Variety (November 1953)

58 Wednesday, November 25, 1953 100 Country Disk Jockeys Launch Hillbilly Protective Association Nashville, Nov. 24. Platter spinners here for WSM’s “Grand Old Opry" jamboree have started the nucleus of a Country Disk Jockey Assn. At its initial meet Saturday <21 > 100 jocks were lined up as charter members. There were about 300 dejays in town for the fest. The association, which plans to wor k for the advancement of coun- try music, will have no connection with record companies or publish- ing houses. Although the functions of the org have not yet been clear- ly defined, association expects to hold its annual meet here in con- junction with the anniversary of ••Opry." Officers named to head up the association in its maiden year were Nelson King (WCKY, Cincinnati), prez; Karl Davis (WFHG, Bristol, Va.t, veep; Tommy Sutton (WING, Dayton, O.), secretary; Dal Stallard (KCMO, Kansas City), treasurer, and Jim Brooker (WMIE, Miami), chairman of the board. Trade reaction to the deejay as- sociation is mixed. Some of the larger hillbilly pubs voiced con- cern over possibilities of the jock- Mindy Carson, Columbia Records songstress, hooked into the Casa- blanca in Canton. O., tomorrow <Thurs.) for a three-day stand, and then goes to the Hollenden Hotels Vogue Terrace Room in Cleveland for two weeks starting Dec. 3. MM OF RECORD RATINGS BY THE TRADE PRESS Hr* ♦»♦♦♦♦♦♦♦++ 10 Best Sellers on Coin-Machines eys ganging up on them. Many oLthe jocks, they claim, are song- writers themselves and could start an organized blacklist if the pub didn’t play ball by publishing their tunes. Another of the pubs’ wor- ries is that an organized group of deejays would give the spinners added power in the industry and relegate the pub to a secondary role. Pubs’ efforts to fight “payola" would be greatly weakened, they claim. Majority of the major labels repped here, however, feel that the j association would expedite their disk service operation. They feel that if the country jocks are or- ganized under one banner, many of the diskery problems, such as maintaining up-to-date listings ind discovering deejay needs, would be eliminated. There are about 1.000 jockeys spinning cornball etchings in the U. S. today. 1. 2 . 3. 4. 5. 6 . 7. 8. 9. 10 . RAGS TO RICHES (6) YOU. YOU, YOU (20) VAYA CON DIOS (23) RICOCHET (6) • ., EH CUMPARI (6) MANY TIMES (6) CHANGING PARTNERS (1) EBB TIDE (2) OH! (20) THAT’S AMORE (1) Second Croup BABY, BABY, B ABY YOU ALONE ’ M AMA’S GONE GOODBYE . .7 WOMAN SHE WAS FIVE AND HE WAS TEN LAUGHING ON THE OUTSIDE SWEET MAMA, TREETOP TALL VELVET GLOVE HEART OF MY HEART STRANGER IN PARADISE STORY OF THREE LOVES WAY DOWN YONDER IN NEW ORLEANS KANGAROO. SKIRTS I Figures in parentheses indicate number of weeks so nq 40066 » 6 «»♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦+♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦* Tony Bennett . Columbia Ames Bros Victor Les Paul-Mary Ford Capitol Teresa Brewer Coral Julius LaRosa Cadence Eddie Fisher Victor Patti Page . Mercury Frank Chacksfield London Pee Wee Hunt Capitol Dean Martin Capitol Teresa Brewer Coral Perry Como . Victor Pee Wee Hunt Capitol Johnny Desmond Coral Judy Valentine Epic Four Aces Decca Lancers Trend Winterhalter Rene Victor Cornell-Dale-Desmond .. . Coral Four Aces Decca Richard Hayman Mercury L aine-Stafford Columbia Les Paul-Mary Ford ... Capitol Eddy Howard Mercury has been in the Top i0] ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 4 ♦ f 4 ♦ ♦ ' ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ t 4 ‘Opry- Clambake Continued from page 51 Hull. (Exact anni date is Nov. 28, but £esJt_was pushed up a week to avoid conflict with the Thanksgiv- ing weekend*. In the N. Y.-to-Nashville con- tingent were BMI’ers Carl Haver- lin, Bob Burton, Russell Sanjek. Julie Stearns, Ken Sparnon; disk- ers Jim Conkling. Paul Cohen. Mike Conner, Bob Theile, Hal Cook. Paul Wexler, Stan Kavin, Bill Nielson, Bob McCluskey. Steve Sholes. Don Law; publishers Howie Richmond, A1 Brackman, Irving Deutch. Bob Gilmore. Lucky Carle, Lou Levy, Elmore White. Nat Tan- non. Bob Miller, Joe Diamond and Al Gallico. Pub topper Ralph S. Peer planed from the Coast for the affair. Huge turnout has convinced WSM to make the "Opry” anni an annual event for a deejay trek to Nashville. Station attempted a similar shindig last year, but only drew about 90 platter spinners. Continued Peer, for example, recently re- ceived a cornball-styled tune from a Belgian songsmith. The lyrics were penned in Flemish. According to Nashville pundits, hillbilly disk sales will probably match pop returns around the globe within the next few' years. Bob Burton, BMI veepee who re- cent'y returned from a European jaunt, reports that an increasing number of music devotees on the Continent are beginning to con- sider the hinterland writers as the “voice of American music." Nashville Setup Meantime, pubbery and diskery activity is being stepped up in Nashville, which local industryites modestly refer to as Music City, U. S. A. Such diskery artists & repertoire men as Paul Cohen Decca*. Steve Sholes (Victor), Don Lliw (Columbia) and Dee Kilpat- rick (Mercury) are using Nashville as a base to prowl material and artists. Demand for new r tunes and new- faces has grown to such an extent that the hillbilly field is a wide-open operation. In the past year the number of tyro tune- \ DO ) RECORDS “The finest sound on record smiths, singers, .indie pubs and. record companies to break into the picture are almost on a par with the pop field. At a meet sponsored by WSM Saturday (21) Jim Conkling, Co- lumbia Records proxy, pointed up the importance of the hinterland- ers on the pop music biz by listing the grassroots origin of pop femme waxers. Cited by Conkling were Jo Stafford and Dinah Shore (Tennessee*. Patti Page and Kay Starr (Oklahoma), Rosemary Cloo- ney (Kentucky) and Doris Day (Ohio). BMI prez Carl Haverlin predicted that the near future would erase such U. S. music cate- gories as pop and hillbilly. "An amalgamation of music styles has begun,” he stated, “and it will end with American music finding its own level." Sheet Music Sales Hit By Upped Parcel Post Rates The increase in parcel post rates, which went into effect in October, has been an additional adverse fae- tor in sheet music sales this year. Publishers are squawking that the parcel rates charged for sheet mu- sic are inequitable compared with tfce rates for books, magazines and periodicals.' Publishing execs point out that the regulations discriminate against pops, in that a package of sheet music will cost from two to four times as much to mail as a pack- age of paper-bound music books. Efforts will be made by the Music Publishers Protective Assn, to get an even break for sheet music from Congress. Hillbillies j ued from page 1 jai FRAN WARREN SINGS If I Could Have You Back Again It’s Anybody’s Heart MGM 11616 K 11616 78 RPM 45 RPM MGM RECORDS THE M E N T