Chairman at the Board: Recording the Soundtrack of a Generation

Chairman at the Board is a humorous and absorbing insider's look at the music business, featuring Bill Schnee's journey from a high school band to recording legendary artists like Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, and Whitney Houston. Schnee's career spans over 125 gold and platinum records and two Grammy Awards.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 15 May 2022
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

"Chairman at the Board" is an intimate, witty, and captivating exploration of the music industry from the perspective of an insider who has recorded a multitude of legendary musical artists from the 1970s to the present. Bill Schnee takes readers on a journey behind the scenes, providing a glimpse into the studio and the decades with a parade of famous artists as he assists them in realizing their vision.

After his high school band was dropped by Decca Records, Schnee embarked on a quest to learn everything he could about record-making. Under the guidance of technical guru Toby Foster, mastering guru Doug Sax, and recording legend Richie Podolor at his American Recording Studio, he quickly began recording top acts of the day as a freelance engineer/producer in Hollywood. Clive Davis soon hired him to work for CBS, where he partnered with renowned music producer Richard Perry. Schnee went on to record and/or mix many of Perry's biggest albums of the 1970s and 1980s, including those by Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Art Garfunkel, and the Pointer Sisters.

With his deft personal touch with musicians, Schnee continued to engineer and/or produce the likes of Marvin Gaye, Thelma Houston (the Grammy-nominated, direct-to-disc album "I've Got the Music in Me"), Pablo Cruise, Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs, the Jacksons, Huey Lewis and the News, Dire Straits, and Whitney Houston. With over 125 gold and platinum records, and two Grammys for Steely Dan's "Aja" and "Gaucho," Schnee has been hailed as a living legend—recognized and respected in the industry as the consummate music man with an incomparable career that he lovingly shares with his readers in humorous detail.

Weight: 410g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781493065158