.
Curt Boettcher produced Mike Love's solo album Looking Back With Love.
19.
Curt Boettcher married Claudia Ford in the late 1960s, and they had a son, Varek, before they were divorced.
20.
Curt Boettcher died in June 1987 at Los Angeles County Hospital while being treated for a lung infection.