Music Underground

"The compact, one-story house at 121 Meadowbrook Drive is, except for its color, identical to all the small homes that line this street just off Route 206. But No, 121 has a magical difference..." That is how the reporter for The New York Times began his 1973 feature story about Hillsborough-based record producer Tony Camillo. 

Tony Camillo at work in his Hillsborough studio circa 1975

Born August 11, 1928, Anthony J. Camillo grew up in Somerville, picked up the trumpet at the age of 9, and soon began transcribing the music he heard on his favorite records.  He formed his first bands while attending Somerville High School in the 1940s and after graduation went on the road playing with different bands in the waning days of the big band era. 

2 May 1954 Home News

After three years of that, he came to the conclusion that he should study music in college - a decision that eventually led to degrees from Juilliard and Columbia, including a Ph.D. in music composition. 

18 November 1953 Courier News

After a stint overseas with the 314th US Army Band in Germany, Camillo returned to the area and found himself teaching music at Flemington Elementary School. That lasted for twelve years. He went on to teach in the Middlesex school system, and for a time was the head of the music program at Alma White College in Zarephath.

27 January 1958 Courier News

In 1975 Camillo told a reporter for the New Brunswick Home News, "I was happy and I loved teaching, but I could see it wasn't my thing. I believe a lot of people waste their entire lives doing things they don't exactly like, or worse, things they hate. I did not want to do that." To that end, he hooked up with fellow Somerville native Tony Bongiovi and the two built a recording studio in the Lyric Theater building in Bound Brook. They began to make a name for themselves, merged with a New York studio, and then they were off to Detroit to produce records for Motown.

Tony Camillo at work in his Hillsborough studio circa 1975

He moved to Country Club Homes in Hillsborough in 1957.

When the New York Times wrote their profile in 1973, Tony Camillo was well established as a producer and arranger, scoring a huge hit with Freda Payne's "Band of Gold" in 1970, and was on the verge of another smash with Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia".

The "magical difference" was that many of Tony Camillo's biggest hits were recorded right here in Hillsborough, in the $150,000 (1973 dollars!) basement recording student he built under his Country Club Homes house.

Check out these Tony Camillo-produced hit songs.