Variety (March 1955)

Wednesday, March SO, 1955 MUSIC 49 R&B’S SLIP SHOWING \ Another Copyright Anomaly Iq a business where the gimmick, i.e. some unique trick of re- cording, is the difference between a hit and a flop, the flagrant manner in which recording ideas, arrangements, and kindred techniques are pilfered; is a blot on the industry. The majors are more guilty than the independents because the history has been that the indie label, perforce more resource- ful, has been the one most likely to come up with the novel treatment. The trade knows what is meant and to whom ap- plied when competitive arrangements of ditties such as “Wheel of Fortune,” “Tweedle Dee,” “Let Me Go Lover,” “Sh-Boomi” “Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes,” “In A Little Spanish Town*’ and “If I Give My Heart To You” are cited. It is not enough to say that once a “notice of user” is filed anybody can record a copyrighted pop song by paying the stat- utory 2c royalty. The artistic interpretations, as openly stolen by one or another artist, label and/or a&r man, is comparable to somebody stealing an act’s routine. Unfortunately, the Copy- right Act applies to the basic tune but not to the arrangement or interpretation. This is an anomaly in an era when it’s the “interpretation” that is the yes or no answer to a hit. The larceny is a two-way street. If, as seems to have been the case, the major labels cop from'the indies, the majors in turn seem to be the victims of cutrate deals whereby four or six hits are packaged in one of those 99c EPs or LPs, reprising the “top hits” done in an almost carbon style of the original name art- ist’s arrangement. This is one widespread gripe which the Record Industry Assn, of America should come to grips with as the logical repository of intra-diskery biz problems. Abel. Radio Outlets, Disk Jocks Launch Self-Policing Setups Vs. ‘Leer-ic Wax Boston, March 29. Spearheaded by Sherm Feller, WVDA late night dee jay, a repre- sentative group of Hub platter spinners and station managers met last week to draw up a code .to regulate the airing of records aimed at eliminating the current “leer-ic” problem and its wide- spread Unfavorable publicity. Action was prompted by recent editorials in The Pilot, the Catho- lic Archdiocesean publication, and other dailies, plus a published in- terview with songwriter Jimmy McHugh, who, on a visit here last week, termed the current trend in lyrics as “very disgusting.” The songwriter urged parents and the clergy to unite in ah all-out drive to eliminate the offensive songs and suggested the parents write’to radio and tv station demanding ’they bypass disks with double- entendre lyrics. Feller’s group set up. a six point code of ethics regulating the type of record to be played over-the air and at record hops, figuring the sglf-policing setup would even- tually discourage companies from releasing the controversial plat- ters. San Antonio ‘Censor’ Unit San Antonio,. March 29. San Antonio radio outlets are (Continued on page 54). Cbi Catholic Youth Put Pressure on DJs To Ban Off-Color Disks Chicago, March 29. Windy City deejays and radio stations are being barraged with mail protesting off-color and shady o meaning disk lyrics. Letters, all following a siipiliaf pattern, are apparently part of an organized drive to take the blue out of lyrics being conducted by Catholic youth groups. With one indie alone tallying 4,000 letters during recent days,, practically every station in town has been busy drafting rebuttal replies and taking a second look at their music screening setups. One — 4 najor radio-tv plant, WGN and WGN-TV, after a top brass con- ference on the situation has estab- lished a special review panel to “reenforce a traditionally strict music clearance policy.” Review board, comprised of both station execs and deejays, will pass on all disks where the question of good taste is involved. Panel members are WGN program director Brace Dennis, assistant (Continued oil page 54) Squeal Beat Commuters’^ committee of the West Shore Railroad, which is car- rying on a hot tussle with the own- ing N. Y. Central on retention of the service, has been using a “pig” theme for its battle. This is based on making Central prexy board chairman eat his own words since some years ago (when he headed the Chesapeake Sc Ohio). Young blasted the railroads on the count that pigs could* cross the country without changing trains whereas passengers couldn’t. The West Shore commuter's pitch is that pigs are carried on the road but pas- senger service is threatened. Alec Wilder is being commis- sioned to compose a tune along these lines. It’s called “West Shore Blues.” Board, Adams Gets Top Vote Underlining ASCAP’s new “era of peace,” the incumbent board of