A landmark of classic rock radio, Boston’s self-titled 1976 debut has an incredible backstory that has been described as “one of the most complex corporate capers in the history of the music business.”
The Boston sound started an unlikely marriage between head producer Tom Scholz and lead singer Brad Delp. Boston famously came together in a rather atypical fashion considering its time period of the 1970’s– Scholz had recorded various demos of songs that would eventually find their way onto Boston’s debut album, but after being rejected by nearly every record company that he sent the tapes to, Scholz became disillusioned with the music industry as a whole and nearly gave it all up. However, after New England A&R man Charles McKenzie heard the tape in a co-worker’s office, he passed it along his friend at Epic Records who asked Scholz and the band to perform a live showcase of the songs to record execs.
The problem of course was that the band Boston at that point was really just Scholz recording by himself in his basement and having lead singer Brad Delp overdub his vocals on top of it. Scholz recruited some musicians who had played on prior recordings, met the execs at a warehouse that doubled as Aerosmith’s practice facility, and impressed them enough that they signed the band to a multi-record contract.
And there’s where it got interesting. While the record company enjoyed the sound of the demos, they wanted the band to work with a full-time producer and record in a professional studio. Scholz was pissed at this arrangement, preferring to use his home studio, and subsequently embarked on a multi-month journey of subterfuge. During the recording process Scholz somehow found a way to convince Epic that he was on the West Coast recording the album at a professional studio, when in fact he was tinkering around in his basement using effectively the same process he used to record the demo tapes. Along with this game of cat and mouse, Scholz went to great lengths to fund the homegrown recording process and the gear he needed– the dude straight up billed the record company thousands of dollars for a custom-made acoustic guitar for the intro to “More Than a Feeling” but ended up using a $100 Yamaha acoustic guitar instead. Effectively the entire record was recorded in Scholz’s basement unbekownst to the record company the entire time.
The end result was the fastest-selling LP in music history at the time, 17 million records sold, and one of the most iconic sounds in the history of classic rock. Not bad for a loner in his basement obsessed with the sound in his head.
Standout Songs: “More Than a Feeling”, “Peace of Mind”, “Smokin’”
