Ted Templeman
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Ted Templeman (born October 24, 1944, in Santa Cruz, California) is an influential American record producer.
[edit] Career
He began his career in the mid 1960s in the Santa Cruz area as a drummer in a band called The Tikis. At the suggestion of Lenny Waronker, the group decided to change their name. Harpers Bizarre was born in 1966, with Templeman switching to guitar and vocals. In 1967 the group released the album, Feelin' Groovy (Warner Bros. 1693), which included some material later covered by Randy Newman on his 1972 album, Sail Away. Harpers Bizarre disbanded in 1970.
In 1970 Templeman (at the suggestion of Waronker) began working as a producer for Warner Bros. Records. That year he produced the classic eponymous The Doobie Brothers album, followed the next year by the Doobies' Toulouse Street album which achieved platinum record status on the strength of the hit single "Listen to the Music". Templeman continued a long professional relationship with The Doobie Brothers, producing many more hit singles and albums for the group.
In 1973 Templeman produced another classic and eponymous album, Montrose, which was released in November. He introduced guitarist and group leader Ronnie Montrose to an up and coming singer, Sammy Hagar, who appears on the album. Critics consider Montrose a benchmark in the 1970's hard rock genre.
In 1976 he produced Carly Simon's sixth studio album, Another Passenger, for which he arranged both the Doobie Brothers and Little Feat to serve as Simon's backing band. The album was not as commercially oriented as her previous work with producer Richard Perry, and its first single, a cover of the Doobies' "It Keeps You Runnin'", did not quite crack the Top 40. However, the album received critical praise and many of its songs received airplay on album-oriented FM radio stations. Thirty years after its initial release, it remains a firm favorite among Simon's fans and has never been out of print.
In 1977 Templeman saw a performance of a relatively unknown group, Van Halen. He and his colleague, Mo Ostin, convinced Warner Bros. to sign the group to the label, and Templeman produced their eponymous first album. The group utilized Templeman's production talents through their first six albums and established themselves as one of the worlds' biggest selling acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s. He is also the voice that pleads "Come on Dave, gimme a break" in the song "Unchained", to which Dave (David Lee Roth) replies "One break, coming up!". When Van Halen singer David Lee Roth quit the band, Templeman went on to produce Roth's first two solo projects, Crazy from the Heat and Eat 'Em and Smile.
Other artists produced by Templeman include:- Van Morrison (Tupelo Honey, Saint Dominic's Preview); Captain Beefheart (Clear Spot); Little Feat (Sailin' Shoes); Michael McDonald (If That's What It Takes); Aerosmith (Done With Mirrors); and Eric Clapton (Behind the Sun).
In the late 1980s Templeman began to work less. Seldom has he done any original production since the early 1990s, preferring to concentrate his efforts in compilations of his earlier work.
