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Omega Productions

Award Winning Production Services for the Entertainment and Music Industry

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Category: Live Recording

Live Concert / Live Event Management / Live Recording / Video Shoot

Omega Productions produces live concert television special on Bobby Blue Bland

  In the 1990s Malaco Records asked Paul Christensen and the award-winning Omega Productions crew to produce a live concert video on one of their flagship artists, Bobby (Blue) Bland. …

Live Concert / Live Recording / Video Shoot

Omega Productions records Kris Kristofferson and The Borderlords in Boulder, CO

One of Omega’s more interesting concert recordings over the years was an outing in Boulder Colorado for what was to become a music documentary on Kris Kristofferson, later titled Breakthrough. …

Live Concert / Live Recording

Omega Productions records Joe Ely and Carl Perkins for Television Special Pilot

Omega Productions recorded this concert at the iconic Nick’s Uptown Club in North Dallas, owned by John Kenyon, for a TV pilot. Omega’s President, Paul Christensen, engineered the concert and …

Live Concert / Live Recording

Omega Productions records Highwaymen TV Special at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas

The Highwaymen Tour TNN TV Special with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson was a special memory. Over the years the company has had the privilege of …

Live Concert / Live Recording

Omega Productions recalls last minute Van Halen project

It was an interesting Christmas season in 1991, when we received a call to record a free concert for Van Halen in the West End Marketplace in Dallas. The resulting …

Live Concert / Live Recording / Video Shoot

Omega Productions recalls producing historic “Spirit of America Rally” 30 years ago

On March 3, 1991, over 40,000 north Texans gathered at Texas Stadium in Irving for the “Spirit of America Rally” to honor the troops of Operation Desert Storm, as well …

Live Concert / Live Recording

Omega Productions remembers Nanci Griffith and her legacy

Nanci Griffith, the Grammy-winning folk and country songwriter whose popular recordings include “Love at the Five and Dime,” “Once in a Very Blue Moon,” and “Outbound Plane,” died recently reminding …

Live Concert / Live Recording

Forty six years since Omega Productions recorded the iconic “48 Hours In Atoka” Music Festival

During a stifling hot August in 1975, Omega Productions recorded the “48 Hours in Atoka” Music Festival. The two-day outdoor music festival, recorded for KAFM Radio in Dallas, TX, was …

Live Concert / Live Recording

Omega Productions celebrates 30 years since recording historic New Orleans JazzFest concert with Allen Toussaint

On May 1, 1991, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented a concert titled “Dew Drop Inn Revisited: The Toussaint Legacy” at Riverboat Hallelujah Concert Hall. Though not all …

Live Concert / Live Event Management / Live Recording / Video Shoot

University of North Texas (UNT) Music Library Special Collections solicits Omega Productions’ recordings and papers

Paul and Donna Christensen were recently honored to learn the UNT Music Library had solicited recordings and papers from their 52 year career working with over 300 artists in the …

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Omega Productions
8 hours ago

The Longest Rock Song ever recorded was a 1972 Prog-Rock epic that reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in June 1972. #MusicIcons#musichistory #omegaliveproductions ... See MoreSee Less

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The Longest Rock Song Ever Recorded Is A 1972 Prog-Rock Epic - Grunge

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The longest rock song ever recorded was the 1972 epic "Thick as a Brick" by Jethro Tull, which was a satirical take on their fellow prog-rock bands.
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Omega Productions
2 days ago
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Just impressive the sounds and musicianship from Elephant Revival, live from Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Wait past the into, so worth it. Save and come back for a whole hour. #MusicIcons #MusicHistory #omegaliveproductions ... See MoreSee Less

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Omega Productions
3 days ago

A single mistake helped Black Sabbath make a 1970 masterpiece: “We still play it that way.” We recorded them in the 70s. #musicicons #musichistory #omegaliveproductions ... See MoreSee Less

