About Louie Shelton

Over the past several decades you would have heard Louie Shelton's signature guitar riffs and solos on more hit records than any other session guitarist in history. While there are too many to mention, some of his classics include, Boz Scaggs' "Low Down", Lionel Richie's "Hello", Neil Diamond's "Play Me", The Jackson Five's "I Want You Back", "ABC" and "I'll Be There, The Monkees' "Last Train To Clarksville" and "Valerie". Some of the other artists Louie recorded with include John Lennon, Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, The Carpenters, Joe Cocker, Kenny Rodgers, The Mamas & Papas, James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald and many others.


Some of the albums which Louie Shelton worked on and/or produced.




Not only did Louie play guitar on Seals & Crofts greatest hits, "Summer Breeze", "Diamond Girl", "We May Never Pass This Way Again" and "Get Closer", he produced their many Gold and Platinum albums. Some of Louie's other production credits include Art Garfunkle, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Dan Seals, Cory Wells (of Three Dog Night), Jane Oliver, The Southern Sons, Mother Hubbard and Nashville Guitars.

As a recording artist himself, Louie has released five albums to date. "Touch Me" , "Guitar", "Hot & Spicy", "Urban Culture" and "Nashville Guitars"

While successfully working within all facets of the music industry in Los Angeles for many years, which includes session guitarist, recording artist, record production, and composing and playing on countless movie scores and television shows, Louie had the opportunity of working closely with the great composers Henry Mancini, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones and Lalo Schifron.

Synopsis

Synopsis
Backstage is the story of guitarist and producer LOUIE SHELTON, who after 5 decades of world class recordings and numerous multi platinum albums is now being publically recognized and inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame.

Backstage opens with Louis Shelton’s induction into the Musicians Hall of Fame, the curator and director introduce Louie as he is about to receive his award and as his guitar is placed into the Hall of Game. In this manner, the audience gains insight into the silent hero figure that has remained in the background for decades in a field where being in the spotlight is the burning ambition.

Backstage takes the audience on a journey behind the scenes of the music scene. It portrays Louis contribution on famous songs and gives an account of how these songs were written and composed. Account of how musical elements were created are accompanied by visuals of places relating to the song.

Musicians recall and elaborate on their collaboration with Louie using famous songs of that area as a trigger and (remember device) creating memorable moments on the film for the audience, as well as a background history to the song itself.

Backstage shows Louie Shelton as a character of great talent that always was highly respected by his colleagues, who, chose to stay in the background of the music scene.

Backstage explores Louis ability to adapt and adjust to the many various genres and styles of music and succeed in them all. Whatever he touched turned gold or platinum.

It’s a piece on the personal journey of the artist through the history of music, the creative process behind a successful song and the musical landscape itself from the 1950’s to today.

The man who played and recorded with artists such as Marvin Gaye and John Lennon, presents a fascinating story which in an industry known for excesses is a refreshing story to tell.

Set in various locations across the US and Australia, the perspective is backstage and behind the scenes and this will supported by the induction into Musicians Hall of Fame which adds to the historical and chronological sequence of events.

Backstage captures Louie’s musical journey and how he has recorded with much of the musical greats of the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Louie’s career is of significant interest to the music enthusiast and reaches abroader audience with interviews which include key artists that Louie has recorded with or produced such as Seals and Crofts, Lionel Ritchie, Quincy Jones, Boz Scaggs, Art Garfunkell, and more.


Film Style
Louie Shelton presents as an unassuming, modest artist living quietly on the Gold Coast and continuing to perform and record on projects which are of appeal to him. It is possible to see him perform from time to time in small venues. With a little luck one could stumble onto a performance of one of music’s greats in downtown Brisbane or another location.

Interviews with artists and performers chatting in an informal interview format, the music industry at the time that the recordings occurred and Louie’s role in the music.

Locations will include, LA, Nashville and Tamworth, with interviews occuring in a number of settings.

Backstage story will be supported with historical footage and music of performances and recordings of the key artists as well.

Backstage will show some original never seen before footage from the 1960’s.

Impromptu material that may occur as a result of the filming.

