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Terry Melcher (February 8, 1942 – November 19, 2004) was an American musician and record producer. Melcher was born Terry Jorden in New York City to trombonist Al Jorden and his wife, singer-actress Doris Day. Day was only 17 years old [1] when she gave birth to Terry. Before Melcher's birth, Day was planning to leave the abusive and violent Jorden outraged when he found out about her pregnancy, he had demanded Day get an abortion. Doris refused and in turn, Jorden physically abused Day throughout her entire pregnancy. Shortly after giving birth, Day filed for divorce, left the boy with her mother in Ohio and went back to touring with big band leader Les Brown. After the divorce, Al Jorden failed to visit his son on a regular basis and had little presence in his life. Al Jorden would ultimately commit suicide years later.[2] Day's career led her to Hollywood where she appeared on local radio shows. After marrying and divorcing her second husband, saxophonist George Weidler, Day met and married Martin Melcher. Martin Melcher would become Day's manager and go on to produce many of her movies. Although Terry and Martin disliked each other intensely, Martin adopted Terry, giving the boy his surname. After Martin's death in 1968, it was discovered that he had mismanaged or embezzled $20 million of Doris Day's money.[3] In the early 1960s, Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston formed the vocal duet Bruce & Terry. The duo had hits like "Custom Machine" and "Summer Means Fun". Melcher and Johnston also created another band together, The Rip Chords, that had a Top 10 hit "Hey, Little Cobra". Later, Bruce Johnston would join The Beach Boys. By the mid-1960s, Melcher had joined the staff of Columbia Records and went on to work with The Byrds. He produced their hit cover versions of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and Pete Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn", as well as their Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn! albums. Due to conflicts with the band and their manager, Melcher was replaced by Allen Stanton, although he would later work with The Byrds again on their Ballad of Easy Rider, (Untitled), and Byrdmaniax albums. Melcher also worked with Paul Revere & the Raiders, Wayne Newton, Frankie Laine, Jimmy Boyd, Pat Boone, Glen Campbell, Mark Lindsay and The Mamas & the Papas. He was instrumental in signing another L.A. band, the Rising Sons, led by Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder.[4] Melcher also performed on the Beach Boys' Platinum-certified album Pet Sounds as a background vocalist, and introduced Brian Wilson to Van Dyke Parks in February 1966, beginning their partnership on the Smile project. He was also a board member of the Monterey Pop Foundation and a producer of the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
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