Les Fradkin
Les Fradkin is an American MIDI guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He is best known for being a member of the original cast of the hit Broadway show Beatlemania. In addition to playing MIDI guitar, he plays 12 string guitar, the Starr Labs Ztar, guitar synthesizer, SynthAxe, Hammond organ, Mellotron, piano, bass guitar, and Moog synthesizer.
Early years
Fradkin was born in New York City and raised in Riverdale in the Bronx. He travelled extensively in Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean as a youngster. He began his musical education at the age of 10 being taught the basics of classical piano from his mother, a former concert pianist. Inspired by seeing the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and hearing "Walk Don't Run '64" by the Ventures on the radio at the age of 13, he began to teach himself guitar. Other music that inspired him ranged from the British Invasion sounds of the day to American rock acts such as the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, and Frank Zappa. But what most held his interest and fascination was the art of record production. He was particularly interested in how producers such as Les Paul, Joe Meek, and Phil Spector got their sounds and, in 1966, began tape experiments with Sound on Sound with a Panasonic tape recorder he received as a birthday gift. By 1968, he could edit, splice, and overdub complex recordings at home. By 1969, he had written a large portfolio of original pop and rock songs and was proficient on guitar, bass guitar, Hammond organ, and piano. He turned professional that year and signed a staff songwriting contract with April-Blackwood Music, a division of CBS. This situation did not work out to either April's or Fradkin's satisfaction and April Music gave him his release in early 1970.The MGM years
Fradkin moved over to MGM Records in August 1970 and signed a staff songwriter agreement with Leo Feist Music and a recording contract with the new MGM/Sunflower Records label headed up by songwriting legend Mack David and industry veteran Danny Kessler. Fradkin signed as the first artist for Sunflower Records under the name "Fearless Fradkin", and debuted his first solo single "Song of a Thousand Voices" which was produced by Randy Edelman. Given front-page coverage in Billboard Magazine and picked for the Top 40, "Song of a Thousand Voices" surfaced as a regional hit in September 1970. By October 1970, he co-produced, co-wrote, and sang another Sunflower regional hit single "Hippie Lady" under the pseudonym the Yummies. In early 1971, "Song of a Thousand Voices" was translated into French by Hubert Ithier and recorded by the French songstress Mireille Mathieu as "La Chansons Des Souvenirs" for her "Love Story" Extended Play single on the Philips label. It was also released as a 45RPM single. Both versions became substantial hits in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Israel. "Song of a Thousand Voices" has also been covered in a Spanish language hit version "Donde?" by Latin Pop star Roberto Jordan originally released on the RCA Victor label.Early sessions
By 18 years of age, Fradkin was proficient on many instruments and this led to him finding extensive session work in studios in New York City and London, playing Mellotron, Hammond organ, bass, guitar, and piano.The Left Banke sessions
In 1972 and 1973, Fradkin produced sessions sponsored by Bell Records for the baroque pop group the Left Banke, famous for their hit "Walk Away Renee". Although left unreleased at the time, one song, "I Could Make It Last Forever", appears on Fradkin's 2006 release Goin' Back. A machima video of the song was produced and directed by Charlemagne Fezza and it appears on YouTube.The Laurie Years
From 1973 through 1976 and again between 1981 through 1987, Fradkin signed on as a producer and songwriter with Gene Schwartz for the Laurie Records label. Fradkin produced many artists for Laurie including Mara Lynn Brown, Tom Selden, New Hope, Barry Winslow of the Royal Guardsmen, actress Nell Carter, chanteuse Valerie Tyler, pop stylist Barbara M., and a comedian Marty Brill, who released an LP called The Missing Tapes. 22 singles and 4 albums for the Laurie label in all. But the most prolific artist he produced for Laurie and, perhaps, the most notable was the pop rock group, California. Fradkin was an original member/singer/guitarist/keyboardist for the California group on Laurie Records in the US and RCA Records in the UK for its entire existence from 1973 through 1985. California had several chart records including the 1981 release "Summer Fun Medley"-a medley of Beach Boys hits, "Jeans On", "He's Almost You", and an appearance on the Dick Clark American Bandstand television show. And their single cover of "See You in September" saw honorary placement in the famous Laurie collectors series Collector Records of the 50s and 60s - Vol. 14. Fradkin wrote many of the B-sides of California's singles and Steve Martin Caro and George Cameron of the Left Banke were original members of California on the group's early releases.The ESP-Disk years
By 1973, Fradkin had diversified his producer portfolio and made an agreement to license several of his productions to the Indie label ESP-Disk.His production of "Give a Damn" by Paul Thornton, saw release on the fourth Godz album Godzundheit, and Fradkin guested as bass player on a solo album by Godz member Jim McCarthy entitled Alien. Steve Martin Caro and George Cameron, both of the Left Banke also participated in these sessions, all recorded at A-1.