A selection of Albums which Louie Shelton Played on or Produced

View all

Get your own

Adam Miller Who Would Give His Only Song Away

Who Would Give His Only Song Away
Adam Miller
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Rockville Junction Lord Protect Me from My Friends

Lord Protect Me from My Friends
Rockville Junction
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Little Taste of Southern Fried

Little Taste of Southern Fried
Southern Fried
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Jack Daugherty and the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seventy One

Jack Daugherty and the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seventy One
Jack Daugherty Orchestra
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Tim Weisberg Hurtwood Edge

Hurtwood Edge
Tim Weisberg
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Bob Morrison Friends of Mine

Friends of Mine
Bob Morrison
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Tongue & Groove Presents Lynne Hughes Freeway Gypsy

Tongue & Groove Presents Lynne Hughes Freeway Gypsy
Lynne Hughes
Louie Shelton - Guitar, Guitar (12 String)

2009 Collection: Whitney Houston/My Love Is Your Love

2009 Collection: Whitney Houston/My Love Is Your Love
Whitney Houston
Louie Shelton - Performer

2009 The Carpenters 40/40

2009 40/40
The Carpenters
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Released upon the 40th anniversary of the Carpenters' debut album, 40/40 is a double-disc retrospective containing 40 tracks (hence the title). Compiled by Richard Carpenter and newly remastered, 40/40 largely covers familiar ground, running through all but one of their 20 Top 20 hits (the missing culprit is "There's a Kind of Hush") and plenty of other staples that have been reissued on compilations like this many times before.

2008 Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records - The First Fitty Years

2008 Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records - The First Fitty Years
Various Artists
Louie Shelton - Producer

Unlike other labels subjected to exhaustive multi-disc retrospectives like this whopping ten-disc Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records -- The First Fifty Years, Warner Brothers never embodied a scene or sound: they've always embodied what a major label should be -- a dominant force that chronicles and dictates the sound of the mainstream. Coming out at the tail-end of 2008, when the influence of major labels is on a slow steady decline, Revolutions in Sound can be seen as a portrait of a time that's beginning to recede into the past: a time when there was such a thing as mass entertainment, when the pop audience all shared a common bond of hit records they either loved or rallied against.

2008 Al Kooper I Stand Alone/You Never Know Who Your Friends Are

2008 I Stand Alone/You Never Know Who Your Friends Are
Al Kooper
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Al Kooper is destined to be remembered mostly as an ace session player and bandmember (of the Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears), not as a solo artist, despite the numerous albums he issued under his own name. But though this two-CD set covers only his earliest solo work, it could be argued that it's the best compilation of recordings he made on his own, though certainly not one that represents the scope of his career, whether done alone or with others. This Australian anthology presents both of his first two albums, 1968's I Stand Alone and 1969's You Never Know Who Your Friends Are, in their entirety, as well as five tracks from his third album (1970's Easy Does It) and a couple he contributed to the 1970 soundtrack The Landlord.

2007 John Phillips Jack of Diamonds

2007 Jack of Diamonds
John Phillips
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Although John Phillips record releases virtually ground to a halt after his 1970 solo debut album, he did continue recording intermittently in the '70s. The 13 tracks forming the core of Jack of Diamonds are an approximation of how a second Phillips solo LP might have sounded, pieced together from various sessions in 1972 and 1973. Phillips made a great contribution to mid-'60s pop/rock as chief songwriter for the Mamas & the Papas, and to be harsh, this batch of tunes is not only weak in comparison, but also finds him losing his central threads of stylistic identity.

2007 Gold: Soft Rock

2007 Gold: Soft Rock
Various Artists
Louie Shelton - Producer

Hip-O's two-disc Gold: Soft Rock collection pull no punches in its attempt to re-create the heydays of '70s AM radio. All of the familiar Sunday staples are here like Dan Fogelberg's "Longer," "Sara Smile" from Hall & Oates, Player's impossibly smooth "Baby Come Back" and Seals & Crofts' soft rock anthem "Summer Breeze," but it's the effortless inclusion of contemporary cuts such as Godley & Creme's "Cry," the Moody Blues' "In Your Wildest Dreams," "Tempted" by Squeeze and even "More Than Words" by Extreme that sets this compilation apart from its lazy predecessors.

2007 Essential Teddy Pendergrass

2007 Essential Teddy Pendergrass
Teddy Pendergrass
Louie Shelton - Guitar

When Legacy put together The Essential Teddy Pendergrass for release in 2007, four years had come and gone since the Philly soul singer's hits had last been anthologized in double-disc form. So, is this really all that necessary? Yes, it is completely necessary. Unlike 2003's Anthology, released through The Right Stuff, The Essential Teddy Pendergrass does not cut off just prior to TP's mid-'80s switch from Philadelphia International to Elektra/Asylum.

