Brooks Arthur, who helped generate and shepherd decades' worth of rock n' roll hits, has died. Arthur worked with some of the biggest names - from Bruce Springsteen to Janis Ian - in a studio he set up in Rockland County.
Ian, in a Facebook post, honored Arthur, who "took a chance on me at twenty-one, who fed me when I was hungry, who produced and engineered "At Seventeen", who was a mainstay in my life from the time I was fourteen years old until this very moment."
From garage to hit factory: Brooks Arthur and the 914 Sound Studios story
The Goffin & King Foundation, which supports songwriters and music education, honored Arthur on Monday. A message of mourning on the nonprofit's Facebook page, included a photo of Arthur and Carole King, for whom the foundation is named, with songwriting partner Gerry Goffin.
Arthur had lived in Valley Cottage in the 1970s. He was 86 when he died Oct. 9, 2022, in California, according to Jo-Ann Geffen of JAG PR.
A sought-after engineer, Arthur had worked with the Shangri-Las on their hits "Leader of the Pack" and "Walking in the Sand," and just about every prominent girl group. He went on to work with the Lovin' Spoonful, Van Morrison and Neil Diamond.
He opened his own studio in Manhattan. Then in 1971, heconverted a small, squat building next to the Blauvelt Coach Diner on Route 303. It became 914 Sound Recording Studios and put many artists on the map.
"I found this old garage," Arthur said in a 2015 interview with lohud.com. "It had two sliding doors, around the side it had sort of a double door entrance. It had the two lifts for the cars ... We poured fresh cement, found an SSI console. ... I was creating what I as an engineer and producer thought would make a fine studio."
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The new recording studio was just 10 minutes from Arthur's Valley Cottage home, and had plenty of space out back.
That outside expanse allowed one young artist to camp out when he was too tired to drive back to South Jersey. Bruce Springsteen began recording "Greetings from Asbury Park" there in 1972. It's where Springsteen laid down one of rock's most iconic tracks – "Born to Run."
The album was released during the summer of 1975 and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band catapulted to fame.
Ian's 1975 album "Between the Lines," featuring the song "At Seventeen" was made at the Blauvelt studio, named for the former area code of the area.
Among the artists who recorded with Arthur at 914: Melanie, Loudon Wainwright III, Blood Sweat & Tears, Ashford and Simpson, Dusty Springfield, the Ramones and James Taylor.
Arthur moved out of Rockland by the end of the 1970s to Los Angeles.
His music career started in the mailroom of Decca Records in the 1950s when he was still in high school. He went on to work in stage and film, was a Grammy winner and worked on film and stage productions. He produced Adam Sandler's wildly popular "The Chanukah Song" and the two worked on other projects, including "The Wedding Singer."
Sandler mourned Arthur's passing on Twitter. "Nobody like that man on the planet. Pure kindness. Loving. Giving. Creative. Patient. Soulful. Super human being," he wrote. "A true mensch."
The Brooklyn-born Arthur remembered his Rockland days fondly, though. In 2016, he told lohud editor Robert Brum that he still had a Blauvelt Coach Diner menu on his wall.
Now a bright red auto detailing shop, 914 Sound Recording Studios is long gone. It was sold off when Arthur went to L.A., remained a music studio for a bit and then was repurposed many times.
A historic marker was placed at the site in 2016. It reads: "Back when music was captured on vinyl, Brooks Arthur's 914 Sound Recording Studios allowed musicians the freedom to hone their craft away from the pressures of the big city ... The music made here endures long after 914's last note."
Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Follow her on Twitter at@nancyrockland.
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