Variety (December 1954)

Wednesday, December 1, 1954 MUSIC 55 on To Loews Pitch; ‘Hurts Copyright’ (Question, of whether writers should he consulted by their pub- lishers before latter assigns use of their copyrights flared up last week. Vet tunesmith L. Wolfe Gil- bert hit New York from the Coast to find his “Waiting For The Rob- ert E. Lee’* altered into a pitch for Loew-s theatre circuit, Loew’s got the okay from Peer Interna^ tional (tune is published by Peer subsid LaSalle Music) to switch the lyric to “Take Your Family To Loew’s.” Gilbert's beef is based on his be- lief that the parody is hurting the value of the song’s copyright. . He also claims that his contract with Peer stipulates that he would be informed on any use of the tune. Gilbert, who’s in Gotham for a couple of . weeks, currently is squawking to the Peer office as well as to Harry Fox, publishers’ agent. Loew's* however, paid an undisclosed sum for the 1 use as a commercial pitch and the parody is still being aired over eight lo- cal stations; Gilbert cited as an example of publisher-writer consultation be- fore assigning use, Metro’s request a couple of years for “Ramona” as a song for Virginia O’Brien in a filmusical. Gilbert and his coh laborator Mabel ’Vlfayne nixed the sale, because they; felt that Miss. O'Brien’s Comedy singing style would hurt the song. VICTOR SHIFTING ITS N.Y. HQ NEXT SUMMER RCA Victor is getting set to shift Its headquarters from the present location in the International Bldg, of Rockefeller Center, N. Y., to its building on -East 24th Street. Switch has been mulled by Victor execs for the past few years, but will likely take place next summer. . Move is being made to consoli- date tjjte whole Victor operation under one roof. At the present time; Victor’s staff is still split between New York and Camden, N. J., due to lack of office space in the uptown locale. Several execs moved up to N. Y. from Camden a couple of years ago, but the files and research department still, are situated in New Jersey. . The move to 24th St. will likely be completed next summer, be- cause Victor’s lease in the Inter- national Bldg. runs out then. The 24th St, building now houses some recording studios - as well as the office and exec staff of Label X, the RCA subsid disk operation. What’s the Schnoz’s Rush? Tune Is Only 30 Yrs. Old Hollywood, Nov. 30. If the tune “One in a Million” reaches hit stature, it will simply be further proof that the most im- portant thing in the music business is patience. The tune was written by Jimmy Durante almost 30 years ago. He’s had three or four lyricists take a crack at it at various times—but all approached the project with the Schnofc in mind. Finally, Durante turned it over to Harry Harris, who gave it a ballad: treatment. Then Durante handed it to Liberace for the latter’s appearance on the Du- rante tv show. Pianist liked it and after the program recorded it for inclusion in his next Columbia album; With this as a Wedge, Jimmy Du- ra nte Publishing Co. is working on other labels and a number of re- cordings probably will be made be- fore the end of the year. Hines Taking to Road With Globetrotters Ottawa, Nov. 30. Earl (Fatha) Hines, who shut- tered a four-week run on the Chaudiere Club’s bandstand last Wednesday (24), takes a 10-piece band., on the road with the Harlem Globetrotters. Deal, which tees in Chicago Dec. 6, is for eight weeks with option;. Hines used eight sidemen with a canary for the Chaudiere booking, played for dancing, showbacking and worked the shows. Decca’s N.Y. Powwow Decca Records will open its semiannual powwow of' division managers and assistant managers in New York tomorrow (Thurs.) to discuss merchandise and promo- tion plans for the coming year.. Sales chief Sid Goldberg will preside at the meet, which will also be addressed by heads of the various departments. Meeting will wind up Saturday (4). Epic Records, Columbia