Shel Talmy: The Legendary Producer Who Shaped the Sound of ’60s Rock

Sheldon Talmy was born in Chicago on 11 August 1937. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a teenager, where he attended Fairfax High School (as did other future showbiz luminaries, including Phil Spector, Herb Alpert and Michael Jackson).

After graduating in 1955, he worked for a time at ABC Television before taking a job as an engineer at Conway Recorders, a recording studio on Melrose Avenue, where he learned his trade working with artists such as The Castells and surf band The Marketts, and with the group of session musicians who would become known as the Wrecking Crew.

He travelled to Britain in 1962, initially planning to stay for five weeks.

His friend Nick Venet at Capitol Records in LA gave him a batch of acetates of songs by various artists and told Talmy he could claim that he had produced them. He played them to Dick Rowe at Decca Records in London and was promptly offered a job.

One of his first projects was producing Charmaine, a Top 10 hit by Irish trio The Bachelors.

In 1964, he struck out on his own as an independent producer, and one of his earliest signings was The Kinks and he gave them their first hit with You Really Got Me.

His relationship with the group continued to 1967, bringing them two more #1 hits with Sunny Afternoon and Tired of Waiting for You and half a dozen more Top 10 placings.

He also produced I Can’t Explain for The Who in 1964, which became another Top 10 hit. He repeated the success the following year with  Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere and My Generation.

He was edged out by Who manager Kit Lambert, and a legal dispute (eventually settled out of court) eventually gave Talmy a share of the group’s royalties for the next six years.

In 1965, he produced two singles featuring singer David Jones (soon to be reborn as David Bowie) – I Pity the Fool (credited to The Manish Boys) and You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving, by Davy Jones & the Lower Third. He also produced for Chad & Jeremy.

He enjoyed further success with the Australian group The Easybeats, whose anthemic Friday on My Mind (1966) was a worldwide hit. He also produced Manfred Mann’s version of Bob Dylan’s Just Like a Woman, which reached #10 in the UK, and the album We Are Paintermen for The Creation.

His productions captured excitement and frustration, and over half a century later, their primal immediacy remains a thing of wonder.

Talmy also worked with folk musicians, including Roy Harper, The Pentangle and Ralph McTell, and a brief liaison with The Damned resulted in the single Stretcher Case Baby.

Talmy returned to Los Angeles in the late 1970s and continued to work in music, as well as writing novels and co-founding a document-scanning company called ‘Superscan’.

Shel Talmy died on 13 November 2024 from complications of a stroke, aged 87. He left behind a strikingly upbeat pre-prepared farewell for his online followers: “If you’re reading this now, this is my final vignette, as I am no longer residing on this plane of existence, and have “moved on”, to wherever that may be.”

He went on, I’ve had a good run, and I am delighted it lasted as long as it did. I’m also delighted that I am told I have a legacy that will last even longer. I look forward to meeting some of you in the future who are reading this, but LOL, don’t hurry to get here, I’m not going anywhere!”