The Lowrey Organ is one of several organs on The Beatles' 1967 song " Being for the Benefit of Mr.
Its sound can be heard prominently on the 1968 recording of " Chest Fever", which begins with a Bach-inspired prelude/intro. Garth Hudson, the keyboardist of The Band, played a Lowrey Festival organ on many of the group's most notable songs. Lowreys were also used by some rock groups in the 1960s and 1970s. He later traveled for the Lowrey company directly as District Sales Manager for southern California while still performing occasional concerts. New York studio musician Dick Hyman recorded several albums for Command Records on Lowrey organs, making use of their Stereo capabilities.Įddie Baxter, organist for NBC Studios, recorded extensively for Dot Records on Lowrey organs.
While originally intended for the home entertainment market, Lowrey also produced theatre organs and a full 2-manual with pedal church organ.
Lowrey led Hammond in the development of automatic accompaniment features in 1968, automatic rhythm was added, and in 1970 the Genie model added automatic left hand and pedal. The Lowrey organ differed from its main competitor, the Hammond organ (which also bears the name of its Chicago-based inventor), in relying from its inception on all-electronic tone generation, whereas Hammond used electromechanical tonewheels until 1975. History and notable users History įrederick Lowrey experimented with electronic organ design, trying different methods of tone generation, from 1918 until the early 1940s, when he fixed on the Eccles-Jordan circuit, a very stable flip-flop oscillator, which became a Lowrey hallmark.