subsid, currently is digging into the vaults for an: upcoming series of jazz re- leases, Diskery’s reissue program will kick oft in February and will be culled from masters previously released under the Okeh, Vocalion and Brunswick banners. Some of the jazz names* set for the Epic splurge are Count Basie, Lester Young, Bunny Berrigan, Jack Teagarden and Johnny Hodges. The masters go as far back as 1936. More Alberghetti Pops Hollywood, Nov. 30. Encouraged by the success of her initial pop side, “Kiss, Kiss, Kiss,” c Mercury Records is plan- ning more pop tune biscuits for Anna Maria Alberghetti. Thrush is scheduled to record another four sides of popular ma- terial on Dec.20. Her Initial Mer- cury album,, which includes long- hair stuff,, will be on the market about a week earlier. BLOCK VS. THE PROF ON ‘MAMBOITALIANO’ Question of whether the. Italian words in the Bob Merrill tune, “Mambo Italiano,” are objection- able, has now been thrown into the hands of philological experts. Martin Block intially raised the question when he banned the tune on his ABC disk jockey stanza be- cause he claimed that listeners of Italian extraction had complained against the lyrics. Rylan Music, the tune’s pub- lisher, is countering the Block as- sertion with a statement from Dr. Robert J. Clements, professor of Romance Languages at New York U. Professor, in a letter to ABC, said,. “I take this occasion to state unequivocally that the Sicilian ver- nacular words of this song are amusing and homespun and: could "not possibly be construed, espe- cially in this lighthearted context; as offensive to anyone.” No Mambo Waltz ? The mambo vogue has com- pleted the circle. Set for disk release this month by sev- eral labels is the “I Don’t Wanna Do The Mambo Polka.” Tune was penned by Milton DeLugg and Allan Roberts. Herb Reis is publishing. Masters, With ’Doodle’ Harry Meyerson,. MGM Records pop artists & repertoire chief, moved in fast last week to pick up the Sam Ulano master of the Yule novelty, “Santa and the Doodle-Li- Boop,” from the ifidie A-Bell Rec- ords. Three other Ulano masters came in the package, “Story of Santa,” “Three Bears” and “Little Red Rhumba Hood.” MGM’s plant currently is rush- pressing the coupling of “Doodle- Li-Boop”. and the “Story ©f Santa” and expects to have idee jay copies and its distribs set by. end of the week. Columbia already has cov- ered “Doodle-Li-Boop” with Art Carney. OF TOP TALENT AND TUNES Compiled from Statistical Reports of Distribution Encojnpassing the Three Major Outlets Coin Machines Retail Disks Retail Sheet Music as Published in the Current Issue NOTE : The current comparative sales strength of the 'Artists and Tunes listed hereunder is arrived at under q statistical system comprising each of the three major sales outlets enu- merated above. These findings are correlated with data from wider sources , which are exclusive with Variety. The positions resulting from these, findings denote the OVERALL IMPACT de- veloped from the ratio of points Scored, two ways in the case of talent (coin machines, retail disks) and three ways in the case of tunes (coin machines, retail disks and retail sheet music). TALENT POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 •7 8 9 10 1 3 2 5 ARTIST AND LABEL ROSEMARY CLOONEY (Columbia) CHORDETTES (Cadence) 8 6 7 TUNE This Ole House ■{Hey There Mambo Italiano Mister Sandman IT Need You Now EDDIE FISHER (Victor) .{Count Your Blessings [Fanny PERRY. COMO (Victor) L r V nvi M ? I n >0 * ' ' / Things I Didn’t Do JOAN WEBER ■ (Columbia) .. Let Me Go, Lover (Shake, Rattle and Roll BILL HALEY’S COMETS (Decca) ....... .{Dim, Dim the Lights [Rock Around the Clock De CASTRO SISTERS (Abbott) Teach Me Tonight DON CORNELL (Coral) Hold My Hand If I Give My Heart to You (Mister Sandman | It’s a Woman’s World DORIS DAY (Columbia).... . FOUR ACES (Decca)..,.., POSITIONS This Last Week Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 / 9 10 1 2 4 3 6 8 5 TUNES (♦ASCAP. |BMI) tune ♦MISTER SANDMAN.,..... . ........ . ♦I NEED YOU NOW... . {THIS OLE HOUSE...... ♦IF l GIVE MY HEART TO YOU ♦PAPA LbVES MAMBO ♦TEACH ME TONIGHT....... ♦HOED MY HAND...... ... ..... fLET ME GO, LOVER. ......... ♦NAUGHTY LADY OF SHADY LANE,. ..... ♦HEY THERE PUBLISHER .,.-.. .Morris . Miller ..;...........Hamblen Miller Shapiro-Bernstein Hub-Leeds ... . Raphael Hill & Range Paxton Frank Indie disk labels are opening their vaults to the tape Industry. Mushrooming of the. pre-recorded tape library as. a new consumer hi-fi product, and the upbeat in the sales of tape machines, have sparked the indie invasion of the comparatively young field. Livingston Electronics, New Jersey tape outfit, is spearheading the indie movein. During the past couple of weeks, Livingston has been lining up indie lines for con- version into tape. Livingston will market the tapes for the indies. Joining the swing to tape is At- lantic Records, Label is convert- ing waxings by Erroll Garner, Mary Lou Williams, Jimmy Yan- cey, Barbara Carroll; Sylvia Syms, Mabel Mercer and Mae Barnes: among others for tape merchandis- ing. Livingston will tape the. etchings on dual-track reels, pre- dominately five-inch, with the ex- ception of binaural tapes, which will be supplied on seven-inch reels. Also from the Atlantic line will be a complete recording of “Romeo and Juliet,” with Eva Le Gallienne, Dennis King and Rich- ard Waring. Empirical Recording, label spe- cializing in dixieland waxings; also hopped on the tape bandwagon. Among the other indies jumping in. are Esoteric Records and Oceanic Record. An offbeat entry into the tape field is Riverside Records. Disk- ery’s accent is not on hi-fi, but on the desirability ot preserving its. line on a permanent medium. In the Riverside catalog are such sets as “Jazz of the Roaring *20s; r ” "Re- discovered Fats Waller Solos,” Bix Beiderbecke, and other collector’s items. REMINGTON DISK SUIT A $400 settlement was awarded M. Witmark & Sons by the N.Y. Supreme Court last week in its action against Remington Records. Action stemmed from, a licensing contract issued in 1951 which inad- vertantly stated that the publisher was to receive a royalty payment of 2c per record instead of 2c per song. Platter in question was a Remington longplay release of “Victor Herbert Highlights.” Settlement also cancelled the li- censing agreement between the publisher and the diskery. Decision was handed down by Justice Sam- uel Gold. Remington also, dropped a deci- sion in Appellate Division, of the N; Y. Supreme Court last week when the court ruled, that music publishers had the right to check the diskery’s books./- Harry Fox,, publishers’ agent and trustee, Sued Remington for non-payment of- royalties on some 150 tunes and was granted the right to check the company’s books. Remington lost its appeal on this decision. Sid- ney Wattenberg .(& Wattenberg) is legal rep for Fox in this action. Manie Sacks Enters ital for Checkup Manie Sacks, RCA V.p. and gen- eral manager of the Victor disk division, entered the Albert' Eim- stein Medical Centre in Philadel- phia last weekend for a complete checkup. Sacks has been ill with the grippe and exhaustion for the past two weeks. While in the Philly hospital, Sacks has. been denied access to any phone in order to. give him some rest. Philadelphia is Sacks* home town. Kennedy-Simon Songs "Picked Up By Chappell Chappell Music has picked up the copyrights of the three tunes recently reassigned to writers Jimmy Kennedy and. Nat Simon. In an out-of-Oourt settlement, the tunesmiths picked up $7,5Q0 as well as the copyright reassignment from A1 Gallico Music on their' Claim of nob-payment of royalties. The three tunes involved are “Down The Trail of Achin’ Hearts,” “Poor Whip-Poor-Will,” and (“I Want My Kisses) From Your Lips Only.” Chappell is putting the tunes into its Mutual Music subsid;