David Carroll

American studio arranger, conductor and musical director, born October 15, 1913 in Taylorville, Illinois and died March 22, 2008 in California. Musical director for [l=Mercury] from 1951 to the early 1960s. As studio arranger and conductor, Carroll played on numerous Top 40 hits, backing the [a=Crew Cuts] on their #1 hit, "Sh-Boom" and Rusty Draper on his "Shifting, Whispering Sands". Under his own name, he recorded a string of LPs with the "dance" theme, mostly featuring his own compositions. He employed the cream of Chicago's session men on his albums, including percussionists [a=Dick Schory] and [a=Bobby Christian], [a=Earl Backus] on guitar, and Mike Simpson, who also composed a number of innovative pieces for percussion on Carroll's albums, on reeds. [a=Quincy Jones] composed a couple of numbers for Carroll during his stint as a musical director for Mercury, and several cuts on Carroll's later LPs sound Suspiciously like Jones arrangements. For some, the covers, featuring bold photos of sexy women in ecstatic poses, are more interesting than the music itself, but Carroll's Percussion Orientale and Percussion in Hi-Fi are worth seeking out. Among the acts Carroll worked with in his later years with Mercury were the Smothers Brothers, and he eventually left Mercury and toured with them, leading their road show band.