Sunset Sound Recorders

Lore & Background

The Sunset Sound Recorders complex was created by Walt Disney's Director of Recording, Tutti Camarata, from a collection of old commercial and residential buildings. At the encouragement of Disney himself, Camarata began the project in 1958, starting with a former automotive repair garage whose sloping floor would tend to reduce unwanted sonic standing wave reflections. Soon, the audio for many of Disney's films was being recorded at the studio, including Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, and 101 Dalmatians. Over 200 Gold records have been recorded at Sunset Sound, including hit albums for Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Toto, parts of Prince's Purple Rain, the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St., Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Linda Ronstadt's Don't Cry Now, parts of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy and Janis Joplin's posthumously-released Pearl. In addition, the Doors recorded their first two albums, The Doors and Strange Days, at the studio. Idina Menzel recorded her vocal track for the song "Let It Go" for Disney Animation's 2013 film Frozen at the studio. In 1981, Sunset Sound Recorders owner Camarata purchased The Sound Factory, another Los Angeles recording studio founded by Moonglow Records and later purchased and developed by David Hassinger. With many homeless people camped nearby, the studio expressed their frustration with the situation in 2024. The city program, Inside Safe, had the homeless residents accept services and housing in mid-2024.

In Their Own Story

The album features one of the most atypical Prince songs: "Bob George", in which he assumes the identity of a profane man who suspects his girlfriend to have had an affair with a man named Bob. He asks her what the man does for a living and learns that Bob manages Prince, whom he dismisses as "that skinny motherfucker with the high voice". The gun-wielding alter ego then fires a multitude of gunshots, and ends up being raided by the police. During live performances of the song during the Lovesexy Tour, he ends up being shot. The name for the track was a combination of Bob Cavallo (former manager), and Nelson George, a critic who was felt to have become very critical of Prince. "Bob George" features a growling monologue that is pitched down using a Publison to the point of being almost unrecognizable as Prince. The voice at the end of the song that says "bizarre" is actually a stock sound from the Fairlight CMI IIx library, with its pitch raised, the sample being lifted from the spoken-word track "Our Bizarre Relationship" on The Mothers of Invention's 1969 Uncle Meat album.

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Did You Know?

• The studio's first building was a former automotive repair garage with a sloping floor that reduced unwanted sonic standing wave reflections.
• Over 200 Gold records have been recorded at Sunset Sound, including parts of Prince's Purple Rain.
• Idina Menzel recorded her vocal track for the song "Let It Go" for Disney Animation's 2013 film Frozen at the studio.