Leo Sayer
Star Sessions
Broadcast April 17, 1982
No Cue Sheet
Recorded at Sierra Nevada Recording Studios, Verdi, NV ("Reno") early in 1982
00 NO ARTIST - 1kc tone for level setting and balance
01 Bill Ayres - Star Session SS-2 Intro
02 Commercial - Butterfinger
03 Leo Sayer - In My Life
04 Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart
05 Leo Sayer - Interview
06 Leo Sayer - One Man Band
07 Commercial - AT&T
08 Commercial - U.S. Army Reserve
09 Leo Sayer - When I Need You
10 Leo Sayer - band introduction
11 Leo Sayer - Train
12 Leo Sayer - Interview
13 Leo Sayer - Long Tall Glasses
14 Commercial - AT&T
15 Commercial - U.S. Army Reserve
16 Leo Sayer - Interview
17 Leo Sayer - World Radio
18 Leo Sayer - Have You Ever Been In Love
19 Leo Sayer - Raining In My Heart
20 Bill Ayres - Star Sessions SS-2 Break
21 Commercial - Baby Ruth
22 Commercial - AT&T
23 Leo Sayer - Interview
24 Leo Sayer - Giving It All Away
25 Leo Sayer - I Feel Like Dancin'
26 Leo Sayer - How Much Love
27 Bill Ayres - Star Sessions SS-2 Break
28 Commercial - Nestlé $100,000 Bar
29 Commercial - U.S. Army Reserve
30 Bill Ayres - Star Sessions SS-2 Promo
31 Leo Sayer - Rumours
32 Leo Sayer - Heroes
33 Leo Sayer - Interview
34 Leo Sayer - More Than I Can Say
35 Leo Sayer - The Show Must Go On
36 Commercial - AT&T
37 Commercial - U.S. Army Reserve
38 Commercial - Butterfinger
39 Bill Ayres - Star Sessions SS-2 Outro
Run out grooves:
Side A: SS-2•A MCR Bre
Side B: SS-2•B MCR Bre
Side C: SS-2•C MCR Bre
Side D: SS-2•D MCR Bre
Side E: SS-2•E MCR Bre
Side F: blank side, no run out grooves
You get: flac files of wavs digitized from the five-sided 3-LP set in May 2023. The records have more surface noise than I like to share but the rarity outweighs the average quality (trust me, this isn't BAD, it's just not really good). No cue sheet. You get scans of all six disc labels.
Star Sessions:
Billboard Magazine on April 10, 1982 had a full page print ad promoting "The New ABC FM Radio Network," touting their mix of news, sports, and comedy targeting the 18-34 audience, and announcing a new show. "..."Star Sessions," -a unique series of 90-minute specials taped live in the intimacy of a recording studio and featuring artists like Hall & Oates, Kenny Loggins and Elton John."
The show does not appear to have been a ratings success, as it was discontinued by the end of 1982. While the format was "live in a recording studio," pre-recorded tracks were included right from the start, and the Elton John show (supposedly) was "tracks from his 1982 tour" with no actual live studio performance.
I've only seen four of these shows turn up on EBAY, and none are listed on Discogs, so distribution must have been thin. Other than this one print ad, I haven't seen anything else in the way of advertising or promotion. There were listings for the shows in the "radio show schedule" columns in both Billboard, and Radio & Records. Combining all of them together, I come up with the following (possible) list of shows:
Don McLean (broadcast March 20, 1982)
Leo Sayer (broadcast April 17, 1982
Hall & Oates (broadcast May 22, 1982)
Chicago (broadcast June 5, 1982)
Carole King (July 3, 1982) but also a listing for James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Paul Simon July 3, 1982
Doobie Brothers (July 17, 1982)
Dr. Hook (August 7, 1982)
Elton John (September 4, 1982)
Air Supply (October 16, 1982)
Little River Band (November 13, 1982)
The July 3rd show was likely NOT all four artists appearing together in the same studio. Also, while the print ad mentions Kenny Loggins, I did not find evidence of the show or broadcast date.
Update November 2025: The Carole King show was cancelled, and a show with three separate live concerts from various years with James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Paul Simon replaced it.
The first thing to track down was the location. The show intro says they're at "...Sierra Nevada Recording Studios nestled in the snow-capped mountains near Reno, Nevada." Well, yeah, right there I'm suspicious, as the mountains are the Sierra Nevada, and to the west rises Donner Pass. This winter was exceptional, with 505" inches of cumulative snowfall (42 feet!). You can see where I'm going with this; there's no way a studio is actually THERE unless you're planning some sort of horror scenario where the band members are trapped by an avalanche. They're down to their last candy bar, and they're getting hungry... As a side note, the Maid of Honor at my mom's wedding was the granddaughter of the last surviving member of the Donner Party.
My first guess was the studio was IN Reno proper, down there with the slot machines and pawn shops...and most importantly, in the "rain shadow" of the mountains. Reno gets about 20 inches a year. You can drive to the studio all year long.
There's one LP on Discogs by The Family Portrait listing the studio as being in Reno. Well, you know me, I kept digging for an actual ADDRESS, because of the "Hello San Francisco" we'd get from bands playing at the Oakland Coliseum. "Just because they say it doesn't make it true."
A search on Google Books found an ad from SKIING magazine (of all places....) with the owner of Sierra Nevada Recording Studio in it. Well, that was a start... I went through copies of MIX magazine ("the world's leading magazine for the professional recording and sound production technology industry"), and finally found an address: "395 Hwy 40W, Verdi, NV (7 mi W of Reno, NV)."
That's not IN the snow covered mountains, it's in the high desert and is part of the Reno-Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. Wiki says, "The name is pronounced by the local population as VUR-dye."
While most of the show is live in the studio, they do play songs from Sayer's then-current album World Radio (released April 1982). Four songs were from that new album, with the live studio audience applauding over the tracks, This makes 'em sound "live," but they're not live. "World Radio," "Have You Ever Been In Love," "Rumours," and "Heroes" are all from the LP.
SIDE NOTE: If you look at the list of engineers for Sierra Nevada Recording Studios, you'll see one "Mark Lindsay." If you drop the studios phone number "(702) 345-0361" into Google, you get a Discogs for the record label Raider/America, in Reno, Nevada...who have one lone release...a 1982 LP by Paul Revere & the Raiders. So...yeah...it's THAT Mark Lindsay.
Here's the big mystery that still remains, though...with Sayer recording in Los Angeles at the time, why go all the way to Reno to record?
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