Variety (July 1956)

Wednesday, July 25, 1956 P'S&IETY MUSIC 111 On The Upbeat New York Gilbert Millstein, N.Y. Times scribe, hitting the road with the Louis Armstrong orch for a Col¬ lier’s mag piece . . . Rover Boys set for one week* at the Club Azalea, Mobile, beginning July 30 . . •» The four Voices pencilled In at Pleas¬ ure Beach Ballroom, Bridgeport, Conn., for a weekend beginning Aug. 18 . . . Roger Coleman on a cross-country dee jay tour plugging liis MGM waxing of “Only The One” and “Half Way To Heaven.” . . . Jonnny Costa set for a return to the Embers in November. Paul Martell, Roseland Ballroom maestro, lining up a European tour for the fall . . . Don Elliott Quartet begins a week’s stand at Chicago’s Modern Jazz Room tonight (Wed.). . . . The Sabres, RCA Victor pactees, opened at the Sahara, Las Vegas, yesterday (Tues.). Roger Williams guests with the Denver Symph at Red Rocks, Colo., July 31 . . . Zoot Simms Quintet and Leon Sash Quartet held over at Greenwich Village’s Cafe Bohe¬ mia . . . Eddie Grady orch pacted to General Artists Corp. The Grady crew was formerly known as The Commanders . . . Lionel Hampton due back from an eight-month tour of the -Continent and Israel Aug. 3. Hollywood Zephyr Records, indie label run by Geordie Hormel and Bud Free¬ man, inked Ruth Olay and will in¬ tro her via an album which Bill Hitchcock is arranging and con¬ ducting . . . Decca re-signed The Buddies, vocal-instrumental quar¬ tet from Fresno . . . Dennis Farnon inked to score another UPA car¬ toon, “Mister Magoo’s Nephew.” . . . Jo Ann Castle has joined the Ina Ray Hutton show as perma¬ nent fixture on accordion and pi¬ ano . . . Jack Lloyd, headwriter of the Bob Crosby tv show, teamed with Hal Dickinson of The Mod- ernaires on a trio of tunes . . . Bobby Short, current at the Castle Restaurant, has been offered a lead in the Cienna Co. of “Kiss Me Kate,” by producer Julius Rudell . . . George Shearing prepping an extensive nitery tour. Chicago Ahmad Jamal trio opens at the Modern Jazz Room, Chi, tonight (Wed.) for two frames; segues into the Embers, New York, Aug. 6 for (Continued on page 112) CONN. JAZZ FESTIVAL GETS TOP WEB-PLAY Bridgeport,. July 24. The First Connecticut' Jazz Fes¬ tival, which takes place this Satur¬ day (28) here, is getting radio cov¬ erage from the networks. Mutual is picking up the first half of the concert while ABC is oovering the latter portion. NBC’s “Monitor” show, meantime, is due to make five different pickups from the con¬ cert during the night. Voice of America is also picking up the fes¬ tival while WFUV-FM, Fordham U. station, is piping it over an FM network. Lineup for the concert, which is a benefit for the Connecticut Sym¬ phony orchestra, includes Duke El¬ lington, Chico Hamilton Quintet, Buck Clayton, Willie (The Lion) Smith, and others. Elling'on is due to receive plaque from the^ Inter¬ national Rescue Committee ‘for his work in promoting international good will. Sidney Gross, British disk jockey now residing in the U. S., who is organizing and emceeing the affair, has invited all the political big¬ wigs in Washington to attend the gig. The invitation was done in jive talk. The Bridgeport towns¬ people, meantime, are sparking the promotion with a big parade on the day of the festival. The Rocks Keep Rolling at R&R; Pittsburgh Is Latest Rioting Locale MR—40 Years Later Editor, Variety: Bronxville, N. Y. In this baffling biz of pre-gaug- ing buyer taste in pop songs there are three educated guesses that must mesh before the some 100 new songs per week shake down to the 40 or 50 a year that make it, which brings up the fascinating subject of r. & r. (Natch, the three guesses are 1: the writer’s, 2: the publisher’s, and 3: the ever-im- por’ant guess of the guy who lays out the musician’s dough and in sense really sticks out his neck, the a. & r. man.) Previously the big trick on a new song was to convince the singer or bandleader, who was the pipeline to the public for new tunes, but his importance as fortune-teller has now passed on to tbe jock who must please his listeners, hence probably has a hotter ear to the consumer-ground than anybody else. He gets the cards and let¬ ters and phone calls, which reflect (Continued on page 114) RETAIL DISK AND ALBUM BEST SELLERS - V&RIETY Survey o/ retail disk besi sellers based on reports ob tained from, leading stores in 21 cities and showing com¬ parative sales rating ror tnis and last week . National Rating This Last wk. wk. Artist, Label, Title PLATTERS. (Mercury) “My Prayer”. PAT BOONE (Dot) 4 “I Almost Lost My Mind” 10 8 DORIS DAY (Columbia) “Whatever Will Be, Will Be” 7 10 6 2 8 2 2 2 5_1 10 116 5 4 3 7 4 101 3 3 95 9 GOGI GRANT (Era) 1 “Wayward Wind” 3 10 10 1 1 81 MORRIS STOLOFF (Decca) “Moonglow-Picnic Theme”.. . 