Variety (April 1953)

OBCUESTIUS-MIISIC RCA to Gift library Of Congress With Rare Rachmaninoff Disks '« '4 W ■ y Washington, March 31. • RCA Victor will present a series of rare recordings by *the late Serge Rachmaninoff to the Library of Congress tomorrow (Wed.) as part of the 10th anni commemora- tion of the late composer-pianist's death. Disks will include several made in the pre-electric recording era. Mrs. Sophia W. R. Coors, of Washington, granddaughter of the musician, will be on hand for the ceremonies. Luther Evans, Librari- an of Congress, is accepting the collection* from Victor s^nd they will become part of the Rachman- inoff's archives, including letters, original musical scores and other material presented to the Library by Rachmaninoffs family. Bom in Russia, Rachmaninoff later fled that, country and became a U.S. citizen. MENZIES’ DECCA CLICK CUES MAJOR BUILDUP Hamish Menzies, 28-year-old Scotsman who came to the U. S. a year ago, is currently the latest new voice to forge ahead in the male vocalist sweepstakes. His initial disk for Decca, released last month, is now the company’s best- seller and Decca is priming the singer for a major promotional buildup as a result of the initial reaction. Menzies is also a com- poser, having written his first Decca-sliced tunes, “You Can Be In Love” and “Less Than Tomor- row.” Menzies was spotted by Decca while working recently in a Cleve- land nitery. In England, Menzies was vocalist with the Ted Heath and Geraldo orchs and wrote the music for one of the London Pal- ladium revues. He also ran a nitery, Le Bluebird, in Paris shortly be- fore coming to the U. S. Skylar, Ackers Team For Own Pub House Joining the growing roster* of songwriters who are opening their own publishing firms, cleffer Sunny Skylar has formed Lynwood Music in partnership with Andrew Ackers, piano accompanist for Jane Froman. Duo decided to organize their own company after placing a couple of their own compositions directly with the major disk companies. il Jocks, Jukes & Disks! - ----- Continued from page 72 --- -• Soundtrack album of the 20th- Fox pic with Ethel Merman, Don- ald O’Connor, George Sanders and •Carole Richards (who piped the tunes for Vera-EUen) is sock all the way. Miss Merman and com- pany rip through 11 Irving Berlin tunes (only the oldie, “Interna- tional Rag” wasn’t in the original Broadway production) with a cap- tivating exuberance and drive. La Merman wins with “The Hostess With Mostes’ on the Ball,” “Inter- national Rag,” “The Best Thing for You” and “Call Me Madam.” O’Connor impresses as a good shellac bet with his piping of “What Chance Have I With Love” and the duet with Miss Richards on “It’s a Lovely Day Today.” Sanders is big-voiced and roman- tic on “Marrying for Love.” “You’re Just in Love,” duet be- tween Miss Merman and O'Con- nor doesn’t come off too well but it’s Still a Berlin standout. Orch and chorus are directed by Alfred Newmkn. ‘Pin Up' Hit CAN’T | Published by Harvard „ Records Not "King" Coin . Billy M au . Arne* Brothers * . y —PCop/to/i Richard Haves .. lc ^' , all IMercury) Broadcast Music, Inc. N . w r. rh N y . (hksco .. nod,*00. . »,OH,0 V ^ Fzersrm* Wednesday, April 1, 1953 SCOTT, COLLINS LAUNCH NEW AUDIVOX LABEL • Raymond Scott, maestro on the TV “Hit Parade” show, and his 'wife; Dorothy Collins, songstress on that show, have embarked on an Indie disk ventute with the j formation last week of Audivox’ Records. Leonard Wolf; formerly with Decca Records’ sales and !i p^dmotion department, is also ■ partnered in the company. .Miss 1 6ollins had been under contract to S Decca, but a release from.her pact J was amicably negotiated. 