I swiped this from a Jason Pennick post on The Record Room.
http://s3.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php?forumid=54492&threadid=626093&page=3 What's the story?
I just found that quote from Art Guy of the band Smokestack Lightning that I referenced earlier in the thread. Pretty interesting insight into the Hite Morgan era.
Quote:
60s: You recorded and released a great single as a solo artist (“Where You Gonna Go”, Valiant 762) in 1967. I assume this was prior to the start of Smokestack Lightnin’?
AG: When the New Dimensions were together, we later recorded at a studio in Hollywood known as Stereo Masters. Stereo Masters was owned by Hyte and Dorinda Morgan. They had been in the music and record business for many, many years. They helped Ray Charles in the early days and were largely responsible for the early success of the Beach Boys. You probably will never hear it from Brian Wilson, however Dorinda Morgan was the ghost writer of “Surfer Girl” and “In My Room”. She gave the credit to young Brian Wilson and he never looked back. The Wilson's father Murray, could not handle the young group and didn't have a clue what to do with them or for them. Hyte and Dorinda took the Beach Boys on a handshake, because that's the kind of people they were. Their first hit “Surfin'” was recorded at Stereo Masters and released on the Morgan's independent label. It started to take off and they cut a deal with Capitol for re-release. Capitol had them re-record the record to polish it since the group at the time couldn't play or sing well. In fact, when we played with them at the surf fair at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in about 1962-63, they had just come from a concert where we were told the audience had thrown things at them because their performance was so lousy. Needless to say, when the Beach Boys started to take off, Murray Wilson went running back in, snatched the group from the Morgan's and went to Capitol as their representative. There was a long legal battle over publishing, recording rights, etc., but in the end without proper contracts the Morgan's basically lost out. Even back then, the Beach Boys and their family were not great or ethical people, especially Brian and his father.
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