page_title: Record Plant
section_title: 1977 and beyond
hierarchical_section_title: Record Plant / Los Angeles / 1977 and beyond
caption_attribution_description: English: Fire in Los Angeles at the Record Plant. An electrical fire broke out in Studio C, destroying it.
context_page_description: The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blondie's Parallel Lines, Metallica's Load and Reload, The Eagles' Hotel California, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction, and Kanye West's The College Dropout. More recent albums with songs recorded at Record Plant include Lady Gaga's ARTPOP, Justin Bieber's Purpose, Beyoncé's Lemonade, and Ariana Grande's Thank U, Next.
  The studio was founded in 1968 in New York City by Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone, who opened a Los Angeles branch the following year and a Sausalito, California, location in 1972. During the 1980s, they sold the New York and Sausalito studios; the former closed in 1987, the latter in 2008. The Los Angeles studio, which remains in operation, was purchased in December 2016 by songwriter/producer Philip Lawrence.
context_section_description: In July 1977, Kellgren drowned in the swimming pool at his Hollywood home. A business associate of Kellgren's was in the house at the time; he called police and reported that Kellgren had recently been in surgery and that he had been swimming in the deep end of the pool. Kellgren's girlfriend and secretary, Kristianne Gaines, also drowned. Gaines, 34, a resident of Los Angeles, was last seen alive sitting on a raft in the pool because she could not swim. Guitarist Ronnie Wood wrote that Kellgren probably died of electric shock while trying to fix some underwater speakers in his pool and that Gaines drowned trying to help him.
  The loss of his friend and business partner hit Stone hard. Stone was suddenly responsible for keeping all three studios operating, but he concentrated his attention on Los Angeles and slowly began to lose interest in the Sausalito location.
  Studio C was destroyed in an electrical fire on January 10, 1978. At the time, rocker Marshall Chapman was working with producer Al Kooper and bassist Tom Comet in Studio B on her album Jaded Virgin and helped other musicians and engineers carry priceless master recordings to safety outside the building. She said, "We might as well have been rescuing Rembrandts from the Louvre...I remember seeing 'Hotel California' [marked] on one, and 'John Lennon' on another. I nearly fainted when I saw I was holding a box containing the master tape from Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life."
  During the next 13 months, Studio C was rebuilt and fitted with radical new gear. In February 1979, Stephen Stills became the first major-label American artist to record on digital recording and mastering equipment, a 3M system installed to replace the previous analog system. With engineer Michael Braunstein at the controls, Stills recorded a new version of the song "Cherokee", previously released on his first solo album Stephen Stills.
  The L.A. operation expanded further in the early 1980s by equipping more remote recording trucks. In 1982, Stone leased sound stages M and L at the Paramount Pictures studio lot for film sound recordings. Soundtracks that the Record Plant tracked and mixed there included Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Annie, 48 Hrs., and An Officer and a Gentleman. The studio was outgrowing its Third Street location.
  In 1985, the Record Plant's Third Street facility closed with hundreds of its customers and staff taking part in "The Last Jam". In January 1986, the Record Plant reopened at 1032 Sycamore Avenue in Hollywood in the former Radio Recorders "Annex", a historic studio where Elvis Presley and Louis Armstrong recorded.
  On December 8, 1987, Stone sold 50% plus one share of the Los Angeles studio to Chrysalis Records under George Martin, with Stone continuing to manage the facility. In 1989, Stone sold the remainder and left it under Chrysalis management. In 1991, Rick Stevens, ex-president of Summa Music Group publishing, bought the Record Plant; he refurbished it in 1993. Stevens added private lounges and an atrium with a jacuzzi and a billiard table lit by skylight. In 2016, Record Plant was purchased by songwriter/producer Philip Lawrence.
  In 2002, hip-hop artist Kanye West recorded his song "Through The Wire" at Record Plant, two weeks after a widely publicized car accident in which he was also driving home from the studio. The title and content of the song is a reference to the personal journey he faced after the accident, as well as the fact that he performed his lyrics with his jaw wired shut. The album the song was featured on, The College Dropout, as well as his next two albums, Late Registration and Graduation were also recorded at Record Plant.
  In 2006, American artist Beyoncé recorded the songs "Green Light" and "Kitty Kat", in addition to parts of the song "Déjà Vu", from her second album B'Day at the Plant. In 2010, Beyoncé recorded parts of her 4 album at Record Plant. In 2013, although no songs recorded at Record Plant made it onto her self-titled album, she recorded the song "7/11" at the Plant, which she later released on Beyoncé: Platinum Ed
caption: Studio C was destroyed by fire in January 1978.
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