Shel Talmy

Shel Talmy (born August 11, 1937) is an American record producer, songwriter, arranger best known for his work in London with The Who and The Kinks in the 1960s, with a role in many other English bands including Cat Stevens and Pentangle. Talmy arranged and produced hits such as "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks, "My Generation" by The Who, and "Friday on My Mind" by The Easybeats. He also played guitar or tambourine on some of his productions.

Early career

Talmy was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and from an early age he was interested both in music—early rock, rhythm and blues, folk music, and country music as well as technology. At 13 Talmy appeared regularly on the popular NBC-TV television show Quiz Kids, a question-and-answer program out of Chicago. He told Chris Ambrose of Tokion Magazine, "What it did for me was that I absolutely knew that this was the business I wanted to be in."

He graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles in June 1955, part of the same graduating class as future producer David Anderle. He became a recording engineer at Conway Studios in Los Angeles for owner/engineer Phil Yeend, who trained Talmy on three-track recording equipment, and three days after starting at Conway, Talmy had his first production assignment, the record "Falling Star" by Debbie Sharon. At Conway, he worked with artists like Gary Paxton, with surf bands like the Castells and the Marketts, and R&B pioneers, Rene Hall and Bumps Blackwell.