Variety (March 1953)

t g.,TnwJar, March 25, 1953 Bril Band Exec v To See Petrillo | On Exchange Deal 11 London, March 17. Z Harold Davison, one of the top X T 0Ca l band agents; handling such ± , eWS as Ted Heath, Jack Parnell, f Tnllnny Dankworth, Tito Burns I and Vic Lewis planes to New York 4 March 28 on a 10-day trip. ; J * Davison is going to finalize deals ♦ fn import the Stan . Kenton orch. X PfitziEfr .Disk Companies’ Best Sellers^ CAPITOL AHUST 1. PM SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD.. L. Paul-M. Ford SLEEP 2. BLUE GARDENIA Nat (King) Cole CAN’T I PRETEND Nat DON’T LET EYES SHOP FOR HEART (King) Cole SIDE BY SIDE Kay Starr NOAH MY BABY’S COMING HOME Les Paul-Mary Ford LADY OF SPAIN Tolinny Dankworth, Tito Burns t COLUMBIA and Vic Lewis planes to New York I 4 1. TELL ME A STORY ,* .F. Laine-J. Boyd March 28 on a 10-day trip. ; J LITTLE BOY AND OLD MAN * Davison is going to finalize deals ♦ 2. GLAD RAG DOLL Johnnie Ray to import the Stan . Kenton orch. X SOMEBODY STOLE MY GAL for a six-week European tour. ;and + 3# y 0 UR CHEATIN’ HEART Frankie Laine is also dickering with the Minis- J ! BELIEVE try of Labour for ggJJ ♦ 4. MY BUNNY & MY SISTER SUE Jimmy Boyd fnmake a deal fir an Skitar jazz J TWO EASTER SUNDAY SWEETHEARTS „if headed by Red Norvo Trio, t 5 * SONG FROM MOULIN ROUGE Percy Faith nr!n«/ Art Penner. and ■+ SWEDISH RHAPSODY tiv of Labour for English appear- ances of the orch. He also intends to make a deal for an all-star jazz J,nit headed by Red Norvo Trio, Shelley Manne, Art Pepper, and • five more name jazzites, which he will choose while over. Unit is already booked for 28 <lavs. opening at Frankfort. Ger- many. June 5. to be toHowed.by tours to. France, Holland, Bel- gium, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Switzerland. He also has contract for Alan Dean, whom he has under exclusive contract, to return to England for short tour, i But Davison’s main mission is to confer with James C, Petrillo on reciprocal band exchanges, and for this he has the blessing of the Brit- ish Musicians Union. Feeling here is that after 18 years veto, it is time that ban was removed, with American bands again given freedom to come over. This Is further exemplified by the recent appearance of Norman Granz’s "Jazz at the Philharmonic” jamboree, at J. Arthur Rank’s State Cinema, Kilburn. Concert played to turnaway biz, and Cortibo could easily have given 12 more shows in key towns. Local bandleaders would whole- heartedly support any favorable move by Petrillo, and are prepared to vote the abandoning of all re- strictions against American bands, being fully cognizant of fact that British bands are in dire need of new ideas, and the importing of Americans would fulfill the. long- needed stimulant, but only on con- dition that Petrilfo removes the longstanding barrier against Britishers. Petrillo’s obstinacy in keeping English aggregations out of America is deemed among the top bandleaders here to be a very shortsighted policy. They main- tain that at most there are not more than six English toppers that would venture an American trip to exploit their talents against at least three times the number of Ameri- . can bands that would welcome Eu- ropean engagements, especially on this Coronation year. ASGAP Coin Continued from page 53 the other 30% is for the value of the catalog over the last five or 10 years; writers had the choice of designating into which category they wanted to be classified. The 20% brackets are for current per- formances and seniority. Berlin and Porter, as the fore- most American songsmiths writing