Blue Hill resident remembers 20 years with America's original sweetheart

BLUE HILL - One day in early 1988, music producer Terry Melcher (The Byrds, The Beach Boys) walked through the door of his mother Doris Day's home in Carmel, California accompanied by John Phillips, formerly of The Mamas & the Papas. Phillips had a song running through his mind and was desperate to put the tune on tape before he forgot it.

Melcher called for his mother's assistant, an Englishman named Sydney Wood. 'Woody, do you have a cassette recorder in your room?' he asked. 'Yes, come on up,' Wood replied. Melcher and Phillips headed up the stairs with an acoustic guitar and sat on Wood's bed while they worked out the song's basic structure. There were no lyrics yet, but the melody and chords were there.

Melcher later played the tape for The Beach Boys, who wanted to record the song immediately. 'Kokomo' was released in July and hit #1 in November giving The Beach Boys the distinction of being the act with the longest span between #1 records (22 years). For Sydney Wood, seeing a Grammy-nominated song come to life in his bedroom was just another day at Doris's place.