Unsung Heroes

"Unsung Heroes, Influential but Overlooked Masters of Modern Music" features the music of artists who often work behind the scenes or in support of major musicians, in addition to short biographical sketches. The heroes include musicians, composers, producers and arrangers who contributed to some of the
most memorable recordings of The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, The Mamas and the Papas, Van Morrison, Prince and numerous others. Typical examples are Bobby Keys, the saxophonist who appears on several Rolling Stones recordings, as well as Doc Pomus, who wrote many of Elvis Presley’s songs. The series began as a tribute to Bobby Scott. Known primarily to jazz enthusiasts as a pianist and vocalist, he was one of the principal arrangers and conductors for Bobby Darin. He also wrote “A Taste of Honey,” a song made popular by the Beatles and Herb Alpert. More shows quickly followed, honoring artists like Nicky Hopkins, who provided the strong piano accompaniment to recordings by the Stones and the Jefferson Airplane. A notable unsung hero was Felix Pappalardi; classically trained, he started out playing bass and producing folk music, but eventually wound up producing recordings by Cream before joining guitarist Leslie West to form Mountain, generally considered to be the first heavy metal band. Although many of the heroes are jazz artists, most of them were selected to be cross-genre, working in jazz, country, rock, pop and even classical. A typical example is producer Phil Ramone, who produced classical recordings but who also worked with artists like Bob Dylan and jazz drummer T.S. Monk. Unsung Heroes began airing on MTPR in early 2010 and is now distributed on PRX, free of charge.

For syndication information, please contact Michael Marsolek at michael.marsolek@umontana.edu.

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Unsung Heroes is a production of MTPR at the University of Montana in Missoula. Hide full description

"Unsung Heroes, Influential but Overlooked Masters of Modern Music" features the music of artists who often work behind the scenes or in support of major musicians, in addition to short biographical sketches. The heroes include musicians, composers, producers and arrangers who contributed to some of the most memorable recordings of The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, The Mamas and the Papas, Van Morrison, Prince and numerous others. Typical examples are Bobby Keys, the saxophonist who appears on several Rolling Stones recordings, as well as Doc Pomus, who wrote many of Elvis Presley’s songs. The series began as a tribute to Bobby Scott. Known primarily to jazz enthusiasts as a pianist and vocalist, he was one of the principal arrangers and conductors for Bobby Darin. He also wrote “A... Show full description