2007 Essential Teddy Pendergrass [3.0]

2007 Essential Teddy Pendergrass [3.0]
Teddy Pendergrass
Louie Shelton - Guitar

When Legacy put together The Essential Teddy Pendergrass for release in 2007, four years had come and gone since the Philly soul singer's hits had last been anthologized in double-disc form. So, is this really all that necessary? Yes, it is completely necessary. Unlike 2003's Anthology, released through The Right Stuff, The Essential Teddy Pendergrass does not cut off just prior to TP's mid-'80s switch from Philadelphia International to Elektra/Asylum.

2006 Judee Sill Complete Asylum Recordings

2006 Complete Asylum Recordings
Judee Sill
Louie Shelton - Musician

2005 Gene Vincent Road Is Rocky: Complete Studio Masters 1956-1971

2005 Road Is Rocky: Complete Studio Masters 1956-1971
Gene Vincent
Louie Shelton - Guitar

No other Gene Vincent song title sums up his career so succinctly as "The Road Is Rocky." Vincent never had an easy time of things. He came crashing out of the gate with "Be-Bop-A-Lula," one of the epochal singles of early rock & roll, and for a brief moment it seemed that superstardom was within his grasp. Certainly, in the Blue Caps, powered by guitarist Cliff Gallup, he had a band that propelled him into the front ranks of rockers in 1956, and for a while they cut rockabilly with no peer, such as the frenzied "Race with the Devil." But this golden age was not only fleeting, it didn't produce much gold, at least far as the charts were concerned: as good as "Race with the Devil," "Bluejean Bop," and "B-i-Bickey, Bi, Bo-Bo-Go" were, they didn't turn into hits, and soon Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps started to fracture, starting with the crucial departure of Gallup.

2005 The Mamas & the Papas Complete Anthology

2005 Complete Anthology
The Mamas & the Papas
Louie Shelton - Keyboards

What's in a name? If you love mid-'60s folk-rockers the Mamas & the Papas, this four-volume U.K. Complete Anthology (2004) speaks for itself. The 101 selections run in excess of five hours centering on the vintage long-players If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966), The Mamas & the Papas (1966), The Mamas & the Papas Deliver (1967), The Papas & the Mamas (1968), People Like Us (1971), and The Monterey International Pop Festival (1971). For many, that gracious plenty would be sufficient. But the real icing (or cake for the hardcore fan) comes in the form of the nearly 90 minutes of hard-to-find material ranging from the quartet's debut as support vocalists for Barry McGuire, to rare singles, audio from a pair of television appearances, and a bevy of post-Mamas & the Papas entries from John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Cass Elliot, and Denny Doherty as solo artists.

2005 Come on Get Happy! The Very Best of the Partridge Family

2005 Come on Get Happy! The Very Best of the Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
Louiee Shelton - Guitar

The Partridge Family don't get much respect from the standard history of rock from the early '70s. Much like their fellow made-for-TV brethren the Monkees, their contributions are written off as pre-fab concoctions that are too trifling to be bothered with. If you fall in line with that kind of thinking you are going to miss one of the best pop acts of the era. Utilizing the cream of behind-the-scenes songwriters from Neil Sedaka to Hot Chocolate's Errol Brown, and the lush vocal harmonies of the uncredited (at the time) background singers, the Partridge Family's songs are solid AM pop, with hooks galore and a light but not saccharine sound.

2005 The Carpenters Chronicles

2005 Chronicles
The Carpenters
Louie Shelton - Guitar

To add to the myriad greatest-hits compilations, anthologies, and special showcases of the Carpenters' unique sound currently flooding the market, this three-CD long-box set may be misinterpreted as another greatest-hits showcase, but it is far from it. Chronicles is actually a repackaging of three landmark albums: Close to You, Carpenters, and A Song for You.

2004 What Is Hip?: Remix Project, Vol. 1

2004 What Is Hip?: Remix Project, Vol. 1
Various Artists
Louie Shelton - Producer

If you want to make it onto the next volume of Warner's What Is Hip?: Remix Project (the cover here says "Volume One," so let's assume), here is the not-so-secret formula. Start with a trippy and serene intro that you'll put under the main tune later, then drop in the original song's intro so everyone goes, "oh, it's that song!" then lightly dust your radio staple with electronic beats and bleeps. You can use a line from the song's chorus and echo it over your hypnotic breakdown if you like, but whatever you do, don't mess with the original too much.

