With one-man bands, it’s in all probability greatest to erase the picture of chimney-sweeper Dick Van Dyke prancing about within the film Mary Poppins. As an alternative, consider proficient multi-instrumentalists corresponding to Stevie Marvel, not solely among the best one-man bands to sit down behind a equipment, keyboard, and harmonica, however one of many coolest, most proficient individuals in music.
Hundreds of top-class musicians are in a position to play a bunch of devices – amongst them Curtis Mayfield, PJ Harvey, Dave Grohl, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Geddy Lee of Rush, Alicia Keys, Roy Wooden, Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, Jack White, Beck, Trent Reznor of 9 Inch Nails, and Bruno Mars, to call only a dozen – however with so many nice session musicians round, it takes a sure kind of boldness to play all of the devices by yourself report.
Listed below are 10 of the perfect one-man bands in historical past.
Sidney Bechet
When engineer John Reid advised Sidney Bechet in regards to the prospects of multi-tracking, the jazz maestro devised a plan to work out the person elements on six totally different devices and memorize the timing and melody of every. Bechet’s daring enterprise got here within the days earlier than tape recording, so every effort needed to be recorded on a 78rpm wax unique and superimposed on to the remaining. On April 19, 1941, Bechet performed six devices – soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet, piano, string bass, and drums – for a recording of “The Sheik Of Araby.” He additionally recorded 4 elements for “Blues For Bechet.” Bechet later mentioned he was in a “cold sweat” in regards to the challenge, recalling, “Thinking about this session was giving me nightmares. I dreamt I was playing parts for the whole Duke Ellington band.”
Hear: “The Sheik Of Araby” (1941)
Paul McCartney
From one of many world’s greatest bands to among the best one-man bands on the planet: simply earlier than Christmas 1969, Paul McCartney, working throughout The Beatles’ break up, started engaged on McCartney, his personal solo album, at his house in London’s St John’s Wooden. He mentioned that he determined to sing and play all of the devices – acoustic and electrical guitars, bass, drums, piano, organ, percussion, Mellotron and toy xylophone – as a result of “I think I’m pretty good.”
McCartney later admitted to having fun with working as a solo artist, saying, “I only had me to ask for a decision, and I generally agreed with myself!” After its launch, the album reached No.1 on the Billboard charts in America and No.2 within the UK. McCartney’s experimental album additionally impressed Emitt Rhodes, of the band Merry-Go-Spherical, who performed each single instrument and sang the entire vocal elements on three baroque pop albums launched within the early 70s.
Hear: “Maybe I’m Amazed” (1970)
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Todd Rundgren
On his third solo album, 1972’s One thing/Something, Todd Rundgren wrote, organized, sang, and performed the whole lot from the piano to guitars on an array of songs. He was simply 23. The previous producer and engineer mentioned that, regardless of not with the ability to learn or write music, he had a exceptional reminiscence for taking part in elements by ear.
He would start with a drum observe after which overdub different devices on high, typically creating melodies on the spot. The album yielded a few of Rundgren’s most interesting songs, together with “I Saw The Light,” “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference,” and “Couldn’t I Just Tell You.” {A photograph} contained in the album cowl confirmed Rundgren alone in a room full of gear, guitar strapped to his shoulder, arms flung extensive, and arms flashing victory indicators. He was proper to be assured in his talents as one of many world’s greatest one-man bands: the album stayed within the charts for 48 weeks and ended up going gold.
Hear: “I Saw The Light” (1972)
John Fogerty
After leaving the massively profitable Creedence Clearwater Revival, singer and guitarist John Fogerty opted for full management over his debut solo album, The Blue Ridge Rangers, a sequence of canopy variations of his favourite songs. His bass and snare drumming on a model of Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” labored a deal with, and his traditional vibrant guitar was supplemented by steel-guitar enjoying, banjo licks and a few robust fiddle enjoying.
Hear: “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” (1973)
Mike Oldfield
Only one month after John Fogerty’s solo effort got here the prog epic Tubular Bells, from England’s Mike Oldfield. On the album, Oldfield performed a exceptional array of devices, together with acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electrical guitar; Farfisa, Hammond, and Lowrey organs; flageolet, fuzz guitars, glockenspiel, mandolin, piano, percussion, timpani, and, after all, tubular bells.
