In My Life
From Wonder to Lennon, Dan Barbiero ’62 looks back on his brief but memorable career in the music industry.
BY JANA F. BROWN
In a late-night recording session for the 1973 EP “Mind Games,” John Lennon told Dan Barbiero ’62 about leaving the Beatles, sharing that the group had “done it all” and “were ready to come apart.”
Though not exactly a parallel experience, Barbiero felt similarly after working extensively with Lennon and another music superstar that year, 23-year-old Stevie Wonder. Feeling he’d already achieved more than he imagined, Barbiero did the unexpected — he left the music industry.
“I’d accomplished the dream,” Barbiero says, “and once I did that, sound engineering became more like a business than a creative pursuit.”
Since that magical year, Barbiero has lived many lives as a financial manager, real estate developer, father and grandfather. But decades later, his time as a recording engineer for Wonder and Lennon remains his most unforgettable. In 2023, Lennon’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, asked Barbiero to reflect on his work with the Beatles icon for the liner notes of a remastered version marking the 50th anniversary of “Mind Games.” The task brought with it a flood of memories.
Barbiero’s musical journey began early. His mother, a talented musician herself, enrolled him at Saint Thomas Choir School as a sixth grader. The “Italian kid from Long Island” continued to grow as a musician at St. Paul’s School, singing in the choir, forming a jazz trio with Forbes Tilghman ’62 and Chad Floyd ’62, and appreciating other opportunities like watching the Mitchell-Ruff Trio perform at the School.
At Yale, Barbiero roomed with SPS formmate John Kerry and majored in psychology. He served three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including a tour of duty in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968.
After his service, Barbiero moved to the Virgin Islands, where he worked various jobs, including as a radio announcer. His brother worked at Media Sound Studio in New York and suggested Barbiero take his position when he left to join a band. Initially assigned to the shipping department, Barbiero rose to studio assistant and eventually sound engineer.
His breakthrough came when Wonder arrived at Media Sound to record in the studio’s converted space in a Baptist church. The two connected immediately, with Barbiero singing melodies that Wonder transformed into harmonies. Their chemistry was so strong that Wonder requested Barbiero as his engineer for the recording of “Innervisions,” which won multiple Grammys, including Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording.
Barbiero carries profound respect for the musical genius he witnessed. “There are a lot of very good musicians,” he says, “but to be at Stevie’s level … it was like sitting next to Mozart.”
Barbiero’s contributions to “Innervisions” were significant. He remembers encouraging Wonder to push himself vocally during one 3 a.m. session for “Living for the City,” knowing the song needed a particular rasp only exhaustion could deliver.
“Stevie wanted to quit; he was tired,” Barbiero recalls, adding that he also introduced Wonder to the phaser effect, the swirling, psychedelic sound that became an important sonic element on the record. “I knew for that song his voice had to get to a certain ragged sort of edge. We did one more track, and that’s what we kept.”
Barbiero believes it was Wonder who referred him to Lennon. In the fall of 1973, Barbiero began working with the former Beatle on “Mind Games.” Their first night together at Record Plant Studio A set the tone for their relationship.
“We didn’t even turn the equipment on,” Barbiero says. “He gave me a night of his life to just talk.”
The two developed a close working relationship. Perhaps because he was young and brazen, Barbiero didn’t have a problem with honesty — during one of their sessions, he told Lennon his vocals were “a little out of tune.” It turns out Lennon was more insecure than fans might imagine.
“John didn’t like how his voice sounded,” Barbiero says, “so we’d run it through all kinds of equipment to make it sound fuller.”
Barbiero also recalls Lennon’s humility; the former Beatle told him, “I’m no Stevie Wonder, I’m just a pretty good rhythm guitarist.”
In his post-music-industry career, Barbiero built Beacon Financial, a retirement advisory company he has since sold. He’s now happily retired to his home in Glen Cove, New York.
The call from Sean Lennon inviting Barbiero to reflect on his past brought it all back. While those days are a distant memory, a 1974 black-and-white portrait of John Lennon still hangs in Barbiero’s home office. It watches over him and serves as a reminder of his work with two legends.