1 I The husband and wife team cur- rently corffprise the label’s talent lineup. Wolf will handle the ad- ministrative, sales and promotion- al details. Setup marks Scott’s > second indie operation. He pre- j viously owned Master Records via which he released several sets of f his own instrumentals. Mills’ Score From ' Off-B’way Musical Mills Music has . acquired the j score to the new legit njusical, “Surprise Package,” which is be-! ing preemed by Originals Only, an off-Broadway group in Greewich Village, Friday (3): Score was penned by Fran Ziffer, Horty Bee- son and Hardy Welder. The book < was written by Tom Hill, j Team’s previous, musical, “Da- kota,” was picked .up by Mills a couple of years ago. RETAIL DISK BEST SELLERS PWRIEfY '■ Survey of retail disk best sellers based on reports ob tained from leading stores in 9 cities and showing com • parative sales rating for this and last week. • w. | 8 o ~ w .$? S * £ National Rating This Last wk. wk. « tn c w »N H r>! 1 A t s 'S 3 1 I 1 i 5A 8 Arti st, Label, Title PATTI PAGE (Mercury) “Doggie in the Window” *- 1 'FRANKIE "LAINE~(Columbia) “I Believe” • :JL - _ "TERESA BREWERlCoral) “Till I WaKzJLgain W ith You” 2 "GAYLORDS (Mercury) “Tell Me You’re Mine ” • • 10 "NATlKING)' COLE "(Capitol) “Pretend” ..; • • • • • • • • ‘ _ "F.~l7AINE-J. BOYD (Columbia) “Tell Me a Story” ... ,v - i- JONI JAMES (M-G-M) * “Your Cheatin’ Heart” 8 8 1.. 1 1 1 73 1 2 4 2 3 6 3 5.. 3 49 3 6 2 32 5 2 4.. 4 31 5 ..... .. 2 .. 3 1 4 7 6 7 .. 29 RALPH'FLANAGAN (Victor) ' ‘ 8 11 “Hot Toddy ” —U_ PERRY COMO (Victor) 9 4 “Don’t Let St ars in Y our Eyes” 7 b _ 'PERCITfaTtH (Columbia) 10 18 “Swedish Rhapsody ” n_ KAY STARR (Capitol) 11A 8 “Side by Side” PERCY FAITH (Columbia) 11B .. “Song From Moulin R ouge” - 5 • • PERRYCQMO (Victor) 13 10 “Wild Horses” • • L RUSTY'DRAPER (Mercury) 14 .. “No Help Wanted”. * 8 KAREN CHANDLER (Coral) 15A .. “Hold Me, TlirlH Me. Kiss Me” • • • • "EDDIE FISHER (Victor) 15B 16 “Downhearted” u_ HARI KARI (Capitol) 17 .. “Yokahama Mama^. EILEEN BARTON (Coral) 18 .. “Pretend” • * — SYLVAN A MANGANO (M-G-M) 19 .. “Anna” —l:— ll. JO STAFFORD (Columbia) 20 12 “Keep It a Secret” •• 3 1 .; .. 9 20 8 7 17 4 .. 16 8 5 9 10 14 6 14 9 8 7 13 6 5 .. 10 8 5 9 10 . 9 9 FIVE TOP ALBUMS HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN DANNY KAYE Decca DL 5433 A 919 9-364 SWEETHEARTS Marion Marlow* Frank Parker Columbia B 331 TV CALENDAR SHOW Arthur Godfrey Columbia CL 6241 B 331 C 331 MUSIC FOR .... KAY. STARR STYLE LOVERS ONLY Kay Starr Jackie Gleason Capitol H 352 Capitol H 363 ASCAPites See Better Break ■ *— C ontinued from U~ ... cause You’re Mine,” “Be My Love,” otherwise. Furthermore, the diisk- “Loveliest Night of the Year” and eries are now inclined to favor new “Cool Cool Cool of the Evening,” writers with direct deals at the ex- the major channels for songplug- pense of the music publisher, fre- ging are the record .companies and quently bypassing him. The fact the radio disk jockeys which,' al- that Some of the major publishers legedly, are inclined to favor BMI of late have themselves gone into, tunes. the indie diskery business as a new BMI just as frankly feels the form of exploitation is advanced SPA writers have no case; that the* by BMIites as evidence that the public doesn’t care if the hit comes entire pattern of pop song hitmak- from Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, ing has undergone a revolution to dr from some unknowns in Nash- which the oldline ASCAP publish- ville or newcomers from the Brill ers and writers seemingly are not Bldg., which has been more the yet attuned. case in recent years.- « ASCAP has the evidence of the By the same token, more new last three or four years to indicate songs have been sparked by new that the Top TO, the Hit Parade and artists on independent labels than [ kindred rosters have been dom- inantly BMI—with the exception this week where an ASCAP pub- lisher is No. 1. And there, too, this same publisher is in the process of setting up a new BMI affiliate, al- legedl y a s an economic cushion^ just in case. A FRED FISHER GEM I'M JUSt LIKE A WHEEL THAT IS TURNING A Beautiful,Ballad Pub. by FRED FISHER MUSIC CO. Ml 9 Broadway. New York City WHEN MY SUGAR WALKS DOWN THE STREET THE LONESOMEST GAL IN TOWN „ • I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH ME Welcome to the Copacabana! A P r " 2 JIMMY McHUGH ♦ » • ★ ★ ★ ★ ... over 100 Top Tunes by Jimmy McHugh FROM THE CATALOG OF Broadway,