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Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Hearts's Nancy Wilson discusses Geddy Lee credit on Red Velvet Car

Mon, Mar 28, 2011@10:27AM | comments removed/disabled

Last August Heart released their new album Red Velvet Car which was produced and engineered by Ben Mink and David Leonard respectively, both of whom had the same credits on Geddy Lee's 2000 solo album My Favorite Headache. One of the tracks on the album is called Death Valley and the following appears in the credits: Geddy Lee - Whistle on 'Death Valley,' Mazel. The Mazel part simply means good luck or congratulations in Yiddish. Other musicians on the album also have their names listed with the instrument they performed on along with a phrase that represents who they are by heritage, character, and/or personality. At the time it wasn't initially clear what Geddy's contribution was, but after some intrepid research by RushFanForever - who emailed sound engineer David Leonard - it was revealed as simply an inside joke between Ben and Nancy Wilson:

I just heard back from Mr. Mink. Kudos to you for picking up on an inside joke between Ben and Nancy Wilson. Ben says "Nancy (Wilson) heard some hi pitched thing in "Death Valley" and he (Ben) said "it's probably Geddy whistling". They gave Geddy credit. That's the story.

But apparently there's more to the story. Nancy Wilson was recently interviewed for New Mexico's KZZR radio and had the following to say:

... When Ben was mixing Red Velvet Car, Geddy Lee was around, and he got the voice of Geddy Lee hidden in the beginning of the "Death Valley" song. It's sort of a secret signal from Geddy." ...

You can listen to the interview at this link - it starts around the 3:30 mark. Thanks to Eric at Power Windows for the heads up.

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