both words and music over a long period of years, enjoy that double- barrelled payoff in their special lofty brackets. A writer like Loes- ser, who now also is a w&m man, thus finds himself moving along fast despite his relative juniority because of the double-credits on his performances. M-G-M Distrib Switch. In a move to tighten its distrib- mor division, M-G-M Records turned its Pittsburgh territory over to Herman Gimbel, diskery’s Balti- more-Washington-Richmond dis- tnb. Neal Sterling will assist Gimbel ? s sales manager of the Pitt branch. CORAL 1. DANCIN’ WITH SOMEONE Teresa Brewer BREAKIN’ IN THE BLUES 2. GOODBYE CHARLIE, GOODBYE Karen Chandler I’D LOVE TO FALL ASLEEP 8. TILL i WALTZ AGAIN WITH YOU Teresa Brewer HELLO BLUE BIRD 4. SEVEN LONELY DAYS Pinetoppers SMALL WORLD 5. MINNIE THE MERMAID Lawrence Welk SAY IT ISN'T SO DECCA 1. TWICE AS MUCH Mills Bros. SOMEONE TO CARE FOR 2. YOU FOOLED ME Four Aces IF YOU TAKE MY HEART AWAY„ 3. YOU CAN BE IN LOVE Hamish Menzies LESS THAN TOMORROW 4. PLAYIN’ DOMINOES, SHOOTlN’ DICE Red Foley HOT TODDY 5. I’LL BE HANGIN’ AROUND Russ Morgan THE GOLDEN YEARS MERCURY 1. DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW . .Patti Page MY JEALOUS EYES 2. CARAVAN Ralph Marterie WHILE YOU DREAM 8. NO HELP WANTED Rusty Draper TEXARKANA BABY 4. GOMEN-NASAI Eddy'Howard SOMEONE TO KISS YOUR TEARS AWAY 5. SEVEN LONELY DAYS Georgia Gibbs IF YOU TAKE MY HEART M-G-M 1. YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART Joni James. I’LL BE WAITING FOR YOU 2. KAW-LIGA ’• Hank Williams YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART 3. HAVE YOU HEARD Joni James ‘ WISHING RING 4. YOU’RE MINJS Crickets MILK AND GIN 5. ANNA Silvano Mangano I LOVED YOU RCA VICTOR 1* HOT TODDY Ralph Flanagan SERENADE 2. WILD HORSES Perry Como I CONFESS 3. HOW DO-YOU SPEAK TO AN ANGEL .Eddie Fisher DOWNHEARTED 4. DON’T LET THE STARS GET IN YOUR EYES.. Perry Como LIES 5. TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN Buddy Morrow I CAN’T GET STARTED 2d Ave. Jazz Op Moves Uptown to Town Hall Bob Maltz, who for the past few years has been presenting week- end jazz concerts at the Stuyvesant Casino on New York’s Second Avenue, downtown eastside, is moving his operation uptown for a one-nite stand at Town Hall April 4. Stuyvesant will remain dark on that date. Among artists who’ll be show- cased at the Town Hall presenta- tion are George Lewis, George Brunis, Lee Collins, Jim Robinson, Zutty Singleton and Albert Nich- olas. Program for the concert will be emceed by A1 ”Jazzbo” Collins, WNEW disk jockey; More Writers Continued from page 53 OnCHKSTKAS-MirSIfc 59 Inside Stuff-Music "April In Portugal,” the Raul Ferraro tune currently getting hefty wax coverage, has been kicking around the U. S. and Europe under one tag or another since 1847. SongTtrfjoke originally in Portugal as "Coimbra” with a lyric by Jose Galhardo. Two years later it moved over to France with a new lyric by Jacques Larue and a new title, “Avril au Portugal.” In 1952 it was given an English lyric by Barbara Gordon, who titled it "The Girl From' HaZairey.” Tune never got off the ground in Great Britain abd was transported to the U. S., receiving a*new lyric by Jimmy Kennedy and another title, "Whispering Serenade.” A few indie labels cut "Serenade,” but it remained, a dormant platter entry. However, when tune was pushed a few months later as a straight instrumental under the "April In Portugal" tag, it began to make some noise in the market. Renewed interest in the tune sparked to Chappell to reassign Kennedy to work on a new lyric—but the "April In