![]() Bunnell said he thought that it may have been because of a common bond: he, Beckley and Peek were all children of American servicemen who had British wives, and they had first met and formed the band while all their fathers were stationed at the United States Air Force Base at RAF West Ruislip, London. Martin met with the band and, according to Bunnell, formed an instant rapport. The song was nominated for “Best Original Song” that year, but lost the Oscar to “The Way We Were” by Marvin Hamlisch. Martin had scored the soundtrack to the James Bond film Live and Let Die, the title track of which was written by Paul and Linda McCartney. Martin was in Los Angeles for the 46th Academy Awards show when Geffen approached him to meet America’s principals. “We were these young whippersnappers and George was coming out of the Beatles thing - it had been a few years since they had broken up - and he was basically available,” said Bunnell.Īnd after working with the Beatles, Martin finished a project with a band called Seatrain, and was looking around for his next project as well. Incidentally, Geffen would go on to create Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and become one of the three founders - along with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg - of DreamWorks SKG Studios in 1994. Geffen knew Martin well enough to arrange for him to meet Beckley, Bunnell, and Peek. We need a producer,’” said Bunnell.Īmerica was going to start at the top in its search for a producer and was hoping to get Martin to sign on.ĭavid Geffen - who had managed Crosby, Stills and Nash as well as Laura Nyro - was also America’s manager at the time. ![]() “By the time we got to the third album, we said, ‘This is too much work. “Producing records isn’t just about saying, ‘Oh, that sounds good, let’s put a tambourine on the next track.’ There’s a lot of administrative work and booking studio time and paying bills and all that kind of stuff. “Gerry and Dan and I produced the second and third albums and we realized we were spending a lot of money,” said Bunnell. The band’s eponymous 1971 debut album had been produced by Ian Samwell, a British songwriter and guitarist who had worked with Sir Cliff Richard after relocating to Los Angeles, their second and third albums, Homecoming in 1972 and Hat Trick in 1973, were produced by the band members themselves. “We say ‘bacon and eggs,’ but the British say ‘egg and bacon.’ Every day we’d do some takes and George would say, ‘Right lads, one more take.’ And we’d say, ‘But George, we’re getting hungry.’ And he’d say, ‘OK, this is the egg-and-bacon take.’” During the days of recording the album, he and his bandmates would frequent a little cafe in the area or eat at the studio commissary.Īnd they’d frequently eat bacon and eggs. ![]() They were working with Martin, who had produced all of the Beatles’ original albums.īunnell remembers it as a special time. So just how did legendary Beatles producer Martin end up working with the Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek of America? And what role did bacon and eggs play in that pairing?Īs detailed in Volume I of The Vinyl Dialogues, there were days during long recording sessions when Dewey Bunnell would look forward to the “egg-and-bacon take.”īunnell, Beckley and Peek were recording their fourth studio album, Holiday, in 1974 at AIR Studios in London. 7, 2018, concert at the Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading, PA, would be no different. It wouldn’t be an America concert if it didn’t include the mention of George Martin. 2018, at the Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. Gerry Beckley of the band America performs during the encore Dec.
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