2004 Ultimate 5th Dimension

2004 Ultimate 5th Dimension
The 5th Dimension
Louie Shelton - Guitar

The 5th Dimension were just about the most successful harmony group of the 1960s and The Ultimate 5th Dimension is easily the most comprehensive single-disc collection on the market. It documents the heyday of the group, mostly their late-'60s tenure with Johnny Rivers' Soul City label and a few tracks from their '70s stay at Bell, and it focuses on their singles, their hit singles, that is. Each of the 20 songs here (the 21st track is a previously unreleased song, "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye") was a Top 35 hit or better.

2004 Krissy Nordhoff Thank Him

2004 Thank Him
Krissy Nordhoff
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar

2004 Renee Armand Rain Book

2004 Rain Book
Renee Armand
Louie Shelton - Guitar

2004 Quietime: Music to Reflect

2004 Quietime: Music to Reflect
Various Artists
Louie Shelton - Guitar

2004 Quiet Christmas

2004 Quiet Christmas
Various Artists
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)

2004 In the Mood for Memphis

2004 In the Mood for Memphis
Various Artists
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Electric)

2004 Del Shannon Home and Away: The Complete Recordings 1960-1970

2004 Home and Away: The Complete Recordings 1960-1970
Del Shannon
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Of all the early rock & rollers, Del Shannon is the hardest to classify. He came on the scene a little late -- his first hits, "Hats off to Larry" and "Runaway," arrived in 1961, five years after rock & roll came crashing in, a long enough period of time where his music felt much, much different than the three-chord ravers of the first wave of rock & roll. He arrived during the peak of teen idol pop and was handsome enough to ride that wave, but he was older than Fabian and Ricky Nelson, scoring his first hits in his mid-twenties.

2004 Hit List: 24 Hot 100 American Chartbusters of the 1970

2004 Hit List: 24 Hot 100 American Chartbusters of the 1970
Various Artists
Louie Shelton - Producer

Following in the tradition of its previous series The Golden Age of American Rock & Roll (which documented the 1950s) and Chartbusters (tracking the 1960s), the U.K. reissue label Ace moves into the Me Decade with The Hit List: 24 Hot 100 American Chartbusters of the 1970s. Its subtitle to the contrary, the first volume in the series actually focuses almost exclusively on Top 20 chart entries, documenting the autumn of AM radio's commercial heyday: sure, the pop hits of the 1970s have been maligned in many quarters, and novelties like John Sebastian's theme to the TV smash Welcome Back, Kotter and cheese like Seals & Crofts' "Summer Breeze" won't change naysayers' minds, but as these two-dozen songs prove, the decade was unmatched for the sheer variety of music that accessed the top of the charts, with hard rock, country-pop, disco and bubblegum pop all vying for commercial success.

2004 James William Guercio Electra Glide in Blue Original Soundtrack

2004 Electra Glide in Blue-Original Soundtrack
James William Guercio
Louie Shelton - Guitar

2004 Boz Scaggs Collection: Slow Dancer/Silk Degrees/Down Two Then Left

2004 Collection: Slow Dancer/Silk Degrees/Down Two Then Left
Boz Scaggs
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Slide Guitar

In 1997, Columbia released Collection, which combined the current CD releases of Slow Dancer, Silk Degrees, and Down Two Then Left in a cardboard slipcase box. There was no difference from the individual discs on the market; those discs were merely put in a box, which made it convenient for a fan who wanted to get all three discs at once. Seven years later, Sony reformatted all of their previously released Collections, moving away from the slipcased jewel boxes and introducing a book-styled box set, where the three CDs sit with the liner notes from the individual CDs thrown into the bottom of the box.

2002 Dan Seals Make It Home

2002 Make It Home
Dan Seals
Louie Shelton - Mandolin, Guitar (Electric), Producer, Digital Engineer

2002 Definitive Monkees

2002 Definitive Monkees
The Monkees
Louie Shelton - Guitar

This two-CD set, issued in Europe about a week before Rhino Records' expanded box appeared in America, resembles either a considerably expanded and upgraded version of the old Arista Records set Then & Now..., or a more entertaining successor to Rhino Records' 1998 Anthology. The disc, running just under 80 minutes and containing 29 songs, is for the listener who wants the hits and the best album tracks all gathered in one place, including ubiquitous numbers like the television series' second-season end credit track, "For Pete's Sake."

