Max Crook

Max Crook
Max Crook
Birth name	Maxfield Doyle Crook
Also known as	Maximilian
Born	November 2, 1936; Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.
Origin	Ann Arbor, Michigan
Died	July 1, 2020 (aged 83)
Genres	Pop
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instrument(s)	Keyboards, synthesizer
Labels	Dot Records, Double A Records

Maxfield Doyle Crook (November 2, 1936 – July 1, 2020)

Musitron

. He also recorded as Maximilian.

Biography

Early life and career

Crook was born in

Kalamazoo. There, he formed a rock and roll group called The White Bucks, who released a single, "Get That Fly", on Dot Records in 1959.^[2]

In the same year he built a

Musitron, out of a clavioline heavily enhanced with additional resistors, television tubes, and parts from household appliances, old amplifiers, and reel-to-reel tape machines. Crook was unable to patent the Musitron because most of its components were previously patented products. He first used it for recording at a session at Berry Gordy's studio in Detroit, on an unreleased version of "Bumble Boogie" (the tune later recorded by B. Bumble and the Stingers) for which he also used a crude self-made four-track tape recorder. The sound of the Musitron was influential on other musicians and producers, including Gordy, Joe Meek, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, and Roy Wood.^[3]

Later in 1959, he met Charles Westover, yet to take the stage name

500 Greatest Songs of All Time

from 2010.

Crook also recorded a series of instrumentals, credited as Maximilian. These included "The Snake" (a hit in Argentina), and later "The Twistin' Ghost" and "Greyhound" (both hits in Canada). For a time he took over as leader of Shannon's old band based in Battle Creek, Michigan, which became "The Maximilian Band", but he left the group in late 1962 for a solo career. He also set up his own record label, Double A, in Ann Arbor. Later in the 1960s, he worked as an electronic musical duo with Scott Ludwig, billed as "The Sounds of Tomorrow", performing instrumental versions of current hits.^[4]

Later career

In the late 1960s, Crook and his family moved to California and worked as a

burglar alarm installer and Ventura County Firefighter, before returning to recording with Del Shannon and Brian Hyland. Hyland's version of Curtis Mayfield's "Gypsy Woman", featuring Crook's keyboards, became a hit in 1970. Crook also wrote the score for James Sturgen's movie Time and Beyond. In the 1980s, he began traveling and performing gospel and spiritual music

, resulting in recording an album called Good News!

In 2003, he was featured on Joe G & the Zippity Doo Wop Band's remake of Del Shannon's "So Long Baby" playing the honking Musitron riff from Shannon's recording, as well as a solo in the higher "Runaway" register that would have replaced the kazoo solo in the 1961 record had they not run out of tracks. He can be seen in the group's music video of the song filmed in Shannon's hometown of Coopersville, Michigan. In September 2004, he also performed at a tribute show to Shannon (1934–90) in Saratoga, New York, with Joe Glickman (Joe G), only his second time in the Empire State since recording "Runaway" over 40 years earlier.^[citation needed] ^[5]