A man whose music most of us have heard thousands and thousands of times — but whose name most of us never knew — died last week.
Studio guitarist Reggie Young played on hundreds of hit recordings, including Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and “The Letter” by The Box Tops.
The New York Times reported that Young, who was 82, died of congestive heart failure in his home outside Nashville.
When I hear about the death of one of these great musicians who played the music I came of age to, I feel like a piece of me has died. Those years and those songs were formative for so many of us baby boomers. It is hard to see the creators of those timeless songs notch their ultimate marks on the horizon.
Reggie Young
Young was born in Caruthersville, MO, the second largest city in Missouri’s Bootheel (after Kennett). He was raised in northwest Arkansas and then Memphis. His father, also named Reggie, played Hawaiian-style classical guitar, although not professionally, and taught his son to play when he was 14.
Young’s first big break was catching on with Bill Black’s Combo, an instrumental quintet led by Presley’s former bass player. The combo opened for The Beatles on their 1964 tour of the U.S., and Young, as The Times said, “had the opportunity to introduce George Harrison to the finer points of his Southern style of playing.”
“George asked me, because I’m a blues player, ‘How do you bend and stretch your strings like that?’ ” Mr. Young recalled…“I told him, ‘You have to have light-gauge strings,’ and after that I think he went to lighter gauge strings on his guitar.”
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On several big hits, Young plays memorable, stage-setting introductions that jerk the listeners into the songs body and soul.
One of those is “Hooked on a Feeling,” which rose to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969. On that song, Young played the inimitable electric-sitar introduction, which sounds like a cross between banjo and guitar.
Here it is…
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On Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” he plays the arresting opening chords that propel Springfield into her sultry and haunting ballad about a girl falling for a preacher’s son — “the only one who could ever reach me.” (This YouTube version has had more than 27 million views.)
On “Suspicious Minds,” Young’s fluid guitar licks queue The King for his 11th biggest-selling record. (This version has more than 29 million views.)
And, finally, here’s Johnny Cash and The Highwaymen’s performance of “Folsom Prison Blues,” on which you can watch and hear Young play the song’s signature guitar solo.
…So long, Reggie. Thanks for the memories and the music that will live on for many more years.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
JimmyC…also on a sad note, Leroy Jenkins, passed away last week in Pembrooke Pass, Mississippi. He wrote the song “Hokey Pokey.” They had trouble getting his body in the casket as every time they put the right foot in he put the right foot out. Took hours, but that’s what it’s all about!
I’m having difficulty verifying some of the facts here, John — such as if a Leroy Jenkins wrote The Hokey Pokey and if there’s really a place called Pembrooke Pass — but what the hell…the comment is fantastic(al).
Sorry for your loss…
The unsung heroes of popular music are the studio musicians. Sometimes they make the leap and become stars in their own right. Glen Campbell, Fagen and Becker, Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) from the outrageously killer Wrecking Crew (there is/was a Netflix documentary on the Wrecking Crew), Oklahoma’s Leon Russel, all backed up hit-makers before they became hit-makers themselves. As in most of life, the players in the background give a foundation for the star to shine.
You ought to post this on Facebook, Jim.
My page doesn’t get many views, Les…I maintain it mostly so I can get information — and photos of — people I write about. I’m no master of the social media.
Two additional documentaries worth watching are Standing in the Shadows of Motown, an excellent documentary about the studio musicians behind all of the Motown, Tamla hits produced in Berry Gordy’s Detroit studios, and Muscle Shoals, about the white Alabama studio musicians behind Aretha Franklin and many of the soulful hits that came out of the Atlantic label that one assumed were performed by black musicians (including the artists themselves until they got there to record).
The Dusty in Memphis CD (listening to it as I type) was completely unknown to me until a touring bassist friend from Nashville pointed out the work of Tommy Cogbill on bass. He plays tastefully on the first 11 tracks and then lights it up on the remaining “bonus tracks” in a tour de force that I still pull out to transcribe.
So many of the greats owe their success to the guys that are virtually unknown to the public, but legends to those of us who share their love of that particular instrument.
I will try to locate those Cogbill tracks on YouTube, John. Thanks for the reference.
About Dusty…she’s one of my all-time favorites, and my favorite song of hers is “I Only Want to Be with You.”
I read a story about her once that when she was with her brother in the group The Springfields, she yearned to break out on her own. One day she was standing outside a Tower Records store in NYC and a song — might have been “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by The Temptations, something like that — was blaring over the loudspeakers. She stood there listening and said to herself, “THAT’S the kind of song I want to do.”
Here’s a link to the first 11 tunes. Even here on a tune like Don’t Forget About Me he stands out and then when you hear her version of you’ve got a friend on the extended CD and realize what most players would do with it you realize what an incredible talent he (and the other musicians on that album) is.
You’ve Got a Friend (bonus track)
Jim, I second that emotion.
Just last week there was a similar NYT obit for a backup singer, Clydie King. For three years, she was one of the Raelettes singing with Ray Charles. She was a “first-call” backup singer who often performed with Bob Dylan and sang on songs like the Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice” and Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good.”
Another session guitar player everyone knows (but not by name) is Tommy Tedesco who played the memorable opening riffs for the TV themes of “Bonanza” and “MASH.” He was on literally thousands of records and movie sound tracks, most notably as part of “The Wrecking Crew,” a group of Los Angeles studio musicians who backed up hundreds of Top 40 hit in the 60’s and 70’s.
Two very good film documentaries to see: “The Wrecking Crew” (on that Tedesco group) and “Twenty Feet from Stardom” (on backup singers).
I don’t remember seeing “The Wrecking Crew,” Lonnie, but I did see “Twenty Feet from Stardom.” Outstanding.
(I can hear those guitar riffs from “Bonanza” and “MASH” in my head. You take them for granted until you know more about how they came about and who was responsible.)
You guys saw kansas karl’s reference to The Wrecking Crew, didn’t you?
You might enjoy this:
RUMBLE | The Indians Who Rocked the World | Independent Lens | PBS
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/rumble/
RUMBLE is the electric story of how Native American influence shaped rock and roll, a missing chapter in music history.
I’ll watch it, Bill. Thanks for weighing in.