Business & Tech
Grammy Win for Port Washington Music Executive
Sony Music Design Director Dave Bett Wins Grammy for Springsteen Boxed Set
Bruce Springsteen kicked open the 2012 Grammys with his newest single, "We Take Care of Our Own." But it was a box set reissue of his 30-plus-year classic, “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” that garnered Grammy gold for Port Washington resident and Sony Music Design Director Dave Bett.
Bett was nominated along with colleague Michelle Holme for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package for the box set reissue “The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story.”
The six-disc set includes a remastered version of the Springsteen classic, “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and a new two-CD album, “The Promise,” comprised of 21 previously unreleased outtakes from the original recording sessions. Rounding out the set is a documentary titled “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town” and two DVDs of live performances.
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The box set is a whole lotta Springsteen and Bett and Holme designed packaging imbued with that same “more is more” approach, creating an 80-page spiral-bound reproduction of Springsteen’s original notebooks that pulls back the curtain on the recording sessions’ creative process.
“We went page by page; it’s like a map of the process,” said Bett. “The track lists, song titles, changes in lyrics, you saw him working it out.”
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Bett and Holme spent three years on the project, meticulously researching every line, design and component of the packaging.
“We did a lot of research; you didn’t want to put anything on it that rang false to a fan,” said Bett. “He was such a perfectionist. In the documentary, you really see that thinking process. We took the same approach.”
One thing Bett didn’t need to research was Springsteen fandom. “It was one of my favorite albums when it came out,” said Bett. “I’m a Jersey Shore kid. He was in a band with the one of one of my mother’s pinochle partners,” Bett added with a laugh.
Bett attended the Grammy ceremony with his wife and three kids and called the experience “surreal.”
“We practically sat down and then they called our names, the adrenaline was flowing like crazy,” said Bett.
Next up for the designer? Work on a Barbra Streisand retrospective. But not before a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. The celebration continues.