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A single mistake helped Black Sabbath make a 1970 masterpiece: “We still play it that way”

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Black Sabbath may have been a metal machine stampeding across the land, but one of their classic tracks was born out of a mistake.
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Omega Productions
5 days ago

Why did “the greatest song ever written” peak at a disappointing 39th on the charts? #musicicons #musichistory #omegaliveproductions ... See MoreSee Less

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Omega Productions
6 days ago
How a canceled Jamai

How a canceled Jamaican studio session led to one of the greatest recordings of our time, a double album completed in two weeks, selling 30 million copies. #MusicIcons #MusicHistory #omegaliveproductionsIn January 1973, Elton John and his band landed in Kingston, Jamaica, ready to record the follow-up to Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player. The plan was simple: escape to the same studio where The Rolling Stones had just cut Goats Head Soup, get some sun, make a record.

What could go wrong?

Everything.

The island was chaos.
Joe Frazier and George Foreman were there for the heavyweight championship fight, and the city was swarming. Elton John ended up stuck in the Pink Flamingo hotel, too afraid to leave his room:

"I'd never been so frightened of a place in my life as Kingston. It was a very dangerous place."

The studio was surrounded by barbed wire. The equipment was junk. They had one microphone.

Guitarist Davey Johnstone remembered trying to cut "Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting" in Kingston:

"It really sounded hilarious. It was like the Chipmunks or something. There was no balls to it."

And to top it off, the studio staff went on strike. Tensions boiled over to the point where striking workers attacked and rocked the band’s bus while they were inside, nearly flipping it over.

They bailed. Fast.

On May 7, 1973, the band retreated to the Château d’Hérouville, an 18th-century French estate 30 miles from Paris where Elton had recorded his previous two albums.
What happened there over the next two weeks remains legend:

> Every morning over breakfast, Bernie Taupin would hand Elton a notebook sheet of handwritten lyrics. Elton would sit at a grand piano and compose the entire melody, chord structure, and arrangement in 15 to 30 minutes flat

> Guitarist Davey Johnstone, bassist Dee Murray, and drummer Nigel Olsson would learn the track on the spot, lay down the rhythm section in a few takes, and move on. Engineer David Hentschel recorded them writing and laying down up to three or four completed songs a day

> The original plan was a standard single LP, but John and Taupin generated so much strong material — 21 backing tracks in total — that Gus Dudgeon realized they had enough high-quality material for a double album (ultimately trimming it to 17 tracks)

As Elton John later recalled:

"At breakfast, Bernie would be sitting at the typewriter and I’d be writing at the electric piano. When the band came down, they’d pick up their instruments. We did three or four tracks a day...This is before I started drugs and drinking. This was pure Elton."

The mixing phase was done separately at Trident Studios in London, with synthesizers (notably David Hentschel’s ARP synthesizer), string arrangements by Del Newman, and lush backing vocal stacks elevating the raw tape into an epic studio production.

Track-by-Track Breakdown

SIDE ONE

1. "Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding" (11:09)
Opening with David Hentschel’s haunting ARP synth overture — which Elton John asked him to create as a cinematic score imagining what music he'd want played at his own funeral — it segues seamlessly into the hard-rocking "Love Lies Bleeding."

Hentschel constructed the intro by weaving melodic fragments of other album tracks into the synth parts — bits of "Candle in the Wind," "I’ve Seen That Movie Too," and "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)" are all buried in there.

It stands as one of rock’s greatest album openers.

2. "Candle in the Wind" (3:50)
Bernie Taupin’s poignant tribute to Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane).

Taupin later clarified that the lyric wasn't just about Monroe specifically, but a critique of how fame consumes and destroys young stars.

3. "Bennie and the Jets" (5:23)
A satire on the futuristic glam-rock music industry. Elton initially hated the idea of releasing it as a single, thinking it was too weird.

