Cherokee Studios is a recording facility in Hollywood, California, founded in 1972. Cherokee’s owner and manager is Bruce Robb. In his autobiography, Beatles producer George Martin dubbed Cherokee Studios the best studio in America.
In the early seventies, the Robb Brothers founded the original Cherokee Studios, first located in the countryside at a ranch in Chatsworth, and then on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood. The noted studio was owned and operated by the award-winning producer/engineers and brothers – Dee, Joe and Bruce Robb, who had started their careers as performers in the 1960s as a Midwest-based folk rock band called The Robbs. Their manager was Con Merten. They switched to record production, and by the mid-seventies, with albums such as Pretzel Logic and Station to Station the studio had made its name.
At one point, Cherokee housed five studios at the Fairfax location and an additional three studios at a satellite location acquired on Beverly Drive (formerly Lion Share/ABC Dunhill Records).
**Notable Clients**
Tom Petty
Petty recorded his third album Damn the Torpedoes and fourth Hard Promises at both Sound City Studios and Cherokee Studios respectively. During the recording of Hard Promises, John Lennon was scheduled to be in the recording studio at the same time as Petty and the Heartbreakers. However, the meeting never occurred due to the untimely murder of Lennon in New York in December 1980. Both Damn the Torpedoes and Hard Promises were mixed at Cherokee Studios.
David Bowie
With Cameron Crowe documenting the recording sessions for Rolling Stone, producer Harry Maslin and David Bowie came to Cherokee Studios in 1975 to record the platinum album Station to Station.
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe recorded the platinum selling albums Theatre of Pain and Shout at the Devil at Cherokee Studios. Technicians working on Shout at the Devil noted that the members of Mötley Crüe would “stay up for three days straight making music and not even think we were working hard, with girls were streaming in and out of the studio.”
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra recorded the Sinatra Christmas Album at Cherokee in 1975.
Ringo Starr
While he was recording Stop and Smell the Roses at Cherokee Studios in 1980, Ringo Starr invited George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney to guest on the album; Paul McCartney and Harrison also produced some of the tracks. Starr had approached John Lennon to help out as well, had received two demos of songs which eventually wound up on the posthumous Lennon album Milk and Honey, and reportedly, Lennon had agreed to come to Los Angeles in January 1981 and take part in the recording; the album then would have been a modest Beatles reunion. The assassination of Lennon prevented those plans from coming to fruition. Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones also collaborated with Starr on the album at Cherokee, adding guitar, bass, saxophone, keyboards, and back-up vocals.
As of 2020 Cherokee Studios has a new location on Melrose Ave. Catty corner to Raleigh studios and across the street from Paramount Film Studios. The new studio location was built in collaboration with George Augsberger and Bruce Robb. The studio still boasts the Cherokee/Trident 48 Channel, 24 bus, 24 monitor channel A-Range console as well as large tracking space that can hold up to 40 string players comfortably. Of the new studio and location, it has been said the new location is a continuation of the Cherokee tradition, while going above and beyond.
Watch the video below to learn more Bruce Robb and Cherokee Studios!