10 GENE VINCENT (Capitol) 6A 10 “Be-Bop-a-LuIa” . 2 8 ELVIS PRESLEY (Victor) “I Want You, I Need You”. 3 3 VIC DAMONE (Columbia) 7 “On the Street Where You Live”. PERRY COMO (Victor) “More” . FATS DOMINO (Imperial) “I’m In Love Again”. 10 14 7 CHORDETTES (Cadence) 10 “Born to Be With You”. . 10 12 12 PATTI PAGE (Mercury) “Allegheny Moon”.. 5 3 ELVIS PRESLEY (Victor) “Hound Dog”.. 10 8 14A 18 TERESA BREWER (Coral) “Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl”. 6 8 14B MITCH MILLER (Columbia) “Song for a Summer Night”. . 16 21 HUGO WINTERHALTER (Victor) “Canadian Sunset” . 65 _2_65 *5 57 55 7 38 9 35 '29 26 17 16 CADETS (Modern) “Stranded in the Jungle”. 10 18 18 JERRY VALE (Columbia) “You Don’t Know Me”_ 19A 15 GEORGE CATES (Coral) “Moonglow-Picnic Theme”. 14 19B LITTLE RICHARD (Specialty) “Ready Teddy”. AMES BROS. (Victor) 21A 25 “It Only Hurts for a Little While” 21B 22 CLYDE McPHATTER (Atlantic) “Treasure of Love”. PERRY COMO (Victor) 23A 13 “Glendora” . 10 10 B LITTLE WILLIE JOHN (King) 23B .. “Fever”. NELSON RIDDLE (Capitol) 2 3C_ “Proud Ones”. MY FAIR LADY 2 CALYPSO 3 KING AND I firoa<) Wa y Cast Marry Btlafont* Film Soundtrack 10 Columbia OL 5090 Victor LPM 1248 I EPA 1248 Capijol W 740 EAP 740 4 CAROUSEL Film Soundtrack Capitol W 694 EDM 694 MOST HAPPY FELLA EDDY DUCHIN STORY Broadway Cast Film Soundtrack Columbia OL 5118 Decca DL 8289 SONGS FOR SWINGING LOVERS Frank Sinatra Capitol W 653 EAP 653 ELVIS PRESLEY Elvis Presley Victor LPM 1254 EPB 1254 PICNIC Film Soundtrack Decca DL 8320 ED 846 10 OKLAHOMA! Film Soundtrack Capitol SAO 595 SDM 595 Pittsburgh, July 24. Rock ’n’ roll came in for plenty of official bombardment here in wake of engagement last week of “Top Record Stars of ’56,” the Carl Perkins-Cathy Carr-Al Hib- bler-Illinois Jacquet unit, at Syria Mosque. Robert Baltz, who runs local ticket agency and handled the booking here, had asked for 10 city policemen to patrol the pair of concerts, but 23 extra bluecoats had to be called out to preserve order. Eight teenagers were arrested as they milled about lawn of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall across the street from the Mosque after it looked as if a gang war might de¬ velop. Twin boys of 18 turned up at the concert drunk and were pinched before curtain time, and two 15-year-old girls were criminal¬ ly attacked by four youth who picked them up after the perform¬ ance. Couple of nights later, in a tv interview with Bill Burns over KDKA-TV, assistant police super¬ intendent Lawrence J. Maloney said that city would refuse to grant permits for any more r&r enter¬ tainments, but 24 hours after that backtracked when informed by le¬ gal department that this might be overstepping police authority. However, Maloney did insist that the issuance of okays would be regulated more rigidly. Trouble came on eve of conven¬ tion of Pennsylvania Chiefs of Po¬ lice Assn., and chiefs took official cognizance by going on record with the statement that rock ’n’ roll is “an incentive to teenage unrest.” In a pre-convention proclamation of the association’s juvenile de¬ linquency committee, Pittsburgh Inspector Fred Good said police “did not pretend to be music crit¬ ics or have a technical knowledge of beat and rhythm.” The commit¬ tee added: “Nevertheless, wherever there’s been teenage trouble late¬ ly, rock ’n’ roll has almost always been in the background. The songs are more suggestive than those sung ih burlesque houses and the rhythm seems, to have some special hypnotic'effect which has created ridiculous male hootchie-kootchie dancers.” Baltz, who has managed a flock of rock ’n’ roll shows Here this sea¬ son for outside promoters, defend¬ ed that type of entertainment. He said it was in vogue now at most of the district’s night clubs and that it is creating no problems there. Brit, TV Hypos London, July 24. . One of the by-products of Eng¬ land’s burgeoning video industry is the development of a new market for kiddie music. Up to very re¬ cently, this phase of the music biz was in the doldrums with the last hit being “I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat” several years ago. At the present time, however, there are several kiddie tv shows and since music is played, disk and publishing execs foresee an early spurt in the moppet market. The Philips record company has al¬ ready put some kidisks on the market and it’s expected that regu¬ lar releases, much like the U. S. disks, will be made for this field. Daily Departs Rochester; Successor Iannaccone Rochester, N. Y., July 24. Jack F. Dailey, quit last week as executive secretary of the Roches¬ ter Civic Music Assn., a post he had held since January, 1954. He’s heading south to become manager of the New Orleans Philharmonic- Symphony. Thomas S. Iannaccone will step into Dailey’s shoes Sept. 1.