Julius Wechter (May 10, 1935 – February 1, 1999) was an American musician and composer who played the

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

and

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

. He also played various percussion instruments. He composed the song " Spanish Flea" for

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...

and was leader of The

Baja Marimba Band The Baja Marimba Band was a musical group led by marimba player Julius Wechter. Formed by producer Herb Alpert after his own Tijuana Brass, the Baja Marimba Band outlasted the Tijuana Brass by several years in part due to TV producer Chuck Barris ...

Biography

Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, Wechter played

(vibes) and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

for the

Martin Denny Martin Denny (April 10, 1911 – March 2, 2005) was an American pianist and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing up to 3 weeks prior to his death, he toured the world popularizing his brand of l ...

group in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, he moved on to

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

soundtracks and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, as well as session work for the likes of

the Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...

the Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...

Sonny & Cher Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of husband and wife Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector. The pair f ...

, and various

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

productions. His Beach Boys contributions include the climactic

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

during the choruses of "

Do You Wanna Dance? "Do You Want to Dance" is a song written by American singer Bobby Freeman and recorded by him in 1958. It reached number No. 5 on the United States ''Billboard'' Top 100 Sides pop chart and No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart. Cliff Richard ...

" and prominent vibraphone on " Let's Go Away for Awhile." He began his long and successful association with Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass when he played percussion on the Tijuana Brass's first hit, "

The Lonely Bull "The Lonely Bull (El Solo Toro)" is a song by Sol Lake recorded by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass among others. The song was the title track to the album '' The Lonely Bull'', released in December 1962. The Herb Alpert single represents the fir ...

", in 1962. He later composed " Spanish Flea". Playing marimba and vibes on many of the songs on Alpert's subsequent albums in the 1960s, as well as writing at least one song on most of those albums, Wechter contributed much to the Tijuana Brass sound and style without receiving public credit for it at the time. Encouraged by Alpert, Wechter formed the

and was quite successful. The "BMB" placed four chart songs in Billboard's Top 100, and many more on its Easy Listening Top 40. When the band disbanded in the mid 1970s, Wechter turned his attention to TV and movies again, scoring the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

film '' Midnight Madness''. He continued to play with Herb Alpert, joining his touring version of the Tijuana Brass in the mid 1970s. In his later years, he devoted himself to psychology, earned a master's degree, and served as vice president of the Southern California chapter of the Tourette Syndrome Association. Wechter died at his home in California of lung cancer, at the age of 63, a day after his song "Spanish Flea" was used in ''

the Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...

'' episode "

Sunday, Cruddy Sunday "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" is the twelfth episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 31, 1999, just after Super Bowl XXXIII and the p ...

Selected compositions

*1964: Up Cherry Street *1965: Spanish Flea *1966: Brasilia *1966: Bean Bag (with Herb Alpert) *1966: Blue Sunday *1967: Shades Of Blue *1967: Flea Bag *1968: Panama *1968: Flyin' High *1970: Robbers and Cops

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wechter, Julius 1935 births 1999 deaths American percussionists Musicians from Chicago The Wrecking Crew (music) members Marimbists American vibraphonists 20th-century American musicians American session musicians Deaths from lung cancer in California Musicians from Los Angeles 20th-century American male musicians