To give it an "in-concert" feel, Gus Dudgeon mixed in fake crowd noise recorded at a 1971 Royal Festival Hall show, alongside reverberated piano chords.

It became a massive crossover hit on Black/R&B radio stations.

SIDE TWO

4. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (3:13)
The album’s title track is a lush, cinematic masterpiece driven by vocal harmonies and orchestral arrangements by Del Newman. Bernie Taupin’s lyrics use The Wizard of Oz imagery to reject the superficial trappings of fame in favor of returning to a simpler, rural life.

Elton’s soaring vocal performance in the chorus features iconic falsetto shifts.

5. "This Song Has No Title" (2:23)
A short, melodically rich track that starts with just voice and piano before expanding into layered harmonies and prog-rock-like chord changes.

A tour de force of solo arrangement where Elton sings lead vocals long with 4 four of background vocal harmonies, and plays three acoustic piano tracks, electric piano, two Farfisa organ parts, and Mellotron (which creates the flute sound.)

6. "Grey Seal" (4:00)
A re-recording of an obscure 1970 demo for John's self-titled album.

Reworked at high speed with dazzling piano runs and driving synth leads, making it more engaging than the original concept.

7. "Jamaica Jerk-Off" (3:39)
A lighthearted, tropical reggae-pop experiment.

Inspired by the band's initial — and quickly abandoned — attempt to record the album in Kingston, Jamaica, it features heavily accented vocals, steel drums, and upbeat percussion.

8. "I've Seen That Movie Too" (5:59)
A dramatic, slow-tempo ballad framed around cinematic metaphors.

Elton delivers an impassioned vocal performance over acoustic guitar, piano, and sweeping strings as the lyrics confront a partner who is being deceptive and manipulative.

SIDE THREE

9. "Sweet Painted Lady" (3:54)
A gentle, nostalgic ballad.

Taupin's lyrics offer an empathetic portrait of sailors and sex workers in a port town, evoking 1930s music hall balladry.

It is part of a thematic run on SIDE 3 that centers on marginalized people .

10. "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1903–34)" (4:23)
A narrative song about a fictional Prohibition-era gangster, portrayed sympathetically as an antihero. It is a throwback to the dusty, conceptual sweep of John and Taupin's earlier album, Tumbleweed Connection.

11. "Dirty Little Girl" (5:00)
A gritty, hard-rocking track that continues the side's theme of marginalized figures, this time focusing on a homeless person.

It is one of the more aggressive and lyrically rancorous songs on the album, with a biting tone that some critics found misanthropic.

12. "All the Girls Love Alice" (5:09)
A narrative song about a doomed lesbian teenager, described as a testament to Bernie Taupin's storytelling ability.

It features synthesizers and a harder rock edge, fitting the darker thematic undercurrent of this side of the album.

SIDE FOUR

13. "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n Roll)" (2:42)
A fast-paced, full-bore rocker that switches up the mood of the album. It is a high-energy track that pays homage to early rock and roll while showcasing the band's tight, aggressive playing.

14. "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" (4:57)
One of Elton John's most famous rockers. The lyrics are inspired by Taupin’s own teenage experiences of going out in Lincolnshire, getting drunk, and getting into trouble on Saturday nights.

Driven by Davey Johnstone's blistering glam-rock guitar riff, the song was released as a single ahead of the album.

15. "Roy Rogers" (4:07)
A gentle, country-tinged ode to Western childhood nostalgia, focusing on escaping modern adult anxiety by watching TV cowboys.

16. "Social Disease" (3:42)
This track returns to the earlier theme of songs about people rejected by society — this time focusing on an unrepentant, sloppy alcoholic who prefers his drinks and messy lifestyle to societal expectations.

It has a bluesy, barroom feel with fiddle and banjo instrumentation.

17. "Harmony" (2:57)
A heartwarming, vocally exquisite closing track that was originally meant to be a single, but was withheld because the album had already produced too many smash hits.

