Draft:Hal Yoergler

Hal Yoergler (December 25, 1936 – August 18, 1997) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger and publisher.

Hal began as a solo act by playing music in New York City clubs in the late 1960’s. Moving to Los Angeles in 1969, Hal landed a publishing position at Capitol Records’ publishing company, Beechwood Music.

While at Capitol Records, Yoergler produced Upon This Rock by Larry Norman in 1969. That same year, he was Music Producer on a Sid and Marty Kroft Saturday morning children’s television show, that aired on NBC on Saturday mornings from 1970 to 1972 titled The Bugaloos. Hal not only produced the music and record album for the tv show, but also wrote several of the songs.

In 1973, Yoergler created a musical character, and subsequently landed a record contract with Metromedia Records. Known as “Scuffy Shew” a 45-single was released titled Reason to Feel, that made it to No. 112 on Billboard Magazine in 1973. Scuffy Shew’s voice also appeared as Convict Fox from Disneyland’s America Sings ride from 1974-1988.

Hal was a composer of soundtracks for films and television shows, and also produced records for artists including Suzanne Stevens, Tillie Moreno, and Jimmy Dee.

Yoergler’s projects included producing two albums for artist Osamu Kitajima, a progressive/new age Japanese American artist. Their first album together was Benzaiten in 1974, and the second record, Osamu, in 1977 on Island Records.

After a number of years at Capitol Records, Yoergler left to work at ABC Dunhill Records as the Vice President of Publishing, when he hired songwriter Peter McCann as staff writer. Hal produced Peter McCann’s first record that included the Billboard Top 5 hit, Do You Wanna Make Love in 1977, and continued producing Peter for several years for both 20th Century and Columbia Records.

Hal was Vice President of Publishing at Capitol Records and ABC Dunhill Records, and he was also Vice President of A&R at Polydor Records.

Hal died in Los Angeles from complications of colon cancer in 1997 and left behind four children (two sons and two daughters) from three different marriages.