Chairman at the Board

Recording the Soundtrack of a Generation

By: Bill Schnee

Narrated by: Bill Schnee

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

After his high school band was dropped by Decca Records, Schnee began his quest to learn everything he could about making records. Mentored by technical guru Toby Foster, mastering guru Doug Sax, and recording legend Richie Podolor at his American Recording Studio, he immediately began recording the top acts of the day as a freelance engineer/producer in Hollywood. Clive Davis soon hired him to work for CBS where he partnered with famed music producer Richard Perry. Schnee went on to record and/or mix many of Perry's biggest albums of the '70s and '80s, including those by Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, Ringo Starr, Art Garfunkel, and the Pointer Sisters.

With his deft personal touch with musicians, he continued to engineer and/or produce the likes of Marvin Gaye, Thelma Houston (the Grammy-nominated, direct-to-disc album I've Got the Music in Me), Pablo Cruise, Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs, the Jacksons, Huey Lewis and the News, Dire Straits, and Whitney Houston.

With over 125 gold and platinum records, and two Grammys for Steely Dan's Aja and Gaucho, Schnee has been called a living legend - recognized and respected in the industry as the consummate music man with an incomparable career that he lovingly shares with listeners in humorous detail.

©2021 Bill Schnee (P)2021 Tantor

Your fave Artist made Music w/ Bill Schnee

What do John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the Eagles, Steely Dan, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston all have in common? They counted on Bill Schnee to help them get the sound out of their heads and on to a record for the enjoyment of millions.

Bill Schnee talks his involvement in the lives and music of these legends and more in his excellent book, "Chairman at the Board: recording the soundtrack of a generation." Music is important to me and I remember seeing Bill's name on a bunch of my albums and wondering who is this guy who seems to show up on the back covers of many of 'em. Bill answers that and more in this very readable and enjoyable book.

How enjoyable?

I started with the hard cover book and could hardly put it down, so I bought a copy of it on Audible, where Bill Schnee narrates his book (of course!). Hearing him voice his own words is tremendous and adds context to the printed word. Last I thought about all the notes and highlights I want to make in it so I I bought a copy for the kindle, where all of my notes can be centralized so I don't have to search for highlights or underlinings. It is the first time in my life that, other than the Bible, I have purchased multiple copies of a book.

Sadly music is no longer the center of culture but this book chronicles a time when it was- and it was great. If you agree, or are curious about when music MATTERED give this book a reading. It is like having a friend from high school catch you up on what what he has been doing since graduation, and you in turn being elated for what your friend accomplished through hard work, creativity and talent.

Great listen to a great engineer shaped a lot of pop music in the late 60s and 70s

I enjoyed listening to Bill Schnee’s book Chairman at the Board. I know he was trying to protect peoples identity by not mentioning their name but it would’ve been interesting to hear some of the bad actors that affected the industry. On a final note I found it a little ironic that some of the pickups that he had to do sounded so much different than the original recording. Obviously this is not important but a bit ironic since SOUND is so important to Bill.

One of the best!!

Bill has been part of so many legendary albums during his career. These stories are wonderful!!

Entertaining and valuable

I love it when an author reads their own work, especially when they do so as wonderfully as Mr. Schnee does here. Technically, philosophically, and historically valuable, this book was also very entertaining. I found myself wanting to pause and listen to online recordings of the songs and albums Bill was referencing, but I was loathe to do so, not wanting to interrupt his cadence. I wished the book was twice as long, and I was happy to find that he included outtake material online (with links to performances of the music!). I am off to find myself a physical copy of this wonderful book.

Excellent and so interesting.

Wonderful book and an excellent reading. So much of Bill’s amazing story brought back forgotten memories. I had many of the records he’d produced and engineered. These days in my humble home recording studio, Pro Tools software enables me to do things that were impossible dreams for us as musical kids in the 70’s. So every bit of Bill Schnee’s book was absolutely interesting to me on many levels. Those were the days!

Autobiography at its best

Anyone who loves or has interest in the process of recording music and those who are recorded will love this book.

An inside look at some of the greatest music ever recorded and a must read for anyone with a passion for music.

Bill Schnee is a legendary audio engineer and producer. The stories in this book are entertaining and the knowledge shared is invaluable. I rarely listen to a book more than once but I’ve listened to Chairman at the Board several times!

Very enjoyable

This book was a pleasant surprise. Specially, awesome, giving that Schnee was the narrator. Definite recommendation

What a legacy, what a gentleman!!!

Love You Bill, you’re the 5th musician in all those bands. The memories are off the charts

Great stories from a sound engineer and producer

Bill Schnee narrates an insider story of the evolution of the music industry from the 1970 to today. He has a good take on some well-known personalities and a few despicable folks in the corporate sand castle that came to control the release of albums. There also are some great advice and tips for budding and would-be grassroots sound engineers for the age of online media.