Built on sweeping vocal layers and a comforting melody, it serves as an emotional, fitting conclusion to the album.

The album reflected the surreal reality of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s lives in 1973:

> Elton was fast becoming an international fashion and pop icon, wearing platform boots and outrageous glasses. Yet Bernie Taupin felt increasingly uncomfortable with the grotesque nature of Hollywood fame.

The album serves as a thematic push-and-pull between embracing the circus of stardom ("Bennie and the Jets") and longing to retreat home to the farm ("Goodbye Yellow Brick Road").

> Deprived of television in their youth, both creators were obsessed with film, culture, nostalgia, and Westerns, which suffused tracks like "Roy Rogers," "Candle in the Wind," and "Danny Bailey."

The cover art was illustrated by British artist and illustrator Ian Beck, who was then a young freelance illustrator.
The illustration shows an stylized Elton John wearing ruby-red platform shoes, a white satin jacket embroidered with his name on the back, and tinted glasses. He is stepping off a drab urban sidewalk and directly into a painted poster or mural depicting a bright yellow brick road leading toward a sunset.

Beck drew visual inspiration from 1930s Hollywood posters, The Wizard of Oz, and children's book illustrations. He painted the original artwork using colored pencils and watercolor/gouache washes on paper.
Having never met Elton in person during the design process, Beck painted the figure based on photos provided to him.

Released October 5, 1973, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road entered the Billboard 200 at #17. Within a month, it hit #1 — and stayed there for eight weeks.
It remained in the Top 10 for nine months and on the chart for two full years.

In the UK, it spent two weeks at #1 and stayed on the chart for over 19 months. It also topped charts in Australia and Canada.

In total, the album would go on to sell 31 million copies worldwide, making it Elton John’s highest-selling studio album.

The four singles were also a goldmine:

> "Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting" (#7 UK, #12 US)
> "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (#6 UK, #2 US)
> "Candle in the Wind" (#11 UK)
> "Bennie and the Jets" (#1 US) — John's second American chart-topper after "Crocodile Rock"

Upon release, critics went from mixed to lukewarm at best:

"The production is consistently top-notch...yet as a double album, it feels padded. Elton John and Bernie Taupin are trying to be all things to all people...It's a grandly stylized piece of pop theatre, but one where the artifice frequently overpowers the heart." - Rolling Stone

"Elton's gift for a killer melody is undiminished, and the band has never sounded tighter...but Taupin's lyrics range from evocative nostalgia to sheer nonsense. It's a sprawling, patchy double set that contains some of Elton's absolute finest work right alongside tracks that should have stayed in the vault."

"There is some great assembly-line hard rock here, and I like 'Bennie and the Jets' when I don't think about what it means (not even nothing, just bleh), but this set is at least three sides too long." - Robert Christgau

"A fruity pie that doesn't bake...Overproduced and padded out beyond its weight." - Melody Maker

Over time, those same critics acknowledged the sheer songwriting genius and versatility required to pull off such an eclectic tracklist without filler.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is now widely cited as the high-water mark of 1970s piano-rock.

Elton called it “the beginning of our ascent to the top”. He’s right.

Before Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, he was a rising star. After it, he was a phenomenon. The album launched him toward Dodger Stadium in 1975, toward Captain Fantastic debuting at #1, toward the stratosphere.

And "Candle in the Wind" became something no one could have predicted — a tribute to Marilyn Monroe that, 24 years later, was rewritten for Princess Diana and became the best-selling single of all time.

On the occasion of the album's 50th anniversary, Elton John reflected:

"Listening to the album again, I was so impressed by the quality of the singing, the instrumentation, the sound of everything. It did make me very teary but in a beautiful, happy way. I was so proud of what we achieved, and I’m so happy that people still love it today."

Two weeks. Thirty-one million copies. A double album that almost got derailed by a Jamaican boxing match and a studio strike.

Not bad for a rush job.

