Charles Dean Britz (November 7, 1927 – August 21, 2000) was a recording engineer who worked with

Jan and Dean Jan and Dean were an American rock music, rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf m ...

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...

and

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...

, P.F. Sloan and The Grass Roots on numerous albums between 1962 and 1967.

Biography

Britz was born in 1927 to Charles and Elsie Britz in Cameron, Oklahoma. He was involved in long-range photography with the Army Air Corps fifth reconnaissance squadron from 1945 to 1947. He began his career in the recording industry in 1952, recording big bands for the

Armed Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...

s and the Salvation Army Band. In 1960, Britz went to work at Western Recorders and began engineering numerous rock n' roll records. Britz met Brian Wilson when the Beach Boys were cutting

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * Plural for Demo (computer programming ...

at Western Recorders. Influential in Wilson's development as a musician, he would go on to record and mix most of their

hit record A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

s between 1963 and 1967. He worked with Jan and Dean and through this association later with P.F. Sloan and The Grass Roots. He also recorded music for TV and movies. Britz died of

brain cancer A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cance ...

in Paradise, California at the age of 72.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Britz, Chuck 1927 births 2000 deaths American audio engineers People from Le Flore County, Oklahoma United States Army Air Forces soldiers United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century American male musicians Deaths from brain cancer in California 20th-century American engineers