2002 Definitive Monkees [Bonus Disc]

2002 Definitive Monkees [Bonus Disc]
The Monkees
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Guitar (Electric)

This two-CD set, issued in Europe about a week before Rhino Records' expanded box appeared in America, resembles either a considerably expanded and upgraded version of the old Arista Records set Then & Now..., or a more entertaining successor to Rhino Records' 1998 Anthology. The first disc, running just under 80 minutes and containing 29 songs, is for the listener who wants the hits and the best album tracks all gathered in one place, including ubiquitous numbers like the television series' second-season end credit track, "For Pete's Sake."

2001 David Cassidy Then and Now

2001 Then and Now
David Cassidy
Louie Shelton - Guitar

While both David Cassidy and the Partridge Family have been at least partially anthologized over the years, it remains a thing of wonder that nobody has yet sat down to compile the best of both into one all-encompassing package -- all the more so since Cassidy's personal appeal remains as high as any '70s icon could dream of climbing. Cassidy himself has toyed with his past on occasion, with releases ranging from a mid-'80s live hits album to the savage reinvention of "I Think I Love You," which so dignified his 1998 Slamajama album.

2001 The Monkees Music Box

2001 Music Box
The Monkees
Louie Shelton - Guitar

It's hard not to wonder why the four-disc Music Box even exists. After all, Rhino has not only released definitive reissues of all of the Monkees' studio albums, complete with bonus tracks, but the label has a series devoted to rarities (Missing Links), a single-disc greatest hits album, a double-disc anthology, and another four-disc box, Listen to the Band, which is excellent.

2001 Farzad Mirror of Emotions

2001 Mirror of Emotions
Farzad
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Acoustic), Arranger, Guitar (Electric), Producer

Farzad, an Iranian-born violinist who studied in the U.S. and settled there after the fall of the Shah, devoted a part of his first album, From My Heart, to treatments of themes from Persian folk music. He takes a more eclectic approach on his second, mixing in a bit of everything in an attempt to demonstrate the oneness of all music. His playing in particular betrays his classical roots, but the styles of the music range from jazzy and Latin to light pop.

2001 Christmas With Jim Horn

2001 Christmas With Jim Horn
Jim Horn
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Christmas With Jim Horn is a collection of Christmas standards performed by Jim Horn and his fellow contemporary jazz musicians. Like other Horn recordings, this is a mellow affair filled with fingerpicked guitar playing and keyboards. The arrangements are at times just too bizarre (his lounge salsa version of "The Christmas Song," for example), but for this genre this is better than average.

2000 Louie Shelton Urban Culture

2000 Urban Culture
Louie Shelton
Louie Shelton - Guitar, Producer

2000 Dash Crofts Today

2000 Today
Dash Crofts
Louie Shelton - Synthesizer, Guitar (Acoustic), Arranger, Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Engineer, Drum Programming, Photography

2000 Nashville Guitars

2000 Nashville Guitars
Various Artists
Guitar (Acoustic), Producer

On Nashville Guitars, produced by noted session guitarist Louie Shelton (the Jackson Five, the Monkees), he contributes the up-tempo track "High Roller," accompanied by ten more tracks from some of the finest pickers in Nashville. Mark Casstevens contributes an acoustic picking masterpiece in "Cowtown," this from a guitarist who can be heard on albums by folks like Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, and Amy Grant. Reggie Young (Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds") shines at full luster on "Exit 209," an easy listening number, and Ray Flacke smokes the fret board on "Templar Treasure."

1999 Pop Music: The Modern Era 1976-1999

1999 Pop Music: The Modern Era 1976-1999
Various Artists
Louie Shelton - Guitar

To commemorate the end of the century, Sony Music assembled the gargantuan 26-disc box set, Sony Music 100 Years: Soundtrack for a Century. The title was imposing, as was the idea behind it -- to chronicle the life of the oldest record label in the music industry. To be clear, Sony Music has not existed for 100 years, but the heart of its catalog, Columbia Records, was founded early in the 20th century. Sony acquired Columbia and its various subsidiaries in the late '80s, purchasing one of the richest catalogs in pop history, as the box set proves again and again.

