There aren’t very many producers who’ve worked with a range of music as extensive as Cheryl Pawelski. From the Beach Boys, to Nina Simone and Fred Rogers, her catalogue of projects is as varied as it is vast.
This year, Pawelski, who was born and raised in Milwaukee, earned her eighth career Grammy nomination in the Best Historical Album category, which recognizes producers and engineers who work in audio restoration.
The nominated album is titled “You Can’t Hip a Square: The Doc Pomus Songwriting Demos” and features 160 songs written by rock and blues songwriter Doc Pomus. The tracks are sung mostly by his writing partner, Mort Shuman.
The record was released by Omnivore Recordings, the label Pawelski co-founded in 2010. The company’s focus is on historical records, and they’ve released multiple similar archival albums, box sets and reissues. Among their other recent releases are a pair of Francois Hardy recordings.
The titles on “You Can’t Hip a Square” are a mix between demo versions of some of Pomus’ biggest hits and never before heard tracks. This includes early versions of iconic songs like “Viva Las Vegas” and “This Magic Moment.”
Pawelski told radio host Sandy Maxx she was initially drawn to the project after Pomus' daughter reached out to her about producing it. The pair ultimately ended up co-producing the album alongside other team members.
Pawelski’s career in music began when she was a student at Milwaukee’s Pius XI High School and started working at a record store called Radio Doctors.
“When I first started working there, my first job was down in the warehouse picking and packing stuff up to send to other record stores in Wisconsin,” Pawelski said in an interview with The Vinyl District.
She later attended Marquette University, where she took classes that influenced her work today, despite being in a different concentration.
“When I was in school, I was studying advertising through a journalism sequence. First I thought I was gonna be a teacher, then I thought I was gonna be an advertising person. But I quit all that and went to work at the record store because I felt like I needed to know more about important things like distribution,” Pawelski said. “But even the stuff I did in school kinda worked its way into all this stuff; really, it’s one discipline to make records, and it’s another one to sell them. So, one thing informs the other.”
After leaving Milwaukee, Pawelski worked at multiple other labels in Los Angeles before founding Omnivore Records.
The Grammy Awards ceremony will be held on Feb. 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. “You Can’t Hip a Square” will be competing against Joni Mitchell Archives - Volume 4: The Asylum Years — 1976-1980, “The Making Of Five Leaves Left,” “Roots Rocking Zimbabwe - The Modern Sound Of Harare' Townships 1975-1980 — Analog Africa No.41” and “Super Disco Pirata - De Tepito Para El Mundo 1965-1980 — Analog Africa No. 39.”
