Variety (October 1952)

OROdESTKAS-ItfUSIC 57 October ^ 1952 P%iSlETT Scoreboard OF TOP TALENT AND TUNES Compiled from Statistical Reports of Distribution Encompassing the Three Major Outlets Coin Machines Retail Disks Retail Sheet Music as Published in the Current Issue for r WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 4 — NOTEi The current comparative sales strength of the Artists and Tunes listed hereunder is arrived at under a statistical system comprising each of the three major sales outlets enu- merated abdve. These findings are correlated with data from wider sources, which are exclusive with Variety. The positions resulting irom these findings denote the OVERALL IMPACT de- veloped from the ratio of points scored : two ways in the case 1 of talent {disks, coin machines) t and three ways in the case of tunes disks, coin machines, sheet music). POSITIONS This Last week. week. 1 2 3 4 5 8 • 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 6 4 5 7 • « 10 TALENT ARTIST AND LABEL TUNE JO STAFFQRD (Columbia) \lZb^yz * PATTI PAGE (Mercury) ♦. ^ I Went to Your Wedding EDDIE FISHER (Victor) rfSpln* *** LES PAUL-MARY FORD (Capitol) Meet Mr. Callaghan FRANKIE LAINE (Columbia) High Noon ROSEMARY CLOONEY (Columbia) iBotch-AJMe* 1 VERA LYNN (London) Auf Wiederseh’n PEARL BAILEY (Coral) Takes Two to Tango MILLS BROS. (Decca) Glow Worm DON CORNELL-T. BREWER (Coral) You’ll Never Get Away TUNES POSITIONS This Last week. week. TUNE PUBLISHER RETAIL SHEET BEST SELLERS (Mills) 10 9 Walkin’ 31 to Missouri'* (Hawthorne) .. 7 8 10 » • • • 8 8 Just a ‘Tip’ to Ruth Champ absent-minded re- cording artist, if legends are true, was the late George Her- man <Babe) Ruth. The “Bambino,” who poled 54 home runs to set the nation agog in 1920, was asked to make a Pathe record telling how he clouted ’em. After reading a corny three-minute talk, Bam, so the story goes, was handed check for $8,000, and Jthcked it in his inside coat pockeft. He , changed clothes and, be- ing man of many garments, didn’t put same suit on again for a year. And he didn’t re- member anything about the check until he attired himself again in his recording date ensemble and happened to rpach into that coat pocket. Eight years later Babe and teammate Lou Gehrig teamed in two-part Perfect record, “Babe and Lou.” RCA’s Historic Exhibit Of Disking Memorabilia In Rockefeller Center As part of its promotional activ- ity in connection with the 75th anni of the disk industry, RCA Victor is presenting an historical exhibit of old records hnd phonographs in the RCA Exhibition Hall, Rocke- feller Center, N. Y. By means of original models and replicas of early equipment, the display traces the growth of the disk industry from the first Thomas A. Edison machine in 1877 to present-day standards. The main exhibit is being staged in the exhibition hall’s Johnny Victor Theatre, with additional his* toric material also in the street- level room. NBC announcer Mel Brandt handles the commentary for the exhibit, which is being shown five times daily this week. During each show, Brandt spot- lights the progressive development in musical fidelity by contrasting the sounds of the old cylinder re- leases and the mechanically-re- corded platters with current disks. Main pitch is made in behalf of Victor’s 45 rpm system, culminating” in the extended play (EP) disks which is the focal point of the company’s fall-winter promotion. CORAL TO PROMOTE GUI0N, FIELD ORCHS Hopping on the orch waxing up- beat, Coral Records is prepping a drive on its two new band pactees, King Guion and Herbie Fields. Both Guion and Fields were p^cted to the diskery last week, Coral also expects to continue a push on its two other orch prop- erties, Les Brown and Lawrence Welk. The orch hypo will follow the same lines Columbia's Art Lowry drive ana Victor's Sauter- Finegan push. Paiitz to Handle Two Sandy Solo Disk Dates Morty Paiitz, ex-Decca Records artists & repertory topper, has been set by Barry Records, new indie label, to head two ’waxing dates for singer Sandy Solo. Solo previously had been released on the Abbey label. Paiitz had been negotiating with Solo for the Decca stable just be- fore he exited the firm. No perma- nent tie-up between Paiitz and Barry has been set yet. ‘ Harms, Witmark Awarded $500 in Licensing Suit Youngstown, Oct. 7. Judgments