Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " ...

, both as a group and for their solo projects.

Early life

He grew up on

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...

. His father, also named Roy Halee, provided the singing voice for Mighty Mouse in late 1940s Terrytoons cartoons, as well as the voices of Heckle and Jeckle from 1951 through 1961. His mother, Rebekah Cauble, was a former stage actress with several Broadway credits.

Career

Halee started working as a cameraman for

CBS Television CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

in the 1950s. He was also studying to be a classical trumpet player.Jackson, Blair
"Interview: Roy Halee"
, '' Mix magazine'', October 1, 2001 He became an audio engineer for CBS Television, working on many shows and the top rated '' The $64,000 Question'' television quiz show. As television shows moved to the West Coast, he lost his job in a union dispute and layoff at CBS Television. He went to work for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

in New York as an editor and later as a studio engineer, working with Bob Dylan, including the first long-format radio single, " Like a Rolling Stone".Mix Foundation. ''2001 Hall of Fame Inductee Roy Halee''
After working with the Lovin' Spoonful, the Dave Clark Five and the Yardbirds, he began his partnership with

. He has also worked with other groups such as Barbra Streisand, the Byrds, Journey (on their first album ''Journey''), Willie Nile, Laura Nyro, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Mark-Almond Band and Blue Angel. Halee was named to the

TEC Awards Hall of Fame TEC may refer to: Education * Technology, the subject itself of technology taught at schools * Tertiary Education Commission (disambiguation) *''The East Carolinian'', a campus newspaper of East Carolina University Governmental and public organiz ...

in 2001.

Simon & Garfunkel

Halee discovered that the uniqueness of

's vocal harmonies could only be achieved by recording both voices on the same microphone at the same time. The song "Mrs. Robinson", from the 1968 album '' The Graduate'', won him a Grammy Award. Three more Grammy Awards followed for his work on the album '' Bookends'', and the song " Bridge Over Troubled Water" in 1970. Halee is best known for producing several albums with Simon & Garfunkel. He is mentioned in their 1965 song " A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)", written by

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

. After the duo split up, he co-produced Simon's first solo album. Later, in 1985, Halee went with Simon to South Africa to record something new that, he said, "wasn't written yet, we were going with nothing, so it was a gamble. A lot of people thought we were nuts." It led to the Grammy Award-winning album '' Graceland''. "I was having a ball recording these guys. For a guy from my background, everything was so organised generally. Here in the rawness of this, the earthiness, I was in seventh heaven." After ''Graceland'', Roy Halee continued travelling with Simon as an engineer, to Brazil and West Africa, for the album '' The Rhythm of the Saints'', with "all congas, bass drums, bata...everything imaginable."Luftig, S., The Paul Simon Companion, Four Decades of Commentary, pp. 197–198 (Biography, Schirmer Books/Omnibus Press New York, 1997)

Personal life

Halee owns three German Shorthaired Pointers. He has been married to Katherine for 53 years. Halee has three children: Roy Halee Jr., a post-production mixer for the CBS television program ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'' in New York City; Walter Halee, a former book publicist and now a ski instructor at Beaver Creek in Colorado; and Laurie Halee, a mother and massage therapist who resides in Nederland, Colorado.

References

External links

2001 interview with MIX Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halee, Roy American audio engineers American male voice actors Living people Grammy Award winners 1934 births Record producers from New York (state) Paul Simon Art Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel