Bill Pitman facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Bill Pitman
Pitman with Gibson ES-330 guitar in 2012
Background information
Birth name	William Keith Pitman
Born	(1920-02-12)February 12, 1920 Belleville, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	August 11, 2022(2022-08-11) (aged 102) La Quinta, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, rock, pop
Occupation(s)	Session musician
Instruments	Guitar, bass
Years active	1940s–1990

William Keith Pitman (born February 12, 1920 – died August 11, 2022) was a famous American guitarist. He was also a session musician, meaning he played music for recordings without being a main band member.

Working in Los Angeles, Pitman played on many popular and important rock and roll songs. He was very good at playing the guitar. This made him highly wanted for pop music, TV shows, and movies. His playing style was very wide. He played the ukulele in the Oscar-winning song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head". He also played a special Danelectro guitar that gave The Wild Wild West TV show its unique sound.

Biography

Early life and musical start

Bill Pitman became interested in music when he was young. His father was a bass player for NBC in Rockefeller Center. During the Great Depression, his father had a steady job. He worked on radio shows and movie soundtracks.

When Bill was five, he knew he wanted to be a musician. He tried different instruments like the piano and trumpet. Finally, he chose the guitar. He learned from teachers like John Cali and Allan Reuss. They taught him the basics and special ways to play. His first guitar was a D'Angelico.

While in high school, Pitman often visited 52nd Street in Manhattan. There, he listened to jazz artists like Charlie Parker. Guitarists Charlie Christian and Eddie Lang greatly influenced him. He also became friends with other musicians. They spent many hours playing music together.

Starting his career

By 1951, Pitman felt confident in his guitar skills. He believed he could play as well as many jazz guitarists in Los Angeles. One night, he met Laurindo Almeida, a great guitarist, at a club. Almeida was playing in Peggy Lee's band.

Their talk led to an audition for Pitman. He got a job with Peggy Lee. This was the start of his professional music career.

After three years with Lee's band, Pitman joined a radio show. It was called The Rusty Draper Show. He worked there for three years. This led to studio work. Another guitar player, Tony Rizzi, asked Pitman to play for him at Capitol Records. Soon, other musicians asked Pitman to fill in for them. Eventually, producers started calling Pitman directly. This led to many years of successful studio work.

The Wrecking Crew

In the late 1950s, Pitman played for famous artists. These included Mel Tormé and Buddy Rich. Rock and roll music was becoming very popular. Pitman met Phil Spector, a famous music producer. This meeting made Pitman one of the first members of a special group of studio musicians.

In 1957, Phil Spector's mother asked Pitman to teach her son jazz guitar. After three months, Phil still struggled with music rhythm. They both decided that Phil was probably not meant to be a musician.

The next year, Spector made a demo of a song he wrote. He asked Pitman to play it for his friends on The Rusty Draper Show. The song was called "To Know Him Is to Love Him". It became very popular. Pitman was then asked to play on the official recording. The song became a huge hit. Pitman was invited to all of Phil Spector's future recording sessions. In 1963, Spector produced the hit song "Be My Baby". He named the music on the other side of the record "Tedesco and Pitman". These were two of his favorite guitar players: Tommy Tedesco and Bill Pitman.

Spector's records were very popular. Because of this, Pitman and the other musicians who created the "Wall of Sound" were in high demand. They were the first choice for almost every big record company in Los Angeles. Hal Blaine, a drummer, later called this group The Wrecking Crew. These talented musicians played for many artists, from the Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra.

Columbia Records took a chance on a new band called The Byrds. They wanted experienced musicians to record the first songs. This was because The Byrds were not yet good enough at playing together. So, on January 20, 1965, session players joined Roger McGuinn. These included Larry Knechtel, Blaine, Jerry Cole, Leon Russell, and Pitman. In three hours, they recorded two songs. One of them, "Mr. Tambourine Man", became a big hit.

Junior Salt

Pitman worked as a freelance musician. He used an answering service to help him schedule recording dates. Studios paid for moving his instruments. This was important because he needed many instruments for different music styles. Studio work was very busy. He had little time for live shows or writing music. One year, Pitman worked on 425 recording sessions. Many of these sessions made multiple songs.

Sometimes, union rules about overtime were not followed. Either Tommy Tedesco or Pitman would speak up. This made producers unhappy but other musicians happy. Their strong stand for fair treatment led to nicknames. Tedesco was called King Salt, and Pitman was called Junior Salt. Pitman said in an interview, "if King Salt wouldn't say something, Junior Salt certainly would."

Pitman played on many hit songs. These included songs by the Mamas & the Papas and Jan and Dean. But he found the rock music he played often forgettable. He was surprised when some songs became very successful. Producers joked that if Pitman thought a record was bad, it would probably be a hit.

