Variety (February 1955)

Wednesday, February 23, 1955 music 43 Other Majors Hold Price Level Continued from page 41 has a two-edged advantage, which makes the $3.98 price possible. Victor can finance a possible short- term loss in hopes of broadening its market at an eventual larger profit and, with its immense cata- log, can spread a possible loss on a large symphony recording over the many chamber music and solo rec- ords it offers, records which are much cheaper to produce. In Chicago, Herman Forrest, record buyer for Hudson-Ross. largest local retail record chain, states that the observable effect of Victor's cut locally has been to bring more customers into Hud- son-Ross stores but has resulted in a drop in net profits. Forrest thinks it possible, however, that the in- crease in customers may eventual- ly result in greater net. Hudson- Ross’ volume of business for the last five months of 1954 had been 25 r o greater than for the corre- sponding period in 1953. Business in January, 1955, though, was only 18 ( ,7 better than in January, 1954; whether it would have been still worse without the price cuts is strictly’a matter for speculation. Feeling among the dealers here is that the present price structure has not as yet been really stabi- lized and that revisions upward are in the offing. The record buyer at Marshall Field’s, largest Chi department store, which does a heavy classical business, feels, like Mercury, that customers buy performances rather than price and that as many rec- ords would be sold at $4.98 as at $3.98. Business at Field's, like at Hudson-Ross, has shown an in- crease in customers, but a drop in dollar profits. In New York, many large dealers have reported increased sales and profits since the advent of the price cuts. Liberty Music Shops, for example, upped its business since the first of the year. One predicted consequence of the price cuts, however, has not taken place. It was believed that the lower prices would put the dis- count operators out of business. To date, there are no signs of this de- velopment." On the contrary. Sam Goody, largest of the discount op- erators, has been doing a boom business since he began selling 12- inch disks at $2.50. That’s the price that ordinary dealers have to pay for longplay platters, and ma- jor execs are still wondering how Goody can sell his merchandise at those, prices.. Anthem Fees Ottawa, Feb. 22. Eyebrows were upped at a Royal Commission studying Canada’s copyright law when S. G. Simpson, Toronto dance spot operator, said performing rights fees were being col- lected on athems such as “God Save the Queen’’ and “The Maple Leaf Forever,” even though original copyrights had expired years ago. Simpson told the commission the Com- posers, Authors & Publishers Assn, of Canada and BMI-Can- ada Ltd. were claiming fees for performances of new arrange- ments of those tunes. Canadian regulations force dancery operators and all other music-using events to close each performance with “God Save the Queen.” Kitty Kallen to Chirp ‘Sex’ Tunes for Decca Hollywood. Feb. 22. Kitty Kallen. inked by UI to co- star in “The Second Greatest Sex,” also will chirp the title tune and five other numbers penned by Phil | Moody and Pony Sherrell. Thrush waxes the six for Decca j Records, with platter releases set i for six weeks prior to film’s open- 1 ing. R&B Best Thing That’s Happened - In Disk Biz in Years: Bob Thiele New Indie Label HETAIL DISK BEST SELLEBS yAKIETY Survey of retail disk best sellers based, on reports cb lained from leading stores iv 19 cities and showing com- parative sales rating for this and last week. National Rating This Last wk. wk. Artist, Label. Title o U >. o CO s X I X JC u o >* it 4> It ft) </) u a u. ft) «-* C w L. ft) a 3 C/3 s X £ £ o U o •H lA 3 S u 4) X m O S c S M o as o O 0 1 2 u c — u 3 O c <a > >» c n X u ft) (ft £ re c eft ■S c x o S X a I *o n X a. i/i a o x C/3 o ft) ft) PS jn 'ti ft) a C/3 £ A a o x C/3 ■o u c ft) ft) K C o u A > »» *3 © - m 3 *— yi C o l/l 3 oc u ft) u. in • PH •c a £ c 2 o O o c (ft £ o e m c A c o c < c A C/3 U1 (/I o a: c o in •a I be A « X U 01 3 p-> /C 01 C o in u A ft) a .] *5 a A c A "O s >» u A ft) J c o 0 1 ! 4) C c o U o J 7. 3 in C £ c ft) l/i A in C A £ ft) in 3 O X m 3 3 00 * T3 3 J I 3 © J J C/3 'O C A ■3 u O ft) ft) On s ft) o X o. U o <n 3 I 4) be e < in I i in 3 *■* A S E 3 0 U 1 © c A U U. e A C/3 in TO o o O £ Q u ft) > C ft) Q k 4) > C ft) Q o U >» A u c A £ u ft) JC C/3 A ft) C/3 1 0 T A 1 P 0 1 N T S McGUIRE SISTERS (Coral) 1 “Sincerely” ~BILLY VAUGHN (Dot) 2 "Melody of Love” . . .- 4 10 FONTANE SISTERS (Dot) 3 “Hearts of Stone” 2 10 3 1 JOHNNY MADDOX (Dot) 8 “Crazy Otto Medley” 1 1 10 GEORGIA GIBBS (Mercury) “Tweedle Dee” 4 10 10 8 10 PERRY COMO (Victor) 7 “Ko Ko Mo” PENGUINS (Dootone) 12 “Earth A^gel” 6 8 JAYE P. MORGAN (Victor) 4 “That’s All I Want From You” COWBOY SUNDAY SCHOOL (Decca) 9A 21 “Open Up Your Heart” 8 BILL HAYES (Cadence* 9B 17 “Ballad of Davey Crockett”. 