1999 American City Suite: The Very Best Of Cashman & West

1999 American City Suite: The Very Best Of Cashman & West
Cashman & West
Louie Shelton - Guitar

1998 Dory Previn Mythical Kings and Iguanas/Reflections in a Mud Puddle

1998 Mythical Kings and Iguanas/Reflections in a Mud Puddle
Dory Previn
Louie Shelton - Banjo, Guitar (Electric)

You might have expected that British label BGO Records, in reissuing Dory Previn's early-'70s albums as twofers, would pair her debut album, On My Way to Where, with her second, Mythical Kings and Iguanas, and her third, Reflections in a Mud Puddle/Taps Tremors and Time Steps, with her fourth, Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign. But On My Way to Where wasn't released in England until after the others, and BGO bloody-mindedly decided to follow the British release schedule, first releasing a twofer of Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign with On My Way to Where, then following with this disc containing Mythical Kings and Iguanas and Reflections in a Mud Puddle (the second part of the album's title is not listed on this release).

1998 Louie Shelton Hot & Spicy

1998 Hot & Spicy
Louie Shelton
Louie Shelton - Synthesizer, Programming, Multi Instruments, Engineer, Drum Programming, Track Programmer

1998 The Monkees Anthology

1998 Anthology
The Monkees
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Guitar (Electric)

Rhino's Listen to the Band box set was for the collectors, and their terrific 20-song Greatest Hits was for the casual fans. Their third attempt at a Monkees compilation, the double-disc Anthology falls somewhere in between. Over the course of an exhausting 56 tracks, all of the group's hits are hauled out again, with such fine album tracks as "She," "Take a Giant Step," "Your Auntie Grizelda," "You Just May Be the One," and "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round" added for good measure. On the surface of things, this seems like a good thing, but the set is padded out with lesser album cuts and latter-day tracks from their three reunion albums that makes Anthology more of a chore than a pleasure.

1997 The 5th Dimension Up Up and Away: The Definitive Collection

1997 Up Up and Away: The Definitive Collection
The 5th Dimension
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Electric)

The subtitle on this anthology is correct: this is truly the definitive collection of the 5th Dimension's music, including all the hits and most of the album cuts that anyone could want. The 20-bit digital mastering provides a crisp, bright audio experience, and the joyous harmonies bring back the positive side of the late-'60s/early-'70s era in which the songs were recorded. The megahits are all here: Jimmy Webb's "Up, Up and Away," Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Wedding Bell Blues," the Bacharach/David opus "One Less Bell to Answer," the beautiful "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All," and the Grammy-winning number one smash from the spring of 1969, "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" from Hair.

1997 Frank Sinatra My Way: The Best of Frank Sinatra [1 CD]

1997 My Way: The Best of Frank Sinatra [1 CD]
Frank Sinatra
Louie Shelton - Coordination

Although there are many who feel that Frank Sinatra's greatest material was recorded in the 1950s, there are others who hold that his best studio singing really came during his time with Capitol and with his own label, Reprise, in the '60s and '70s. It is probably an unsolvable debate, but as this 24-track set of key cuts from his Capitol and Reprise years shows, Sinatra grew comfortably into his voice and phrasing during these years, learning to stay away from his limitations and work steadily toward his strengths, all with a clear sense of his public image.

1997 Boz Scaggs My Time: The Anthology (1969-1997)

1997 My Time: The Anthology (1969-1997)
Boz Scaggs
Louie Shelton - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar

In his liner notes to the double-disc, two-and-a-half-hour Boz Scaggs compilation My Time: The Anthology (1969-1997), Ben Fong-Torres writes, "There are those who, charting Boz's career, identify specific phases: rock and roll with [Steve] Miller; the early solo albums, which were as much country and blues, and pop and jazz, as they were rock; the Slow Dancer/Silk Degrees stage, of Boz as sweet soul singer; the nearly decade-long retrenchment and semi-retirement, and the return to rootsy blues and R&B in Some Change and Come On Home." Fong-Torres goes on to say that this is not an incorrect way to describe Scaggs' career, but that there is more unity than it would imply: "in every phase of his career, he has remained faithful to his musical instincts."

1996 The Hondells Vol. 2: 1965-1970

1996 Vol. 2: 1965-1970
The Hondells
Louie Shelton - Guitar

1996 Bread Retrospective

1996 Retrospective
Bread
Louie Shelton - Guitar

Retrospective is the definitive compilation of Bread, perhaps the definitive soft rock group of the '70s. If anything, it may be too comprehensive for most listeners. Covering the entire course of Bread's career, plus selected highlights from David Gates in the late '70s and early '80s, the compilation spans two very full compact discs. For those who want more than the hits but are unwilling to delve into individual albums, the collection is ideal.