Cherokee has been the location of many notable recordings by such artists as Steely Dan, David Bowie, Journey, Toto, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, the Cars, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hall and Oates, Devo, Queens of the Stone Age, X, Mötley Crüe, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Dokken, John Mellencamp, Melissa Etheridge, and the Replacements.
The band was signed to Mercury Records in 1966, and moved to California to appear as regular performers on Clark's show Where the Action Is.
[5] The brothers approached Trident Studios to build a custom 80-input A-Range mixing console - one of the first in the United States.
Under the direction of a leading green developer, the site was to become the Lofts @ Cherokee Studios[7] – a Green LEED Platinum Live/Work complex offering professional recording studios in select units designed by Cherokee owner Bruce Robb, but those plans did not come to fruition.
Recording Studios include: Count Basie,[10] Ella Fitzgerald,[11] Judy Garland,[12] Oscar Peterson, Lou Rawls, the Sylvers, Elvis Presley[13] and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.
[15][16][17] Mötley Crüe recorded the platinum selling albums Theatre of Pain and Shout at the Devil at Cherokee Studios.
Produced by Steve Cropper and engineered by Bruce Robb, the album has a very clean, soulful sound and features a who's-who of collaborators including Ringo Starr, Paul Stallworth, Eric Idle and Mac Rebennack.
While living in one of the West Hollywood apartment complexes directly behind Cherokee Studios, Bonnie Raitt would pick up backup singing recording gigs with music producers Bruce Robb and Steve Cropper.
Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones also collaborated with Starr on the album at Cherokee, adding guitar, bass, saxophone, keyboards, and back-up vocals.
In 2002, a terminally ill Warren Zevon came to Cherokee Studios to record what would be his final album, The Wind.