Variety (September 1952)

omcmMtsTwuMnmc s& ■xvn¥r /rivriHY vY/ivvT¥tn« a y«¥i c iv it /Ywwn Too Maijr Mere miiers : Gilbert Dick Gilbert, disk jockey on KTYLr, Phoenix, i» campaigning for a redednitlon of the term ‘'disk Jockey/' According to Gilbert, who was visiting in New York recently, a redefinition of the term would help do away with the recurrent overall references to disk jockey payola. “A disk jockey," said Gil- bert, “using the term properly, is in business because of records and too dependent for his livelihood on the wax industry to play around with unnatural hypos for under- the-table coin.” Gilbert contends that a disk jockey is piore than just someone who spins records on the air. “The tag,” he adds, “has been applied too loosely by both the trade and the public.” According to Gilbert the deejay label should be applied only - to those radio personalities whof have their own shows and do nothing else for'the station than spin records* In this' ftoup, he claims, th^re are no more, than 100 around the country and ail are be- yond reproach. The others, he says are just staff announcers, whoVe been assigned a platterspinning chore. There are' about 2,000 of these staffers around the country and for the most part aren’t im- portant enough for the publfsher or diskery to shell out coin for a disk hypo, . It’s also difficult to believe, Gil- bert adds, that a jockey will get behind a disk if he doesn’t think It’s a top level waxing. A jock’s first duty is to his listener and once he starts layiftg bn phoney hypos, he’s bound to lose his dial- ers. A jock is in business to' hold on to listeners and he won’t dare the gamble of a payola plug if (Continued on page 40) Songs With Largest Radio Audience The top 30 songs of weeU (more in case of ties), hosed op copyrighted Audience Coverage Index & Audience Trend Index, Fuhlithed by Office of Research^ ^uc.. Dr. John Gray Featman, Director, Alphabetically listed, ^ Survey Week of August 22-28 Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart Hill & R Blue Tango Mills Botch-A-Me HolUs Delicado Remick , Half As Much Acuff-R Here Comes That Mood Life Here In My Heart ..Mellln How Close Life I Went To Your Wedding St. Louis I’ll Forget You. Witmark I’m Yours ....Algonquin In the Good Old Summer Time Marks Kiss Of Fire Duchess Live Oak Tree Burvan Lovely To Look At .Harms Luna Rossa BVC Maybe U.. Bobbins Meet Mr.' Callaghan. Leeds^- My Love and Devotion. Shapiro-B Once In a While Miller Roses Of Yesterday Berlin Somewhere Along Way .United Sweetest Words I Know Life Vanessa Morris Walkin’ My Baby. Back Home DeSylva-B-H •Watermelon Weather Morris Wish You Were Here—*“Wish You Were Here”.. ..Chappell You Belong- To Me. Ridgeway You Intrigue Me Remick Zing a Little Zong—t“Just For You” Burvan Second Group Am I Iii Love I’amoua Ba Anything (But Be Mine) Shapiro-B Because You’re Mine^—t“Because You’re Mine”. •.. .Feist Busybody Alamo Forgive Me Advanced From the Time You Say Goodbye Pickwick Ginny Goday High Noon—t“High Noon” Feist I Never Cared Porgie I’ll Si Si Ya In Bahia.... Burvan The new stress on “e3?clusives” by the major disk companies is the prime cause for^ the plethora of pop songs released each week, ac- cording to the m^jor publishers. Situation, it’s claimed, has been leading to near chaos in the in- dustry,- where good songs are be- ing drowned in the torrent of tunes needed to satisfy each disk company’s demand for a special break on any particular song. In the old days each publisher rode with one or two plug songs which were generally covered by all the major labels. Currently, the pubs need a. half-dozen tunes to show the disk companies’ artists and repertory staffers. If Mitch Miller, Col’s air topper, who places the most consistent accent on ex- clusives, selects one of the tunes, the pub then shows the remaining numbers to the other disk com- panies for their approval. One minor company, for instance, now has seven tunes working simul- taneously via seven different disk labels. Major pubs contend they can’t get a fair shake under the present system. It costs any wen-estab- lished music firm up to $25,000 to work on a tune, and this invest- ment becomes extremely risky where wide disk coverage is not available. If the “exclusive” disk rendition doesn’t click, the tune none of-the other disk companies will even consider touching it. From the disk companies’ view /Continued on page 42) Music Trust Fund Disk Fetes as Promotional Pitch Red Hot Poppa Frankie. Laine, who's been tagged V^lth several monlK^r* on his own home grounds, re- ceived a new ^appellation last week from a London columnist reporting on Laljtie’s Palladium date. Peter Foster, writing in. the London Observer, referred to Laine as a male Sophie Tucker. “The First of the Red Hot Poppas, shall'we say?” Ros Wants Out From London Gets Disk Contributions Indicating a steady rise in disk sales over the past •couple of years, the Music Performance Trust Fund received $946,0(}0 in contributions from’ the disk companies during the first half of this year. Total compares with the $870,000 re- ceived in the same period last year. The MPTF, set up by the American Federation of Musicians and the disk companies under the trustee- ship of Samuel R. Rosenbaum, uses the coin for sponsoring free con- certs with AFM musicians. MPTF figures reveal that 1,187 disk companies and 136 electrical transcription outfits are licensed by the AFM. Of these, however, 789 reported no sales and an additional 110 disk companies and five e.t. outfits were cancelled due to finan- cial default. / The MPTF has already allocated $1,000,000 for disbursements in the second half of this year, beginning in July. This compares with $800,- 000 allocated in the jftrst half of this year and $900,000 for the last half of 