Producer/engineer
Bones Howe had huge hits with
the 5th Dimension,
the Association, and
the Turtles, and he recorded
Tom Waits' highly acclaimed albums of the '70s and '80s. He earned the nickname "Bones" because of his thinness. Born Dayton Howe in 1933 in Minneapolis, MN, he was mystified as a child when he'd play his family's 78 rpm records. The son of a stockbroker, he moved with his family to Sarasota, FL, when he was still a preteen. He taught him self how to repair radios and nurtured a growing fascination with music, teaching himself to play drums. After graduating from high school in 1951, he became a professional musician. Later, he enrolled at Atlanta's Georgia Tech, majoring in communications and electronics. During his final two years in college,
Howe played drums in a lounge band. While performing,
Howe met drummer
Shelly Manne who suggested he start a recording career since he was a musician who understood electronics. After graduating from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in electronic engineering,
Howe headed for the West Coast. In a Hollywood club,
Howe met a friend from Atlanta who introduced him to a recording engineer who invited him to a session for
Mel Tormé. The manager of the studio hired
Howe as an apprentice. In the early '60s,
Howe met
Nesuhi Ertegun at a recording session for
Ornette Coleman. In 1961,
Howe joined Bill Putnam's United Recording where he engineered sessions for
Frank Sinatra,
Jan and Dean, and
the Everly Brothers. In November 1962,
Howe, wanting to control his schedule, became an independent recording engineer, something that was unheard of at the time; most engineers were hired on staff at the various recording studios or record labels. Producer Lou Adler, whom he'd met at United, requested he engineer all of his sessions.
Herb Alpert recommended
Howe to Tim Feigen, owner of the White Whale label.
Howe's first session for the label was on a new group called
the Turtles. Their cover of
Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" went to number eight pop in summer 1965. Working with
the Association,
Howe, now a producer, changed the 3/4 (waltz) time signature of
Ruthann Friedman's "Windy" to the standard 4/4 rock beat. The single went to number one pop for four weeks in summer 1967 and was included on their gold Insight Out LP.
Howe also engineered sessions by
the Mamas and the Papas.
Singer
Johnny Rivers ("Secret Agent Man") asked
Howe to engineer and produce
the 5th Dimension for his Soul City label.
Howe, just as he had done with
the Association, used top L.A. session players group the Wrecking Crew on their sessions: bassist
Joe Osborn, drummer
Hal Blaine, keyboardist
Larry Knechtel, and arrangers
Bob Alcivar and
Bill Holman. Their first hit was a cover of the Mama and the Papas' "Go Where You Wanna Go," making it into Billboard's Top 20 pop charts in early 1967. "Up up and Away," written by
Jimmy Webb, went to number seven pop during the summer of 1967. The song won four 1968 Grammy Awards and was the title track to their first hit LP. The 5th Dimension's next single release established
Howe's reputation as a hit producer. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" parked at number one pop for six weeks and hit number six R&B in spring 1969. The Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In LP went gold and included "Workin' on a Groovy Thing" (written by
Neil Sedaka). The next album, Portrait (on the Bell label after
Johnny Rivers sold Soul City to Bell Records), yielded the hit singles "Save the Country" (a
Nyro song), the gold "One Less Bell to Answer" (written by
Burt Bacharach and
Hal David), and "Puppet Man." Though the gold "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep At All" and "If I Could Reach You" were the group's last two singles to make it into the Top Ten,
the 5th Dimension continued to have hits, including "Living Together, Growing Together," another
Bacharach/David song written for the Peter Finch movie Lost Horizon, and "Ashes to Ashes."
Howe was the chief engineer for the 1967 Monterey Pop concert feature film and the 1968 NBC Elvis Christmas Special. He also engineered singer/songwriter
Tom Waits' Nighthawks in the Diner, Small Change,
Foreign Affairs, and
Blue Valentine. He became a music supervisor for various feature films such as La Bamba and Back to the Future.
Howe was still active in the music business in the '90s. ~ Ed Hogan