1974 saw the debut album on ESP-Disk by Thornton, Fradkin & Unger. The group's other members were Paul Thornton, an original member of the Godz on acoustic guitar and Bob Unger, bassist. Their album was called Pass On This Side and featured cover art consisting of a "do-it-yourself" blank black cover with a die cut sheet of stickers that buyers could arrange any way they pleased. The album received good reviews from Cash Box, Crawdaddy Magazine, and several other publications. A 45 rpm single was released, "God Bless California," which charted in Belgium and The Netherlands. Fradkin played the role of multi-instrumentalist on the sessions with participation on lead vocals, 12-string guitar, Mellotron, Hammond organ, mandolin, and piano. Thornton, Fradkin & Unger toured that summer opening shows for the likes of Roger McGuinn, Brewer & Shipley, Richie Havens, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Livingston Taylor. Fradkin played 12-string guitar and Mellotron on these shows. The group's largest and most important appearance took place during the summer of 1974 at the Islip Speedway Outdoor Festival. 10,000 fans attended the all-day rock festival. The group disbanded in 1975. Fradkin returned to record production doing several projects for Mercury Records along with his continuing role as a producer for Laurie Records.
Beatlemania: the Broadway musical
In July 1976, Fradkin auditioned for and won the role of George Harrison in Beatlemania, the hit Broadway show of the late 1970s. Beatlemania was a Broadway musical revue focused on the life and music of the Beatles. Advertised as "Not the Beatles, but an Incredible Simulation", it ran from 1977 to 1979 for a total of 1006 performances. The Beatlemania show marked the birth of the "Tribute Band" industry. Fradkin appeared in over 1000 performances as lead guitarist. The show debuted in Boston at the Colonial Theatre in April 1977 and opened for previews on May 26, 1977, at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City. Quickly achieving sellout status without ever having an official "opening night", the Beatlemania band and the musical saw great success and worldwide publicity in Time magazine, People Magazine, Us Magazine, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone Magazine. For the first six months, every ticket for the show was sold out. Fradkin was also featured in performances with Beatlemania at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Palace Theatre in New York City; the Shubert Theatre in Century City, Los Angeles, California and the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, California; and the Blackstone Theater in Chicago, Illinois. Fradkin performed with the show until its close on October 17, 1979.Beatlemania: the album
In 1978, Beatlemania released a self-titled soundtrack to the show which included contributions from the first and second cast of performers from the show. Released on Arista Records in 1978, the album received warm audience reaction, even placing on the Billboard Hot 100 for several weeks before falling into vinyl obscurity. Tracks from the album included most but not all of the original show's songlist and several of the tracks were either re-recorded entirely or partially re-recorded in the studio. The four original cast members that appear on the album included Mitch Weissman, Joe Pecorino, Les Fradkin, and Justin McNeill.The 1980s
In the early 1980s, Fradkin returned to record production with the Laurie Records label. 1981 saw the release of the California singles "Summer Fun Medley" and 1982's "He's Almost You" which had chart success. By 1983, MIDI, a new interfacing technology for synthesizer was introduced and Fradkin saw new possibilities for his music productions. In 1984, he turned to the jingle and television music industry and guitar synthesis as a new form of musical expression. In 1983, he took up the guitar synthesizer and has been a prime exponent of it ever since. He played the SynthAxe, the Synclavier, and various Roland Corporation GR guitar synthesizers over the years.He pioneered the introduction of completely MIDI tapeless recording using the Yamaha QX1 digital sequencer and the Synclavier with the SynthAxe MIDI guitar controller and Yamaha DX7 and TX816 synthesizers in soap opera music, and composed and programmed numerous successful jingles and movie soundtracks as well as many game show themes. He worked for Score Productions and ABC in New York City and wrote national jingles for such products as Cheerios, Campbell's Soup, Nestlé, Crisco, and American Express. He was the first composer in New York City to record entirely "direct-to-disk". His sonic innovations at that time with guitar synthesizer and MIDI programming earned him great accolades in the television music industry which soon established him with the nickname "Dr. MIDI".
1985 saw a Sutra Records guitar instrumental 12" single released of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". Fradkin recorded this as a duo with synthesist Rob Hegel. The act was called Maddog. 3C Records released the first all-guitar synthesizer album, California-Electric Swing that year with Fradkin as producer, guitar synthesizer performer, and synthesizer programmer.
By 1989, Fradkin had programmed/composed/performed on over 50 national jingles and had 4 years of One Life to Live soap opera music under his belt.