Early life 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. 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.
Junior Salt 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. Nevertheless, his enduring legacy is one of an accomplished guitarist who played on some of the twentieth century's most popular recordings.
Equipment Pitman's main studio guitar was the
Gibson ES-335 with a
Polytone amplifier. On some of the rock and roll records, he used a
Fender Telecaster with a
Fender Twin Reverb amplifier. Other instruments included a
twelve-string guitar,
Fender bass, Gibson
mandolin, and a Bacon tenor
banjo. Pitman tuned the mandolin and banjo like a guitar, and was careful to warn producers that he could only play those two instruments in the guitar range. The Danelectro guitar work for which Pitman became famous started when he saw the instrument at a music shop shortly after its introduction. His practicing caught the attention of
Ernie Freeman who asked him to play the Dano on a recording date. The success of that session eventually led to his playing the Danelectro on
Jack Nitzche's "The Lonely Surfer" and
the Beach Boys album
Pet Sounds. It provided him with five years of recording work on the television program
The Wild Wild West. Following his discovery of the Danelectro, Pitman estimates that he played the instrument roughly forty per cent of the time for the rest of his studio career.
Personal life and death Pitman was married to Mildred Hurty from 1947 until their divorce in the 1960s; they had three children. ==Discography==