Charles Dean Britz (November 7, 1927 – August 21, 2000) was a recording engineer who worked with

Jan and Dean Jan and Dean was an American rock music, rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf mu ...

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...

and

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

P.F. Sloan Philip Gary "Flip" Sloan (born Philip Gary Schlein; September 18, 1945 – November 15, 2015), known professionally as P. F. Sloan, was an American singer and songwriter. During the mid-1960s, he wrote, performed, and produced many Billboard H ...

and

The Grass Roots The Grass Roots are an American rock band that charted frequently between 1965 and 1975. The band was originally the creation of Lou Adler and songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. In their career, they achieved two gold albums, two ...

on numerous albums between 1962 and 1967.

Biography

Britz was born in 1927 to Charles and Elsie Britz in Cameron, Oklahoma. He was involved in long-range photography with the

Army Air Corps Army Air Corps may refer to the following army aviation corps: * Army Air Corps (United Kingdom), the army aviation element of the British Army * Philippine Army Air Corps (1935–1941) * United States Army Air Corps (1926–1942), or its p ...

fifth reconnaissance squadron from 1945 to 1947. He began his career in the recording industry in 1952, recording big bands for the

Armed Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

s and the

Salvation Army Band A Salvation Army brass band is a brass band affiliated with a Corps, Division or Territory of the Salvation Army. In society, a Salvation Army band playing in public places during Christian events in the calendar such as Christmas has become ...

. In 1960, Britz went to work at Western Recorders and began engineering numerous rock n' roll records. Britz met Brian Wilson when the Beach Boys were cutting

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

at Western Recorders. Influential in Wilson's development as a musician, he would go on to record and mix most of their

hit record A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

s between 1963 and 1967. He worked with Jan and Dean and through this association later with P.F. Sloan and The Grass Roots. He also recorded music for TV and movies. Britz died of

brain cancer A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...

in Paradise, California at the age of 72.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Britz, Chuck 1927 births 2000 deaths American audio engineers People from Le Flore County, Oklahoma United States Army Air Forces soldiers United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century American male musicians Deaths from brain cancer in the United States 20th-century American engineers