Hank Cicalo (born June 25, 1932) is an American recording engineer whose career has spanned over fifty years. Among the artists recorded by Cicalo are
The Monkees
The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...
,
Carole King,
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...
, and
George Harrison.
Early career
In 1957, Cicalo started in the mastering room at
Capitol Studios, then progressed to second engineer and worked with many great engineers like John Krause, Hugh Davies, John Palladino, and Pete Abbott. Some of the artists' albums he worked on were
Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin and
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...
. He moved up to engineer while at Capitol and worked with such notables as
Cannonball Adderley,
Peggy Lee,
Ed Ames
Ed Ames (born Edmund Dantes Urick; July 9, 1927), who also recorded as Eddie Ames, is an American singer and actor. He is known for playing Mingo in the television series ''Daniel Boone'', and for his pop hits of the mid-to-late 1960s including " ...
and
Lou Rawls.
In 1963, Cicalo began work for RCA Records in Hollywood. As one of the lead engineers at RCA, he worked with artists including
Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the ''Billboard'' cou ...
,
Vic Damone
Vic Damone (born Vito Rocco Farinola; June 12, 1928 – February 11, 2018) was an American traditional pop and big band singer and actor. He was best known for his performances of songs such as the number one hit "You're Breaking My Heart", and ...
,
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish–American actress, singer, and dancer. As an actress and singer, she is credited as Ann-Margret.
She is known for her roles in '' Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), ''State Fair'' (1962), '' ...
,
Eddie Fisher,
Peter Nero
Peter Nero (born Bernard Nierow, May 22, 1934) is an American pianist and pops conductor. He directed the Philly Pops from 1979 to 2013, and has earned two Grammy Awards.
Early life
Born in Brooklyn, New York, as Bernard Nierow, he started ...
,
Duke Ellington,
Wayne Newton
Carson Wayne Newton (born April 3, 1942) is an American singer and actor. One of the most popular singers in the nation from the mid-to-late 20th-century, Newton remains one of the best-known entertainers in Las Vegas. He is known by the nicknam ...
and
Tommy Leonetti.
In the mid-1960s, Cicalo also worked closely with Tom Mack, producer for Dot Records. Their projects included The Mills Brothers, The Lennon Sisters, Jimmie Rodgers, Glen Campbell, Ernie Andrews, Frankie Carle, and Harry James. Their biggest project together was
Lalo Schifrin's ''Mission Impossible'', for which Cicalo was nominated for his first Grammy Award.
The Monkees
While at RCA Records in
Hollywood, California
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...
, Cicalo recorded The Monkees for Colgems Records. In total, he did four albums with the band, including ''
The Monkees
The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...
'',
More of The Monkees
''More of the Monkees'' is the second studio album by the American pop rock band the Monkees. It was recorded in late 1966 and released on Colgems label #102 on January 9, 1967. It displaced the band's own debut album from the top of the ''Billb ...
, ''
Live 1967'', and ''
Headquarters''. All three studio albums with the group went multi-platinum, each reaching number one on the Billboard charts.
The Monkees' ''
Headquarters'' album was their first to feature all four band members playing instruments. Lacking experience as a recording group, the sessions dragged out from a normal two or three weeks to a full six weeks. Cicalo worked patiently with the Monkees and their
producer Chip Douglas
Douglas Farthing Hatlelid (born August 27, 1942), better known as Chip Douglas, is an American songwriter, musician (bass, guitar and keyboards), and record producer, whose most famous work was during the 1960s. He was the bassist of the Turtle ...
(himself a first-time producer), and the album came together as the band learned about making records. As a thank-you to Cicalo, the Monkees gave him the writing credit for their song "No Time" (included on ''Headquarters''). This briefly got Cicalo into trouble, as RCA had a rule against engineers soliciting songs for recording. When matters were explained, Cicalo was able to collect the writer's
royalties (which, he says, was used to buy a house). Released to praise and brisk sales, ''Headquarters'' was a huge success.
Cicalo also recorded the scores for the popular Monkees television show and engineered tracks on ''
The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees'', ''
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.'', and ''
Head''. Cicalo toured with the band in 1967 and recalled that the most frightening experience he ever had was being attacked by a mob of teenage girls while in a limousine with The Monkees. Cicalo also engineered
Mike Nesmith's first solo album, ''
The Wichita Train Whistle Sings
''The Wichita Train Whistle Sings'' is the ''de facto'' first solo album by Michael Nesmith, although the artist credited on the initial release is actually "The Wichita Train Whistle". It was recorded while Nesmith was still a member of the Mo ...
''.
''Tapestry''
In the 1970s, Cicalo went to work for A&M and Ode Records. He engineered Carole King's landmark ''
Tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...
'' album. ''Tapestry'' was the second solo album for Carole on the Ode label, but the first album Cicalo engineered. Released in February 1971, ''Tapestry'' was number one on the Billboard charts for fifteen consecutive weeks, and held a record for most weeks at number one, 46 consecutive weeks in the top ten. Cicalo also worked with Carole on ''
Rhymes & Reasons'', ''
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
'', ''
Wrap Around Joy'', ''
Really Rosie'', and ''
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...
''.
During the 1970s, Cicalo also continued to do freelance projects. He worked with George Harrison at his
Friar Park
Friar Park is a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames, England, built in 1889. It was originally owned by eccentric lawyer Sir Frank Crisp and purchased in January 1970 by English rock musician and former Beatle George Harrison. ...
recording studio to make Harrison's ''
Thirty-Three & 1/3'', and also worked with Barbra Streisand on her ''
ButterFly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...
'' album.
Later career
The late 1980s and 1990s saw Cicalo back in the studio, recording and mixing albums: ''Dreams & Themes'' by Patrick Williams, ''Body and Soul'' and ''The Groove Shop'' by Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, ''Once More…With Feeling'' by Doc Severinsen & The Tonight Show Band. In 1995, Cicalo recorded and produced ''Professional Dreamer'' by Kenny Rankin; it was a chance for Rankin to record many of his favorite jazz standards.
In 1992, Cicalo recorded the popular children's album, ''Pure Imagination'', by Michael Feinstein. It was the beginning of a collaboration that resulted in several subsequent recordings. He engineered ''Isn’t It Romantic'', ''That’s Entertainment'', ''Hugh Martin Songbook'', as well as ''Such Sweet Sorrow'', and ''Nice Work If You Can Get It'' – which he also co-produced.
Though he had worked with him on earlier projects, Cicalo is particularly proud of ''Rawls Sings Sinatra'', which he recorded with Lou Rawls in 2003. It was one of the last Lou Rawls projects, and Cicalo enjoyed working with Rawls again, as well as with producer Billy Vera.
Cicalo's most recent album is the two-CD 2008 release: ''Tapestry – Legacy Edition''.
References
*''The Monkees Tale'', Eric Lefcowitz (Last Gasp Press) ()
*''Monkeemania! The True Story of the Monkees'', Glenn A. Baker, Tom Czarnota & Peter Hogan (St. Martin's Press) ()
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cicalo, Hank
1932 births
American audio engineers
Living people
Engineers from Brooklyn
The Monkees