The album was recorded at The Manor in Oxford, and its success and iconic standing was confirmed when music from “Tubular Bells” was used within the hit horror movie The Exorcist.
Hear: “Mike Oldfield’s Single (Theme From Tubular Bells)” (1973)
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Prince
In September 1977, on the pioneering Sound 80 recording studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince started engaged on his debut album, For You. It was an album which bore the soon-to-be iconic credit score “Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince.” Like the perfect one-man bands, the late Prince, then simply 17, was virtually obsessive about getting the sound he needed. When he was requested by Dick Clark about what number of devices he performed on the album, Prince responded with “thousands.” He really performed 27 devices on For You (29 if you happen to embrace hand claps and finger snaps).
Hear: “Soft And Wet” (1978)
Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood was ranked by Rolling Stone as No.33 in its 100 Biggest Singers Of All Time record, however the man who was a part of seminal bands corresponding to Spencer Davis Group, Visitors, and Blind Religion was additionally a wonderful multi-instrumentalist. Together with his first solo album, he took full inventive management, and on Arc Of A Diver, launched by Island Data, in December 1980, he took cost of the whole lot at a studio he had constructed on his personal farm in Gloucestershire.
Winwood performed acoustic and electrical guitars, mandolin, bass, drums, percussion, drum machines, pianos, synthesizers, and organ, in addition to singing lead and backing vocals. Only for good measure, he produced, engineered, and blended all seven tracks. Each the album and its lead single, “While You See A Chance,” have been Prime 10 hits.
Hear: “While You See A Chance” (1980)
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Phil Collins
Phil Collins admits he was going by way of a troubled time when he recorded Each Sides at his 12-track house recording studio. It was within the wake of his second divorce, when he even took refuge in enjoying the bagpipes (he took classes from a Scottish piper). Each Sides, launched by Virgin, in 1993, began as house demos which Collins then determined to show right into a full album launch after engaged on it solely by himself.
Collins earns his place among the many greatest one-man bands for taking part in all of the devices on the album in addition to taking up the primary manufacturing duties. He even wrote the sleevenotes. The previous Genesis star mentioned, “Each Sides is my favourite album, from a songwriting and artistic perspective. It was very a lot a solo album. I performed the whole lot, the songs simply streamed out of me, and as a author that’s the sort of factor that you simply dream of.”
Hear: “Can’t Turn Back The Years” (1993)
Sufjan Stevens
When he was a schoolboy in Detroit, Sufjan Stevens took music classes within the oboe and English horn. He would play each on his 2003 idea album, Michigan. It additionally options the singer-songwriter – who has an Oscar music nomination to his credit score – on piano, electrical organ, electrical piano, banjo, acoustic and electrical guitar, bass guitar, vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, recorders, wooden flute and whistles, drum equipment, percussion, shakers, sleigh bells, tambourine, and cymbal.
Nevertheless, Stevens, like the perfect one-man bands featured right here, has some solution to go to beat the report set by the late Roy Fort. The tv star and trumpeter performed the identical tune on 43 totally different musical devices, together with the world’s smallest violin, in simply 4 minutes.
Hear: “For The Windows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti” (2003)
Dave Edmunds
Dave Edmunds rose to fame within the 70s – particularly after his great hit “I Hear You Knocking” – and made just a few albums the place he took inventive management and performed all of the devices. He returned to that format in 2013 with the album … Once more, although this time it was a Twenty first-century digital manufacturing. Edmunds mentioned, “I’ve been making records on my own since the mid-60s, when I started in a tiny, ill-equipped studio in a barn… I did … Again on my laptop in my spare bedroom. I got myself a MacBook Air, it came with something called GarageBand, and I did one track on there and then I bought its big brother, 130 quid or so, pressed a button and within 30 seconds I had the studio in front of me, an infinite amount of tracks and effects.”
Hear: “Standing At The Crossroads” (2003)
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