Gary Usher

Gary Usher (born December 14, 1938; died May 25, 1990) was an American surf rock musician, songwriter and record producer.

Though a musician in a number of Californian bands in the late 1950s, Usher gained notoriety in the early sixties, writing and producing a number of hits for various surf rock artists. He was a long-time collaborator of the Beach Boys, and was involved in many of their early hits. Later in the decade, he worked with The Byrds, Dick Dale, Gram Parsons, and a number of "studio created" bands, including The Hondells and Sagittarius. He also discovered the seminal comedy group The Firesign Theatre, using them on several of his projects for Columbia Records and producing their first few albums. In 1969, he decided to form a record label called Together Records with friends Curt Boettcher and Keith Olsen. Though several albums were released through the label, and though it did have limited success on the charts, the label folded when their distributor backed out of the deal later that year. Though his career waned after the sixties, he continued to write songs, and even released several albums of original material.

Selected Discography

Production

• Go Little Honda (1964, The Hondells)
• Hondells (1964, The Hondells)
• Hit City '65 (1965, The Surfaris)
• Younger Than Yesterday (1967, The Byrds)
• Gram Parsons Int. Sub Band (Safe at Home) (1967, Gram Parsons)
• Present Tense (1968, Sagittarius)
• Ark (1968, Chad & Jeremy)
• The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968, The Byrds)
• Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him (1968, The Firesign Theatre)
• Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968, The Byrds)
• The Byrds Play Dylan (1980, The Byrds)
• Wipe out (1987, Fat Boys with the Beach Boys, Co-Producer [uncredit])
• Brian Wilson (1988, Brian Wilson)

Songwriting

• "409" (1962, The Beach Boys)
• "Lonely Sea" (1982, The Beach Boys)
• "Ten Little Indians" (1962, The Beach Boys)
• "Beach Party" (1963, Frankie Avalon)
• "Mag Wheels" (1963, Dick Dale & the Del-Tones)
• "We'll Run Away" (1964, The Beach Boys)
• "In My Room" (1964, The Beach Boys)
• "Don't Give in to Him" (1969, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap)

External links

Offical site