Steven Douglas (September 24, 1938 – April 19, 1993) was an American saxophonist and flautist. Although few fans knew Steve Douglas by name, the sound of his muscular, R&B inflected baritone and tenor sax playing was an essential ingredient of innumerable late-Fifties and early-Sixties hits, including the Ventures’ “Walk - Don’t Run,” Bob & Earl’s “Harlem Shuffle,” the Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel,” the Beach Boys’ “Shut Down” and Jan & Dean’s “The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena).”
Born Steven Douglas Kreisman in Los Angeles, he spent his childhood in Fresno before moving back to L.A. at age thirteen. Growing up in a musical family (his mother sang with Stan Kenton), Douglas studied trumpet, trombone and violin. When he heard L.A. horn player Chuck Higgins wail the intoxicating “Pachuco Hop,” he decided to teach himself to play tenor sax. Within months, Douglas was playing on local sessions and appearing with a variety of bands at the legendary Hunter Hancock-hosted El Monte Legion Stadium rock shows.
After serving briefly in the Navy in the Drum and Bugle Corps, Douglas began his musical career recording and touring with Duane Eddy in the '50s, playing the sax solos on “Cannonball,” “Forty Miles of Bad Road” and, most notably, “Peter Gunn,” among other hits. After Douglas left Eddy in 1960, he became a session player on a cornucopia of R&B, rock and pop sessions. Douglas also led a band that included Spector as lead vocalist and guitarist. The band broke up when Spector headed to New York in 1961.
Within a year, Spector had started Philles Records and was flying Douglas to the East Coast to overdub his earthy sax tones on the earliest Crystals recordings. When Spector elected to move Philles to Los Angeles, he tapped Douglas to put together a session band that included Hal Blaine, pianists Leon Russell and Don Randi, bassist Ray Pohlman (replaced by Carol Kaye after his death) and guitarists Glen Campbell, Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco.
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| Wrecking Crew. Douglas bottom left. |
Known as the Wrecking Crew, Douglas and company defined the sound of West Coast rock & roll in the early 1960s, playing on virtually every Beach Boys recording from 1963’s Surfin’ USA through 1966’s Pet Sounds. During the next few years, Douglas appeared on nearly every surf and hot-rod record cut on the West Coast. He also worked on sessions for artists ranging from Nancy Sinatra to Sam Cooke to Elvis Presley. In a 1992 interview with Paul Freeman Dougles said with a chuckle “Elvis knocked my saxophone over on stage. He was horrified and he picked it up. He didn’t offer to buy me a Cadillac, but he did touch my horn... that’s something.”
Between 1964 and 1967, Douglas served as an A & R executive at Capitol, producing hits by Glen Campbell and Bobby Darin, among others. He signed Billy Preston to Capitol and produced the keyboardist’s Wildest Organ in Town! After his superiors overruled his attempt to sign Aretha Franklin, Douglas left to head Mercury’s West Coast office, signing Leon Russell and the Asylum Choir and Blue Cheer. Douglas subsequently ran his own label, Pentagram Records.
In 1978, Douglas went on the road to play sax on Bob Dylan’s Asian, European and American tours and appeared on Street-Legal and Bob Dylan at Budokan, then worked in Ry Cooder’s road band and played on Cooder sessions for the next fifteen years. A solo Douglas recorded some jazzy New Age albums, including The Music of Cheops (cut inside the Great Pyramid at Giza). Douglas’s prodigious recording credits have ranged from Frank Sinatra to B.B. King, Ricky Nelson to J.J. Cale.
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| Douglas with Duane Eddy |
In the early 1980s Douglas also played with Duane Eddy again, along with the great Hal Blaine on drums and, at one point in 1983, Ry Cooder on second guitar. He reappeared in Dylan’s professional life on some Knocked Out Loaded sessions Their association fizzled out in an unused session in Hollywood some time in April 1987, at which Douglas played on still-uncirculated versions of ‘Look On Yonder Walls’, ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’, ‘Red Cadillac and a Black Mustache.’
It became a tradition for Darlene Love to perform "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" for Christmas on the Late Show with David Letterman with Douglas's sax from the original recording being played by Bruce Kapler. This tradition continued through December 19, 2014, when it had been announced that Letterman would be retiring in May, 2015.
(Edited from article by Bob Bowmen, with contributions from All Music, Wikipedia, Pop Culture Classics & Outtakes blog)