Billy Strange "Where Baby's Gone" 1963 Leon Russell Hal Blaine Bill Pitman Erv Coleman James Bond

Billy Strange had been an established country artist before entering the pop genre in the early 60s. Billy was one of the in-demand guitarists during the 60s until a motorcycle accident forced him to become an arranger and also manager of Frank Sinatra's Nashville publishing office. Among Billy's most notable arrangements are Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking" and The Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You," both Number One hits.
As a solo artist, Billy made many albums of instrumental covers of popular songs as well as some of his own compositions. From his 1964 album Mr. Guitar, here is his own song "Where Baby's Gone." Billy led the session and explained on the LP jacket's back notes that the album was done with "head arrangements," where the songs were arranged on the spot during the recording and the players "winged it!" Billy actually wrote this song on the spot by playing chords and a melody while James Bond added bass and Hal Blaine kept the beat. Erv Coleman and Bill Pitman added guitar parts and "wailing on piano" was Leon Russell. The original pressing on GNP 97 had twelve songs, whereas the Sunset label release only had eight. Found only on the GNP release were "The Third Man Theme" and "The Great Escape March."

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This is fantastic!