Bill Pitman

William Keith Pitman (February 12, 1920 – August 11, 2022) was an American guitarist and session musician.

As a first-call studio musician working in Los Angeles, Pitman played on some of the most celebrated and influential records of the rock and roll era.

His mastery of the guitar placed him in high demand for popular music recordings, television programs, and film scores.

The style and range of his playing covered a wide spectrum, from the distinctive ukulele in the Academy Award-winning song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", to a rich-sounding Danelectro guitar that gave The Wild Wild West its unique musical signature.

Pitman was born in Belleville, New Jersey and grew up in Manhattan.

He developed an interest in music at a young age when his father worked as a bass player on staff at NBC in Rockefeller Center.

During the Great Depression, Pitman's father had steady income doing freelance work, radio shows, and movie soundtracks while he was still employed at the network.

When he was five years old, Pitman knew he wanted to be a musician.

He tried several different instruments, including the piano and trumpet, before finally settling on the guitar.

He received lessons from John Cali and Allan Reuss, teaching him fundamentals and techniques on the first guitar he ever owned, a D'Angelico.

When Pitman applied for his Local 802 union card, he easily passed the test before they recognized his surname, saying "Oh, Keith Pitman's son. Well okay."

During the latter part of the 1950s, Pitman sat in on sessions for established recording artists like Mel Tormé, Buddy Rich, and Red Callender.

However, rock and roll was gaining popularity, and a chance encounter with Phil Spector placed Pitman among the earliest members of an elite group of session players.

By 1951, Pitman had grown confident that he could play as well as many of the guitarists in the jazz clubs of Los Angeles.

While visiting a nightclub where Peggy Lee was performing, Pitman struck up a conversation with guitar virtuoso Laurindo Almeida, who was playing in her band.

Their talk led to an audition, landing Pitman a job with Lee that launched his professional music career.

After three years with Lee's band, Pitman accepted an offer to play on a radio program called The Rusty Draper Show.

His three-year stint on that broadcast led to studio work when guitar player Tony Rizzi asked Pitman to sit in for him on a Capitol Records date.

As word got around, musicians like Howard Roberts, Al Hendrickson, and Bob Bain would ask Pitman to play on sessions they were unable to attend.

Eventually, the referrals led to producers calling Pitman directly to fill a guitar chair, resulting in lucrative studio work that would last for decades.

While in high school, Pitman would travel to 52nd Street to listen to jazz artists such as Charlie Parker.

Pitman was strongly influenced by guitarists Charlie Christian and Eddie Lang, and soon befriended Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne, and Eddie Bert, with whom he frequently played.

In 1957, Bertha Spector asked Pitman if he would teach her son how to play jazz guitar.

After three months of lessons, Phil Spector continued to struggle with the concept of meter, leading both student and teacher to conclude that Phil was probably not cut out to be a musician.

The following year, Spector cut a demo for a song he had written, and then asked Pitman if he would play it for his colleagues on The Rusty Draper Show.

The song, called "To Know Him Is to Love Him", generated considerable interest, and was eventually financed.

Shortly thereafter, Pitman received a call from one of Spector's representatives asking him to play on a recording session for the song at Gold Star Studios.

The record became a huge hit, causing Pitman to be invited to all future Phil Spector recording dates.

When Spector produced the enormously popular record "Be My Baby" in 1963, he named the jam session on the flip side "Tedesco and Pitman", after two of his favorite guitar players: Tommy Tedesco and Bill Pitman.

Given the popularity of Spector's records, Pitman and the other musicians who created the Wall of Sound became the first choice of nearly every major record label in Los Angeles.

Hal Blaine would later call this group The Wrecking Crew, and their anonymous talents accompanied musical artists from the Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra.

When Columbia Records decided to take a gamble on a new band called The Byrds, they insisted on seasoned musicians being brought in to record the instrumental tracks for the first single, because the band had not yet musically gelled.

Consequently, the personnel who joined Roger McGuinn in CBS Columbia Square on January 20, 1965, were session players Larry Knechtel, Blaine, Jerry Cole, Leon Russell, and Pitman.

In three hours they recorded two songs, one of which, "Mr. Tambourine Man", became a hit.

However, when sessions for the band's debut album began in earnest, Terry Melcher was satisfied that the group was now competent enough to record their own instrumental backing.

Pitman worked as a freelance musician, employing an answering service to help him schedule recording dates.

Studios covered the cost of cartage, an important Perquisite considering the number of instruments and ancillary gear needed to meet the eclectic demands of music producers.

The frenetic pace of studio work left very little time for live performances or writing.

During one year, Pitman logged 425 recording sessions, many of which resulted in multiple sides.

When union rules were pushed beyond their limits, either Tedesco or Pitman would raise the issue of overtime—to the consternation of producers and the delight of other musicians.