Portugal” tag will stand. The French click, "La Vie En Rose,” which was penned by Louiguy (music) and Edith Piaf (words), received a similar abortive start in 1948.in its U. S. transposition to "You’re Too Dangerous, Cherie” by lyricist Mack David. Two years later, however, tube's U. S. publishers, Harms, Inc., reissued the number under its original tag with a new David lyric, and it developed into one of top clicks of 1950. | In what is believed to be the first instance of a record firm re- porting to its stockholders on one of its own products—a disk— Capitol Records has concocted a history of the firm for distribution with the annual report. Tagged "The Capitol Record, a decade of growth,” the- seven-inch 45rpm platter is a history of the firm’s ten years of operation, narrated by George Fenneman. Disk runs 13 minutes and features such artists as Ella Mae Morse, singing “Cow Cow Boogie,” Cap’s first disk and an immediate, hit; Johnny Mercer’s “Strip Polka,” an early hit by one of the company’s co-founders; Stan Kenton; Tex Williams singing "Smoke, Smoke, Sriioke, the firm’s first million-seller; PeggyJL.ee with "Manana,” the diskery’s all-time second best seller; Pee Wee Hunt’s "Twelfth Street Rag”; Nat (King) Cole on ""Too Young”; Les Paul & Mary Ford on "How High the Moon”; and such firm history highlights as "Bozo the Clown,” narration listing the ccmpany’s growth in the classical field from Telefunken to Cetra-Soria and hit tunes by Ray Anthony, Billy May and Kay Starr. Capitol Records learned the meaning of inflation when it set out to promote "Yokohama Mama,” warbled by Harry Kari, the new nom-de-necdle taken by Harry Stewart whose previous Cap releases have been Swedish-accented affairs done under the- monicker Yogi Yorgesson. piskery figured., it would* cost around $30 te send to Tokyo a- batch of letters and stills of 'Stewart masquerading as a Nipponese and then have them remailed to U. S. deejays-as a promotion stunt. Jap customs officials, however, slapped an export-import duty of 70,000 yen on the stills and Cap’s yen for an overseas promotion gimmick became even more expensive when the Japanese affixed transshipping stamps, etc. Entire project wound up costing 218,000 yen, or $409. Leo Edwards, brother of the late Gus Edwards and himself a song- smith and prez of the ASCAP Charter Members Assn., volunteers: "Just for the record—barbershop ■ quartets never wore mustaches, and Diamond Jim Brady never was Lillian Russell’s sweetheart. Holly- wood please copy.” This will* be part of “Accompanied By,” his memoirs as pianist and composer for many vaudeville headliners he accompanied in the heyday of vaudeville. (Gold Music) and Lee Erwin and Mel Howard with "Hello Sunshine” (Erwin-Howard Music). Irving Fields and Fletcher Peck launched their own firm, Mark-Jules Music, last week for the publication of their own output. Initial item in their catalog is "Mr. Piano Player.” Situation of writers’ publishing own tunes is a throwback to the music biz days of the 1920s and ’30s when such songsmiths as Irving Berlin, Sammy Stept-Buddy Green and Charles Tobias-Al Lewis set up their own pubberies. In recent years Frank Loesser has stepped out with own firm, Frank Music. Lat- ter pubbery now iis riding high with the Loesser score for the Samuel Goldwyn pic, "Hans Chris- tian Andersen.” Fred Day, London music pub- lisher (Francis, Day & Hunter) in New York for a few days before hit British West Indies vacation with Mrt. Day. Buddy DeFranco and His Orchestra * Play t OVER THE SUMMERTIME RAINBOW MGM 11411 K 11411 78 RPM 45 RPM M G M RECORDS T H E * i \