1951. During the first half of 1952, the Fund approved 3,567 separate projects calling for 6,352 performances in which 54,000 in- strumentalists participated. Oper- ating expenses during the first half of 1952 were $57,000 compared to $68,000 for the same period last year. *4- The Record industry Assn, of America is currently prepping a series of record festivals as another step In Its Institutional promotion campaign for the disk industry^ RIAA plans to enlist the services of all ' the r^ord companies for the festivals which will include foruma and seminars on classical, pops and kidisks; tie-ins h with dealers and distributors and per- sonal appearances by major disk artists. Plans for the series, which are still being formulated by RIAA staffers, call for a festival preem in an eastern city. Hartford, Conn,, wiU probably be the teeoff town because of its proximity to, New York and its classification as one of the top record towns in the feast. Date for the preem festival has not yet been set but it’s expected to kickoff in late September or early October. Recent attempts by England’s Although each diskery will send Latino orch leader Mmundo Roa stafff« w^rbe an .j“i*ut‘ln'^ to pull out of his pact with London dusti'y pitch with no single com- Records h?\ve been blocked by the* pany coming in for any special diskery. Ros, who has two more bows. The initial festival will be years to go on his four-year deal measured for impact by the RIAA ’with London, has been stymied in and diskery brass before any fol- his efforts to win an amicable low up plans for other cities art termination agreement or a buy- naade. out of his pact. Ros, who arrived in Nfew York from London last week on a prowl for Latune material, says his squawk with the diskery is based on London’s releasing and distri bution setup in the U;S. Accordirfg to Ros, • London isn’t geared to buck the big companies here so his disks continue to get lost in the shuffle. Ros claims that he cut Delicado” two months before Percy Faith’s Columbia etching hit the market but his rendition Capitol Records unveiled a new Y^as nonetheless too late to dent merchandise plan last week which the U.S. market. the diskery has tabbed “an all-star Ros has had offers to sign with release.” Plan, which was Inl several U.S. majors but London is tkted to give Cap’s distributors keeping his hands tied for the next maximum selling power, consists two years by holding him to its of including waxlngs of the disk- contract. ery’s top artists in the same Wfe.ek’s release. Heretofore, Cap had spread out its artists* releases so that no more than two or three of its stars would hit the market at the same time. At recent national sales con- Louls Armstrong has been set howe^r, it was decided that on a European tour by Joe Glaser’s blanketing the market with its pop Associated Booking Corp. Arm- stable would enable Cap to take strong will play Sweden, Switzer- i'he load in disk sales around the land and Germany. Other datea country. Dlsfceiy previously had will be lined up. experimented with-the “aU star” The one-night concerts will start re either Sept. 20 or 27 and he’ll work , SattSsTv set. Hell work witn a seven Tennessee Ernie, BiUy May,"John- ny Mercer, Stan Kenton and Mar- Blitz Pop Field With Star Plage SATCHMO SET FOR EUROPE THIS FEL CAPITOL KNOCKING FOR MARILYN MONROE ivfarilyn Monroe, who has scored in pix, is skedded to move into the shellac field via a tie-up with Capi- tol Records. Cap is currently dick- ering with Miss Monroe for a long- term, deal as a pop vocalist. Anent Miss Monroe, tunesmiths Ervin Drake and Jimmy Shirl whipped up a special number for a party, gijien in her honor on the Coast recently by orch leader Ray Anthony. Tune, titled “Marilyn,' was picked up for publication by Artie Mogull and Anthony cut the song on the Cap label. piece band. Julian T. Abeles Abroad garet Whiting. Cap’s powerhouse duo, .Les Paul-Mary Ford, were omitted from the initial “all star’* «■ . oAii' n • grouping because they’re currently On Melro-20th Business fidmg high with Meet Mister cai- ^ m e-L V T. 4 . laghap,” which was released sev- Julian T. Abeles (Sc Bernstein), weeks ago. special copyright counsel to Metro Cap h^ no set pattern for the and 20th Century-Fox, among other future releasfes of its pop “all star’ film nnd music interests fivs over packagfes' but a diskery spokesman film and miwic interests, nys over ^ this weekend to London for a cou- packagei. as soon.as the sales pie of weeks’ legal powwows with impact of the preceding one has Ben Goetz, Sam Eckman, Jr. and dissipated. Loew’s and 20th British bai^risters. It focuses around the Francis, Day & Hunter deal which Abeles set up last spring when he clip- pered to London. It calls for Me- tro and 20th to operate their Brit- ish music pub affiliations on a more autonomous basis, but still in cooperation With FD&H. Abeles will also o.o, the British „ j. tn mi. m . TV producUon scene on behalf |hich 45 "?^ boated s7hd. J^^^^^ in Wasliington’s National Guard ECKSBNE-SHEARING OPEN TOUR IN la; Billy Eckstine and George Shear- ing wlU tee off their third consecu- tive cross-country concert tour af the Shrine Auditorium, Los An- his clients. Donn Tibbetts’ Switch Manchester, N. H., Sept. 2. Donn Tibbetts moved over from WKXL, Concord, to WFEA in Manchester this week, continu- ing his disk jockey assignment .on the new outlet. Both stations are CBS affiliates. In his new spot, Tibbetts Is also slated to do play-by-play sports- casting. Armory Nov. 23. Bash is being booked through William Morris, reaping Eck- stine, and Shaw Artists, repping Shearing. M-G®*M Inks Hey wood Eddie Heywood was inked by M-G-M Records last week for the diskery’s Keyboard Kings album releases. Heywood’s first album will hit the market Sept. 12.