#GoodbyeYellowBrickRoad #EltonJohn #BernieTaupin #CandleInTheWind #ClassicRock #70sMusic #AlbumAnniversary #VinylCommunity #RockHistory #ClassicRock ... See MoreSee Less

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Omega Productions
1 week ago
Some history on the

Some history on the Highwaymen as a group. We had the pleasure of recording them at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas on December 10, 1991, for a TNN TV Special released in 1992. #MusicIcons #MusicHistory #omegaliveproductions SORRY, META HAS NEW POLICY, BLOCKING LINKS ON PAGES UNLESS YOU PAY BIG BUCKS. USE GOOGLE. GOOGLE: omega productions highwaymen mirage hotel tnnJohnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson shared decades of solo stardom before standing shoulder to shoulder as the Highwaymen in 1985.

Their collaboration centered on Jimmy Webb's narrative composition, a track that traced an enduring spirit across centuries through four distinct lives. Producer Chips Moman recognized how naturally the verses aligned with each man's history. Rather than competing for vocal space, each artist took ownership of a single verse, stepping up to the microphone in deliberate sequence to move the timeline forward.

Nelson opened with the weary reflection of a road bandit, followed by Jennings bringing the weathered resolve of an ocean sailor. Cash anchored the recording with his low, heavy cadence as a laborer at Hoover Dam, before Kristofferson closed with a quiet vision reaching into an unknown frontier. Released on Columbia Records in May 1985, the single earned a Grammy Award and spent twenty weeks on the Billboard country chart, eventually reaching the top spot.

On stage, their delivery relied on mutual trust rather than theatrical staging. Four distinct careers, marked by addiction, industry defiance, and hard-won second chances, converged into a single unified performance.

Nelson remains the sole surviving member carrying that shared chapter today. The studio choices that convinced four fiercely independent outlaws to step aside for one another still offer a compelling look into how that landmark album was captured

See the specific studio choices that convinced four fiercely independent outlaws to step aside for one another, then watch one of their biggest country classics in the comment. ... See MoreSee Less

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Omega Productions
1 week ago

There’s a new documentary out on a group we worked with, Los Tigres del Norte. In their amazing career, they have recorded more than 600 songs, sold 60 million albums, won 7 Grammy Awards & 9 Latin Grammy's. #musicicons #musichistory #omegaliveproductions ... See MoreSee Less

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Televisa and SKY Network tap Omega Productions to uplink live music festival to Mexico and Latin America – Omega Productions

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Televisa and SKY Network tap Omega Productions to uplink live music festival to Mexico and Latin America The folks at Omega Productions recently learned that satellite technology in South America and ...
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Omega Productions
2 weeks ago

We recorded Rita Coolidge in the early 70s. She sang backup for Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix and so much more. She never got the career recognition she deserved. #MusicIcons #MusicHistory #omegaliveproductions ... See MoreSee Less

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Omega Productions
2 weeks ago
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Enjoy this off the cuff, intimate cover of Dire Straits “Romeo and Juliette” by Mary Spender and Nathaniel Murphy from the Vault of Chicago Music Exchange. #musicicons #musichistory #omegaliveproductions ... See MoreSee Less

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Omega Productions
2 weeks ago

Suddenly, guitar players all over the world were trying to figure out who was playing what”: Al Di Meola recalls his legendary collaboration with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. #MusicHistory #MusicIcons #omegaliveproductions ... See MoreSee Less

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“Suddenly, guitar players all over the world were wearing out the record trying to figure out those parts and who was playing what”: Al Di Meola recalls his legendary collaboration with fellow virtuosos John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía

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“There was nowhere to hide. No drummer. No bass player. No keyboard player. Nothing underneath us holding it together. Just six hands”
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Omega Productions

We love to shoot and record live music and produce live events…

* Live entertainment event management and producer services

* Live concert television specials for broadcast or DVD/BD release

* Live recordings for CD release

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