+ Upcoming Artists

When:	Saturday, March 24, 2007 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM
Where:	The Listening Room at J Michael Instruments 1946 N Wickham Road Melbourne, FL 32935
Cost:	Online: $ 15.00 / Door: 15

Every time you hear "I'm a Believer" on the radio or watch The Godfather on television, Sal DiTroia collects a check. He's the studio musician who played guitar on The Monkees' peppy 1966 hit and worked on the score for the 1972 movie's foreboding wedding scene.

DiTroia performed on Billy Joel's first album, on Simon & Garfunkel's hits "The Boxer" and "Scarborough Fair," and on all of Dionne Warwick's hits, including "Alfie" and "Do You Know The Way To San Jose." He's worked with everyone from Grace Slick to Country Joe McDonald.

He's even played tennis with Dustin Hoffman and watched Burt Bacharach and Hal David have a fight in the studio. "They invested in a movie that lost a lot of money," DiTroia says. "Hal said, 'It's going to be a flop,' and it was." Recording with Barbara Streisand --widely known to be difficult to work with ... was a memorable project, DiTroia says. But he respects her perfect pitch and ear for music. "She started out playing a Greenwich Village club for $75 a night, but if the piano was out of tune, she'd walk out," he says. "If the club owner claimed it had been fixed, she could tell if it hadn't."

It was in New York that he met one of his heroes, electric guitar virtuoso Les Paul, whose advice DiTroia still recalls; "Don't get complicated. Always play for the public."

Nowadays, the native New Yorker, while continuing his session work, has taken a long overdue step and branched out into a solo performing career. He has released a new CD, called "Lost in the Music."
- Tampa Bay Illustrated, 2005


A Selected Discography:

With Burt Bacharach (all on A&M):
Reach Out
Living Together
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Greatest Hits

With Janis Ian (all on Columbia)
Stars
Between The Lines
Janis Ian

With Barbara Streisand (on Columbia) Stoney End
Songbird

With Simon & Garfunkel (on Columbia)
Bookends
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme

With Neil Diamond (on MCA)
And The Singer Sings His Songs

Billy Joel (on Columbia)
Cold Spring Harbor

Melanie
Best Of Melanie (Buddha Records)
Gather Me (Neighborhood Records)
Silver Anniversary

Mary Travers (on Warner Brothers)
Circles

Jane Olivor (on Columbia)
Chasing Rainbows

Harry Nilsson
Midnight Cowboy (Soundtrack) on United Artists