Pitman did not care much for rock and roll. But he loved jazz recording sessions. He enjoyed working with composers like Marty Paich and Johnny Mandel. Jazz music was technically demanding. It had complex harmonies and improvised solos. This gave him great satisfaction. His playing on jazz albums like The Guitars Inc. was more important to him than any pop record.

Long hours in Hollywood studios focused on playing music. This left little time for other musical work. Still, Pitman wrote some music for Buddy DeFranco. He also wrote for a small band he formed. He earned credit for writing music for a few episodes of the original Star Trek TV series. He also wrote jazz tunes like "Sidewinder" and "Pitfall". These were on a 1956 album. He also wrote an improvised song called "San Fernando" for a 1968 album. But his main legacy is being a skilled guitarist. He played on some of the most popular recordings of the 20th century.

Equipment

Pitman's main guitar for studio work was the Gibson ES-335. He used a Polytone amplifier with it. For some rock and roll songs, he used a Fender Telecaster with a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier. He also played a twelve-string guitar, Fender bass, Gibson mandolin, and a Bacon tenor banjo.

Pitman tuned the mandolin and banjo like a guitar. He always told producers that he could only play these two instruments in the guitar range. He explained that he was a guitar player. He could play rhythm and notes on them. But he made it clear he was not a mandolin or banjo player. Musicians often had five or six instruments. This was because studios wanted to save money. They got a lot of music from one person.

Pitman became famous for his Danelectro guitar playing. He saw the instrument soon after it came out. He practiced with it. Ernie Freeman heard him and asked him to play the Danelectro on a recording. This led to him playing the Danelectro on "The Lonely Surfer" and the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. He also played it for five years on The Wild Wild West TV show. After finding the Danelectro, Pitman estimated he played it about 40% of the time for the rest of his studio career.

Personal life and passing

Bill Pitman lived in La Quinta, California with his wife, Jan. In his retirement, he played golf. He also sometimes joined discussions about The Wrecking Crew documentary film. He passed away on August 11, 2022, at the age of 102.

Discography

As sideman

• Louis Bellson, Around the World in Percussion (Roulette, 1961)
• Jesse Belvin, Mr. Easy (RCA, 1960)
• Hal Blaine, Deuces, "T's," Roadsters & Drums (RCA Victor, 1963)
• Red Callender, The Lowest (MetroJazz, 1958)
• Tutti Camarata, Camarata Featuring Tutti's Trombones (Coliseum, 1966)
• George Cates, George Cates' Polynesian Percussion (Dot, 1961)
• Bobby Darin, Venice Blue (Capitol, 1965)
• The Ventures, Play Guitar with The Ventures Vol.2 (Dolton, 1965)
• Matt Dennis, Dennis, Anyone? (RCA Victor, 1955)
• Percy Faith, Corazon (CBS, 1973)
• Plas Johnson, Mood for the Blues (Capitol, 1961)
• Barney Kessel, Contemporary Latin Rhythms (Reprise, 1963)
• Peggy Lee, Black Coffee (Decca, 1956)
• Peggy Lee, Pass Me By (Capitol, 1965)
• Linda Lawson, Introducing Linda Lawson (Chancellor, 1960)
• Shelly Manne, Daktari (Atlantic, 1967)
• The Ventures, $1,000,000 Dollar Weekend (Liberty, 1967)
• Big Miller, Sings, Twists, Shouts and Preaches (Columbia, 1962)
• Audrey Morris, The Voice of Audrey Morris (Bethlehem, 1956)
• Jack Nitzsche, The Lonely Surfer (Reprise, 1963)
• Don Randi, Mexican Pearls (Palomar 1965)
• Buddy Rich, This One's for Basie (Norgran, 1956)
• Howard Roberts, Whatever's Fair (Capitol, 1966)
• Howard Roberts, Jaunty-Jolly! (Capitol, 1967)
• Nancy Sinatra, Boots (Reprise, 1966)
• Jeri Southern, Southern Breeze (Roulette, 1958)
• Orrin Tucker, The New Sounds of Orrin Tucker His Saxophone and Orchestra (Bel Canto, 1959)
• Kitty White, Sweet Talk (Roulette, 1958)

Filmography

Features

• Blue Hawaii (1961)
• Torn Curtain (1966)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
• Goodbye, Columbus (1969)
• Paint Your Wagon (1969)
• M*A*S*H (1970)
• The Omega Man (1971)
• The Parallax View (1974)
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
• Dirty Dancing (1987)
• Goodfellas (1990)

Television

• Bonanza (1959)
• The Deputy (1959)
• The Wild Wild West (1965)
• The Roger Miller Show (1966)
• Ironside (1967)
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968)
• Adam-12 (1968)
• The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969)
• The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1971)

See also

In Spanish: Bill Pitman para niños