11 JOAN WEBER (Columbia) 5 “Let Me Go, Lover” 12 11 CREW-CUTS (Mercury) “Ko Ko Mo” 13 CHORDETTES (Cadence) 5 “Mister Sandman” AMES BROTHERS (Victor) 14 9 “Naughty Lady of Shady Lane” SARAH VAUGHAN 'Mercury) 15 13 “Make Yourself Comfortable” 16A BILL HALEY’S COMETS (Decca) “Birth of the Boogie” JONI JAMES (MGMi 16B 14 “How Important Can It Be ” CREW-CUTS "(Mercury) 18 17 “Earth Angel”.. . HUGO WINTERHALTER (Victor) 19 19 “Song of the Barefoot Contessa”.. 20 FOUR ACES (Decca) “Mister Sandman”... 3*9 3 10 8 8 6 8 6 CATERINA VALENTE (Decca) 21A 22 “Malaguena” 10 LAVERN BAKER (Atlantic) 21B 20 “Tweedle Dee” 21C CRAZY OTTO (Decca) “Glad Rag Doll” BILL HALEY’S COMETS (Decca) 24A 22 “Dim, Dim the Lights” 8 24B .. CRAZY OTTO (Decca) “Smiles” 10 4 65 __ 48 .. 43 .. 42 10 * 10 _7 6 37 37 ,. .. 33 9 .. 30 .. . . 27 5 24 8 23 19 19 17 14 13 8 9 12 11 - 12 . . 12 ^ 11 8 11 SIX TOP ALBUMS PAJAMA GAME Original Cait Columbia ML 4840 A 1098 ASCAPer Jimmy McHugh, ‘BevHills Man of Year’ Los Angeles, Feb. 22. Jimmy McHugh was named the “Beverly Hills Man of the Year’’ at the annual banquet of the local Chamber of Commerce and Civic Ass n last week. The presentation to the songwriter was made by chamber prexy James VV. Mc- Donald. Danny Thomas emceed the affair. McHugh was palmed for his pro- motion of high school sporting events and youth movements, his philanthropic contributions, and his civic and religious activities. Henry Olmsted, head of a N Y. recording studio under his own j name, has organized a new diskery, » Ruby Records, in partnership with Martin Jones. Jones will operate the label j while Olmsted, a sound engineer, j will continue to head the sound studio. When the late Jack Kapp helmed the Decca Records operation the slogan was “Where’s the melody?” Now. at Coral, Decca’s subsid. it’s being changed to “Where’s the beat?” At least, that’s the way Bob Thiele. Coral’s pop artists & reper- toire chief, would like to have it. While some a&r chiefs regard it as another quickie cycle. Thiele says the rhythm & blues beat is the best thing that’s happened to the industry in years. “It’s good for the business,” he said, “because it sells records. And that’s what counts.” He added that too many people are rapping the "rock and roll” style because they don’t understand it. The same resistance to new sounds took place, he ex- plained, when jazz and swing first came to the musical forefront. Thiele admits that pop disks al- ways have been made for the teen- age market and if r&b is the beat they want now, there’s no reason not to give it to them. The r&b disks, lie claims, are creating a new excitement in the biz that runs from the recording room right down to the retailer. “Every new release.” he said, “is like New Year’s Eve.” Another plus for the new beat, according to Thiele, is that it’s built acceptance for a lot of artists who previously couldn’t get off the ground with straight pop-style waxings. In answer to the claim that it’s bad music, Thiele rebuts "If it was bad it wouldn’t have acceptance or last, and it’s just beginning to gain momentum.” A number of indie r&b labels have been squawking about the pop covers of their originals. Thiele doesn’t believe the major covers of the ir.die hits w'ill take any of their potential sales away. "We each sell to different markets.” he said, "and get our platter exposure from different deejays.” Thiele claims that he’s not sluf- fing off recordings of orthodox pop material to stress r&b releases. He does admit, however, that he may hold back on pop releases to get the most out of the current r&b run. ‘Shtiggy’ Disk M - rathon With Over 58 Hrs. Play Three New Orleans deejays cracked tlie lront pages across the country last week with a disk marathon of “Shtiggy Boom,” cut by The Nuggets for Capitol. The platter spinners, Bill Stewart. Bill Elliott and Bill Stanley, held the WNOE airlanes for 58 hours, four minutes and 31 seconds with 1,349 consecutive spins of the etching. The decja.v run caught local dis- tributors off guard. Capitol, which pressed the disk, did not have a shipment on hand to meet demand. Victor, w'hich cut the tune as a harmonica solo by Leo Diamond, also was caught short. Diamond penned the song with A1 Jarvis, Hollywood d.j. Versified Wire Holywood, Feb. 22. L. Wolfe Gilbert, Coast ASCAP rep. upon hearing of the 58-hour spin-a-thon of the Capitol release, “Shtiggy Boom,” at a radio station in the South, sent the following wire to A1 Jarvis. KFWB deejay and composer of “Boom.” To ease the situation, I phoned that Southern station. To remove poor A1 Jarvis’ gloom, And stop playing “Shtiggy Boom.” I talked so long, I persuaded them at last. I saved your song, but for me the die was cast. As a substitute, 1 allowed them to do “Mr. Publisher Have I Got a Song For You.” L. Wol/e Gilbert. P.S.—Gilbert authored “Pub- lisher.” 'Decca Buys Master Decca Records has bought On the master of a new tune, “I’r Sincere,” from Wanda Records ii Cleveland. Tune was cut by Jo Barrett and created some noise i Cleveland where it got deejay ex posure. Barrett is a vocalist new come from Boston.