A Woman's History Un-Hidden

From LAObserved, a Smithsonian thing about session bassist Carol Kaye.

Carol Kaye and Bill Pitman on guitar at Gold Star; circa 1963.
Courtesy of GAB Archive/Redferns

As Kaye carefully listened one day in the studio as she and her fellow musicians ran through “The Beat Goes On” several times in order to try to make sense out of it, she knew that she was going to have to come up with something inventive. In her opinion, the droning, one-chord tune was a real dog; it just lay there. Playing around with several bass lines on her acoustic guitar, she then came upon a particular pattern that had some real hop to it. Dum-dum-dum-da-dum-dum-da-dum-dum.

Bono immediately stopped the session.

“That’s it, Carol,” he whooped. “What’s that line you’re playing?”

Maybe he couldn’t really play an instrument himself, least of all the bass, but Bono instinctively knew a signature lick when he heard one. And Kaye had just come up with an all-timer. As she dutifully played her creation once more for the producer, Bono had Bob West, the electric bass player on the date, learn it on the spot. Kaye and West then proceeded to play the simple yet transformative line in unison on the final recording, turning a previously lifeless production into a surefire hit.

Entering the charts in January 1967, “The Beat Goes On” made it all the way to number six, giving Sonny & Cher their biggest Top 40 showing in almost two years. Stepping in as the song’s de facto arranger, the independent-thinking Carol Kaye had just saved Bono’s composition, and likely Sonny & Cher’s tepid recording career, from an almost certain demise.

Hmmm. Think she regrets that?

The aforementioned Mr. Spector. You know, the murderer.