It’s Liza Minnelli birthday today. The actress/singer/dancer was born March 12, 1946 in Hollywood, California, the only child from the marriage of show-biz legend Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.
Liza Minnelli
Liza’s career album discography begins in ’64 with her Capitol debut Liza! Liza! and runs right up through 2010 with Confessions (Decca/Universal).
But there’s one that got away: The never-released album Liza recorded in 1971 with producer Rick Hall at the fabled FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
How do we know such an improbable recording even exists? Because the Minnelli/Muscle Shoals sessions left a paper trail through the Burbank CA headquarters of Warner Bros. Records. It begins with this memo from Rick Hall to WB President Mo Ostin, accompanying a tape of the just-completed album:
From RICK HALL, the wind-up and the pitch to WB President MO OSTIN.
Mo passes the tape along to WB a&r man Ted Templeman, the ex-Harper’s Bizarre singer/guitarist turned Warner staff producer of the Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison, Captain Beefheart, and Little Feat. Ted likes a lot of what he hears…but there’s just one “difficulty.”
TED TEMPLEMAN listens to the Minnelli/Muscle Shoals tracks.
Mo Ostin hands Rick Hall a ticket to “Pass-adena,” gently murmuring something about having too many female artists on his label already:
MO to RICK: Not this time, good buddy, but keep in touch...
5 Comments to “LIZA MINNELLI IN MUSCLE SHOALS (1971)”
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andy, this is as entertaining for your captions as for the actual documents.
keep up the good work!
You can almost hear Mo’s paisley ascot in this letter: “Thanks for laying the new LP on us….”
We’ve posted this for our documentary’s 11,000+ fans to see on https://www.facebook.com/SweetHomeAlabamaDocumentary - maybe one of these fans of music of Muscle Shoals will have more information to share about her recording session and time in Muscle Shoals?
I hope so, Curtis — thanks for your re-posting of my entry!
WOW! Am so relieved that I was not hallucinating in ’71!!! Late, late one night a friend and I walked into our favorite all night restaurant (the ONLY all-night restaurant in this area) and there was Minelli, w/ the Fame crew, sitting in OUR regular booth! And no one ever believed us — though many music stars often showed up at this place at odd hours with their crew and local musicians.