Tom Moulton (born 1940) is an
American record producer and originator of the
remix, the
breakdown section, and the
12-inch single vinyl format. He has humbly maintained that the last two innovations were pure accidents. Perhaps contrary to expectation, Moulton's early successes in "mixing down" dance records were the result of insistently
taking away elements from the original multi-track.
His career started in the late 1960's with a self-made tape of overlapping songs created for the Fire Island bar and restaurant The Sandpiper.
[Shapiro, Peter. Turn the Beat Around: the Secret History of Disco. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2005., 42.] As the club in question was very high profile, it was only a matter of time before his skills were noticed and put to use pre-release by those in the music industry. Moulton preferred R&B and dance music, but actually mixed a wide range of popular recordings. A noteworthy quote has him saying, "I never made a dance record, I made records you can dance
to."
Moulton worked as a model at the Bookings and
Ford agencies before beginning his production career.
Before that, he had worked in the music industry, holding a sales and promotion job at
King Records (from 1959 to 1961) and similar positions at RCA and United Artists.
He eventually left due to his disgust at the industry's dishonesty.
[Shapiro, Peter. Turn the Beat Around: the Secret History of Disco. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2005., 40.]