totaling $500 have been returned against Louis Ti- berio, proprietor of the Tropics Night Club, Youngstown, in favor of Harms Music and M. Witmark Music, which claimed their music was performed at the night spot last year without a license. The companies were awarded $250 damages plus attorney fees and court costs, in the Cleveland Federal Court. Tiberio failed to answer the complaint that he had allowed unlicensed public perform- ances of “Oh, Lady Be Good,” published by Harms, and “Don’t Take Your Love from Me,” pub- lished by Witmark, Satchmo Toots Horn for IPs As Best Jazz Hypo The introduction of the long play record several years ago has spark- ed a jazz renaissance that’s stead- ily been paying off in disk sales. The jazz LPs also have been serv- ing an important cultural function by making the jazz product of the 1920s and ’30s available to a wider audience. Before the advent of the 33 rpm disk, old jazz waxings were collector items too expensive for the average buyer. Now. however, the major diskeries are digging in- to their vaults to bring out LPs of classic jazz waxings as well as re- cordings of past jazz concerts which had been preserved via tapings. • According to Louis Armstrong, who cut his first side about 30 years ago, “Hepsters want something to save and want to get their money’s worth when they shell out their loot at a record shop. The LPs are right up their alley.” The record companies have done a great job in reintroducing the best in jazz styles and names to the new generation, but it’s too bad, he added, that those names aren’t around today to get the ad- vantage of modern recording stu- dio' techniques. “At sessions in the ’20s with King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson and Baby Dodds,” he said, “I’d have to put my horn right into the mega- phone *and blow so that the riff could be heard above the rest* of the band. Each tooter would have to move in to get near the meg when his riff came up. Now, the mikes in the studio can pick up each solo stint without having to move the musician from one part of the room to another.” Armstrong claims that it’s also easier to get a pure sound on wax because of the acoustical layout of the new studios. Armstrong contends, however, that the diskeries are going wild' with their new techniques. “The ’new sounds’ are being run into the ground and the public’s beginning to tire of them. I did a gimmick bit for Decca with ’Because of You* and let me tell you, Pops, I won’t go through that again.” Armstrong added that" the trouble with many of the young wax artists today is that they’re in a hurry to get rich quick. “Down in New Orleans we* were taught to take our time,” and he added, “you get the same re- sults.” Satchmo Nixes Trick Stuff He admitted that he doesn’t like the “new fangled stuff” that’s cur- rent in the wax market. /‘The trick style on records was okay for a while but it ain’t no good for per- sonol appearances,” he said, “and that’s what counts.” Armstrong hasn’t changed his trumpet or sing- ing style since the New Orleans days—“and that’s the way I’m gonna keep it.” Armstrong, who headed for his fifth tour of Europe last week since the end of World War II, said “it’s just like going back to New Orleans.” The tour, which’ll run six weeks, will cover the Con- tinent as well as North Africa. “They go to jazz concerts there,” he said, “like we go to football games.” He attributed the big jazz following in Europe to the Ameri- can disks that’ have been going overseas for the past 25 years. “The Europeans are familiar with every I riff you play,” he stated, “and you can’t jive ’em.” “Jazz and long- hair,” he continued, “are treated the same — and if they like your riff, they’ll ’bravo’ you to death.” Eupropean musicians have taken their cues from American jazz rec- ords, Armstrong admitted, “but a note’s a note in any language and if you’ve got the feeling, the jam’s the same.” Granz PuUs $3,900 In'Columbus, O., Stand Columbus, Oct. 7. Norman Granz’ Jazz at the Phil- harmonic, following less than a week on the appearance df “The Biggest Show of ’52” grossed a disappointing $3,900 at $3.50 top in 3,000-seat Memorial Hall here last Tuesday (30). JATP stars‘ Ella Fitzgerald and features Flip Phillips, Buddy Rich, the Gene Krupa Trio and the 1 Oscar Peterson. Trio among others.