directors of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publish- ers has been elected by the mem- bership with prexy Stanley Adams getting the greatest number of in- dividual votes among writers. Size of Adams’ votes was regarded as a vote of confidence in his adminis- tration and he’s a cinch to be. re- elected for a third year term by the board. Among the writers reelected to the board were 'Stanley Adams, Gene Buck, Paul Cunningham, L. Wolfe Gilbert,. Oscar Hammerstein 2d, Otto A. Harbach, John Tasker Howard, A. Walter Kramer, Alex C. Kramer, George W. Meyer, Deems Taylor and Jack Yellen. The publishers reelected were Louis Bernstein* Saul H. Bourne, Irving Caesar, Frank H. Connor, Max Dreyfus, Bernard Gbodwin, Donald Gray, Jack Mills, Abe Ol- man, J. J. Robbins, Gqstave Schirmer and Herman Starr. The Society held its annual feed^ last night (Tues.) at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria after the member- ship meet in the afternoon. ASCAP’s USO unit of songwriters ! supplied the entertainment. j Thjs popularity of the rock ’n’ roll heat .in . the New York area is pipping. < Teenage Survey Service pinpointed the downgradeiliji. a re- cent poll ofteeners. in the metro- politan area.in which 90% were opposed to the heat while 30% were.for.it. The consensus, according to the teenage outfit, is that the next 90 days will definitely show if rhythm & blues will stay with the teeners. Outfit continues' in its report that if the drop, which started in Jan- uary, continues at the same rate, it will be safe to assume that it will be just a passing fancy by June. The survey also .spotlight- ed that the biggest drop in r&b's appeal came from teens in the upper income bracket families. Last January when the service polled teeners as to their disk jockey favorites, Alan Freed (WINS), a newcomer to the N. Y. deejay scene was voted '.second due to his appeal as the leading exponent, of rock ’n roll. In the March stirvey Freed dropped to third place being topped by Jerry Marshall (WNEW) and Martin Block (ABC). Among the quotes culled by the outfits interviewers y \vere: From those against r&b—“We’re tired of these types of records. They’re getting to be a repetition of one another.” ' “In the beginning we all • enjoyed it because it was a novelty, now it’s a nuisance.” “We have*to have records we can play at church and school socials without having to be ashamed to play them.” “At first we didn’t notice the lyrics were off-color be- cause we were attracted by the beat. Now we’re listening to the words and it’s not nice.” , Quotes from those who were pro r&b:—It makes me want to dance. Why don’t they have regular dances for us kids?” “It’s excit- ing and gives me a warm feeling.” “This is for me. The grownups can butt out of it.” The following disk jockey pro- grams were listed as top-10 favor- ites in the Teenage Survey Serv- ice Poll. 1. Jerry Marshall—WNEW. 2. Martin Block—WABC. 3. Alan Freed—WINS. 4. Jack Lacy—WINS. 5. Brad Phillips—WINS. 6. A1 Collins—WRCA. 7.. Art Ford—WNEW. 7a. KlaVin & Finch—WNEW. 8. Norm Prescott'—WNEW. 8a. Paul Brenner—WAAT. 8. Bill Williams—WNEW. 10. Bill Silbert—WMGM. 10a. Gallagher & O’Brien— WMCA. 10b. Ted Brown—WMGM. GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR im-itss Personals Hypo Sales Of U.S. Names in Aussie Sydney, March 29. Visits h£re of topline platter stars like Johnnie Ray, Frankie L&ine, Frank Sinatra and NaMKing) Cole are sharply spurting disk sales; Cole's sales via the Capitol label have been increased better than 100% since he came here to take a quick swing around Gordon and Reyes’ stadium circuit. During the three months through December last year. Cole sold some 26,000 records here but this was boosted to 55,Ow 'luring the months of January and February this year, which include his 10-day visit in ; January. Gets OK at MOA Convention in Chi Rugby, Anyone? It’s been said that in England everything stops for- tea—but for E. R. (Ted) Lewis, British Decca topper, everything stops for rugby. Lewis, who’s been in the U. S. for the past couple of weeks looking over the ac- tivities of his London Records subsid as well as negotiating new distribution, deals, can- celled all appointments last Thursday to ~hop a plane to Paris to see the y rugby match between France and Wales.. Lewis was back in New York Monday (28) to resume his wax activities. O.S. Pubs Get From Nip Deal U. S. publishers’ deal with JASRAC (Japanese Society of Rights of Authors & Composers) for,payment of disk royalties, is starting to yield substantial divi- dends. JASRAC will make its biggest payment to date to Harry Fox, publishers’ agent and trustee, in April when it will remit $50,000 to the U. S. This is the fifth and biggest, by far, of the payments made by JASRAC. Deal with JASRAC was made a couple of years ago by attorney Julian T. Abeles (& Bernstein) who went to Japan in behalf of Fox. Widespread popularity of U. S. tunes in Jaipan cued the need for a pact with Japanese diskeries to pay mechanical royalties. Prior to this deal, there were haphazard attempts to collect coin from the Nippon diskers.’ JASRAC is the Japanese equiva- lent of ASCAP in the U.S. and col- lects performance fees for' its members. Under its deal with Abeles, the Japanese society agreed to supervise collection of mechanical royalties as -well for U. S. publishers. BUDDY ROBBINS TO S-B TO HEAD COL MUSIC CO. Buddy Robbins -has moved to Shapiro-Bernstein to take over the general professional manager’s spot of the Columbia Pictures music firm. Pubbery starts opera- tion .with “Prize of Gold,” tune written ( by Ned Washington and Lester Lee, for the pic of the same name. Robbins previously had been music plugger for United Artists. At one time he also operated his own publishing firm. Chicago; March 29. Delegates to the Music Opera- tors of America convention here voted unanimously today (Tues.) to enter into '99-year tax-free agree- ment with National Jukebox Music, Inc., newly formed performing rights society. Under terms of agreement, music operators will he able to use NJM copyrighted tunes without paying royalties or licens- ing fees for period of 99 years, re- gardless of the outcome of pending congressional action to change existing copyright laws. Action came after minimum of discussion following presentation of NJM plan by Barney Young, head of the fledgling organization. Mitch Miller, Columbia Records artists & repertoire chief, during discussion asked Young how he proposed to attract song writing tal- ent to the newly formed NJM. George Miller, MOA prexy, an- swered: “With the potential we have in 11,000 operators and 500,- 000 automatic phonographs, we can do anything.” NJM’' outfit is getting a big buildup among the coin machine delegates attending the three-day conclave as a device to put MOA in a better bargaining position vis- a-vis the American Society of Au- thors, Composers & Publishers and Broadcast' Music Inc. should chahges in copyright legislature open up jukeboxes to performance fees. National Jukebox. Music Inc. has released its first record, “Daddy 4 From Georgia Way,” flipped with “Early, Early, Early in the Morn- ing,” song by Boh Chester.'Thirty thousand copies of the disk, (Continued on page 50) Decca Bows Longplay Subscription Service In a move to give longplay disk coverage to marginal stations who do not get the cuffo service, Decca Records has inaugurated a paid LP subscription service for radio out- lets. Several other major labels, such as RCA Victor and Columbia, j have similar services. Under the Decca plan, a station will get 60 pop LPs a year for $50 annually or 50 classical LP for thq same price. Both services together will cost the station $85. Decca has a parallel plan for single pop disks to stations which are not included on the free list. Harry Fox Makes Unique Deal With Mail Order Co. for Publisher Coin Harry Fox, publishers’ agent and trustee, has made a unique deal with a New Jersey mail order operation, headed by Joseph J. Pinkus, under which the latter agrees to assume the responsibility for the payment of disk royalties. Julian T. Abeles (& Bernstein), attorney for Fox, arranged the. pact in addition to a cash payment of over $10,000 to cover past royalties that were due to publishers rep- resented by Fox. Previous to the settlement, Pinkus disclaimed responsibility for the royalties, contending that he was the purchaser of disks made by other manufacturers. Fox, however, claimed that Pinkus had set up the suppliers, such as the Air Check and Marlil disk labels, and even though the latter com- panies went out of business, Pinkus was held to be liable for the pay- ment of the song royalties. The settlement of the past royalty debt was made on the basis of sales estimated from the amount of ad- vertising Pinkus had done. Fox’s accountants could not track down the amount of actual platter sales. Pinkus, who conducts a multiple mail-order operation, selling every-* thing from girdles to disks, adver- tises extensively on local radi outlets across the country. Major Records Sez You Can’t Mispell It Majar Majar Records, indie disk com- pany in the pop field, has been en- joined from using that name by N. Y. Slate Supreme Court Justice Oven McGivern. Decision was in favor of Thomas J. Valentino, who has been marketing sound effects and sacred music disks under the name of Major Records for the past 15 years? The Majar label broke into the pop bestseller lists last year with Denise Lor’s “If I Give My Heart To You.”