Variety (January 1957)

42 music P%&TETy Wednesday, January 23, 1957 Bill Haley ’s ‘Rock’ Tops Holland Platter Bestsellers During 1 Amsterdam, Hoi., Jan. 22. Though platter sales are not made public in Holland, daily news¬ paper. De Telegraaf has made' an estimate of the records that had the biggest run in 1956. At the top is Bill Haley's “Rock Around The Clock," and ' in the second place, “La Panse," in versions sung by Renato Carasone, and Dutch singers Max van Praag, Truus Koopman and Maria Zamora. The Top 10: 1. Rock Around The Clock. Bill Haley Comets 2. La . Panse . ._ . Renato Carasone The Great Pretender ..... The Platters Heimweh . Freddy Whatever Will Be , . Doris Day The Records of . Johnny Jordaan Oh Johnny . . . . . .“Tante Leen" Mia Cara Carolina. .Van Wood Memorie Are Made Of This Dean Martin 8. Malle Vent Ja . Toby Rix 9. Arrivaderci Roma .Jo Stafford 10. Dixieland ..... The Butterflies “Malle Vent Ja” . is a comedy version of “Malaguena" by Dutch¬ man Toby Rix. The Butterflies are a male duo who had a big click with “Dixieland." Johnny Jor¬ daan is a Dutch singer who came up meteorically and already has sold 1,000,000 records, it’s reported. Elvis Presley has not yet made the top 10, but it may be expected that with the release of the 20thFox “Love Me Tender" the records from songs in that pic will lift him. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. ‘JAZZ A LA’ FAT $7,900 IN PORTLAND SINGLE Portland, Ore., Jan. 22. Irving Granz’ “Jazz a La Carte’ grabbed a nifty $7,900 in a eneniter concert at the Public Audi¬ torium last week (17). Layout in¬ cluded George Shearing Quintet, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Billie Holi¬ day, Stan Getz Quartet, and Shorty Rogers & The Giants. There was no window sale due to sudden’ cold weather. The 3,600-seater was scaled at $4.50. Zolly Volchock and Jack Engerman are bringing in “Rhythm & Blues" unit in March and “Birdland Show" in May. 9 Guy Mitchell, Torme, Eck, Geo. Lewis Dated in Brit. London, Jan. 15. Guy Mitchell — much in the pub¬ lic eye here through the success of his recording of “Singing the Blues" — will make a 10-day tour of Britain in February. He stars in Val Parnell’s “Sun¬ day Night at the London Palla¬ dium" on Feb. 10 and will appear in his own show for the ATV “Sat¬ urday Spectacular" series Feb. 16. He will also do some one-night con¬ cert appearances at 'leading Lon¬ don and provincial halls. Dates are set for Mel Torme and Billy Eckstine to return to Britain for variety tours during the sum¬ mer. Torme, who clicked big here, opens on July 22 and will re¬ main for about three months. Eck¬ stine will be coming here for the fourth consecutive year to play a 10-week season in variety, and will open Aug. 19. George Lewis, 56-year-old New Orleans clarinetist, is to tour Brit¬ ain March 10 to 24. He will oppear as a soloinstrumentalist with the local Ken Colyer Band supporting him. U.S. country & western disk sing¬ er Mitchell Torok is to start his British tour next month with a fortnight at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London, commencing Feb. 18. On the previous evening he will be seen in “Sunday Night at the London Palladium" on tv. Ray Lang’s Deccalypso Decca Records has hopped aboard the calypso bandwagon. Diskery last week cut some Carib bean-type tunes with a new singer, Ray Lang, who was backed by a calypso band from the JAmaican Room, an eastside spot. Tunes are “Last Train" and “Keetch." Omaha Windfall: $245 Omaha, Jan. 22 Number of dancehall per¬ mits in Omaha jumped from 83 to 85 in 1956, city figures reveal. The city’s tax takes thus in¬ creased from $5,031 to $5,276. Trim ASCAP’s ‘Hotel’ Coin Washington, Jan. 22. A bill that would shave ASCAP’s income was thrown into the Con¬ gressional hopper last week. Meas¬ ure provides that hotels playing disks or offering their guests radio and/or video programs shall not be held to be offering “public per¬ formances for profit." This bill runs counter to ASCAP’s efforts to widen its li¬ censing powers to include juke¬ boxes, which are now exempt ■, under the 1909 Copyright Act. 1 Legislation to this end has been I the subject of Congressional hear¬ ings for the past couple of years. I SEEK 'JAZZ AGE' TLAVOR Helen Morgan Biopic Will Have Old-Time ‘Bits’ Hollywood, Jan. 22. Warner Bros, is negotiating with a number of top names to lend “authentic" flavor to its “Jazz Age,” the biopic of Helen Morgan. Walter Winchell is already set for a running part in the picture. The studio is now negotiating with Rudy Vallee, Gilda Gray, the Duncan Sisters, Ray Bolger, Joe E. Brown, the Ritz Brothers, Jim¬ my McHugh (who was Miss Mor¬ gan’s accompanist), Jimmy Duran¬ te, ^ ' 'iGeorge Jessel, and Joe Frisco for small parts or musical num¬ bers. The picture stars Ann Blyth and Paul Newman starred. ’ ‘Straight Showtime’ ‘Waltz’ Out of ‘Toreadors’ Mills Musiq, is moving in on the showtune field via a " straight drama. Firm has acquired the title song of the Jean Anouilh (Lucienne Hill translation) play, “The Waltz of the Toreadors." Play opened on Broadway last week. Tune, penned by John Hotch¬ kiss, was acquired through arrange¬ ment with the British publishing house, Francis, Day & Hunter. The show stars Sir Ralph Richardson. A third all-Gershwin concert takes place March 9 at Carnegie Hall, N.Y. with Morton Gould on the stick and the Symphony of the Air playing. After expenses net goes to the Gershwin Memorial Foundation which operates an annual contest for young symphonic composers. Toledo Scale $3 to $9 For Peristyle Jazz Skein Toledo, O., Jan. 22. The 1,800-seat Peristyle, marblelined classical concert hall of the /Toledo Museum of Art, has book¬ ed a series of three jazz concerts, repeating a successful innovation of last year. Jimmy McPartland’s All-Star Six is booked for Feb. 1, with an added attraction the Rev.J Alvin Kershaw, $32,000 winner on the subject of jazz on the “$64,000 Question" tv program. Latter will appear as program commentator. The Billy Taylor Trio is set for March 6, and Louis Armstrong and orch for March 30. Series is scaled from $3 to $9, while single concerns are from $1.50 to $3.50. No single seats will be sold until all series orders are filled. ASCAP Gahs With | Roosevelt in D. C. Washington, Jan. 22. ! Herman Finkelstein, general counsel), and president Paul Cun¬ ningham, of ASCAP, conferred over the weekend with Rep. James Roosevelt (D., Cal.) about charges against the performing society’s method of distributing royalties to its members. Complaints were macle to Rep. Roosevelt about a week before that ASCAP discriminates a g a i n s t H younger composers and publishers. He was also told thatthe ASCAP method of voting was unfair. Chief beefs cpme from younger compos¬ ers in California. Roosevelt assured Finkelstein and Cunningham that he has not yet received specific, detailed com¬ plaints. If he receives them, he said, he’ll consider a probe by a Congressional committee and also a recommendation to, the Justice dept, to look into the matter. How¬ ever, he promised the ASCAP spokesman a full opportunity to present their side of the case. RETAIL DISK AND ALBUM BEST SELLERS PRriety Survey of retail disk best sellers based on reports ob¬ tained from leading stores in 21 cities and showing com¬ parative sales rating for this ■and last week . National Rating This Last wk. wk. Artist, Label, Title fc I s GUY MITCHELL (Columbia) 1 2 3 4 S . 6 7 8 9 10 CALYPSO MY FAIR LADY ELVIS KING AND 1 JERRY LEWiS EDDY DUCHIN OKLAHOMAI THIS IS BELAFONTE HIGH SOCIETY Harry Belafonta Broadway Cast Elvis Presley Film Soundtrack JUST SINGS STORY Film Soundtrack Film Soundtrack SINATRA Frank Sinatra Harry Belafonte Film Soundtrack Victor Capitol Jerry Lewis Capitol Capitol Victor Capitol LPM 1248 Columbia Victor W 740 Decca . Decca SAO 595 LPM 1150 EPA 1248 OL 5090 LPM 1382 EAP 740 DL 8410 \ DL 8289 SDM 595 T 768 EPA 1150 | W 750 o 6 O U o •3 *35 3 i IS % T * I 5 3 g O T A L 9 i P I 1 O I 1 p Seattl N T S 1 1 “Singing the Blues" . . 1 6 1 1 9 6 1 9 31 1 7 1 10 1 3 1 1 2 134 | 2 7 SONNY JAMES (Capitol) “Young Love" . . 4 2 1 3 2 1 1 8 3 1 84 3 11 TAB HUNTER (Dot) “Y.oung Love" . 3 1 7 1 1 3 1 2 7 .. m # 73 4 6 HARRY BELAFONTE (Victor) “The Banana Boat Song" . . 4 2 2 2 3 • 6 2 4 4 70 5 14 PAT BOONE (Dot) “Don’t Forbid Me" . 6 5 k 4 3 3 1 5 3 3 66 6 2 JIM LOWE (Dot) “The Green Door" . . 2 9 2 3 8 6 7 4 6 2 7 65 7 25 ELVIS" PRESLEY (Victor) “Too Much” . . . 1 3 1 2 5 5 1 6 64 8 9 FRANKIE LAINE (Columbia) “Moonlight Gambler" . . 8 4 4 9 8 2 5 3 6 6 P 5 63 9 5 CROSBY & KELLY (Capitol) “True Love" . 10 4 6 2 5 2' 8 40 10 16 FATS DOMINO (Imperial) “Blue Monday" . 4 8 8 3 5 7 7 7 39 11A 4 ELVIS PRESLEY (Victor) “Love Me Tender” . 7 6 ■■ 6 7 10 2 10 10 4 37 11B 3 FATS DOMINO (Imperial) “Blueberry Hill" . 3 7 7 6 7 8 5 8 37 13 12 TARRIEES (Glory) “The Banana Boat Song" . 5 8 5 4 4 6 34 14 8 JOHNNIE RAY (Columbia) “Just Walking in the Rain” . 9 5 10 3 2 9 8 _31 15 13 ELVIS PRESLEY (Victor) “Love Me" . . 10 5 10 .. .. 9 8 3 _27 16 23 HARRY BELAFONTE (Victor) “Jamaica Farewell” . 6 8 4 4 8 _25 17 15 JERRY LEWIS (Decca) “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby" . 5 6 10 8 4 _22 18 10 GEORGE HAMILTON 4TH (ABC-Par) “A Rose and a Baby Ruth" , . . . 10 4 6 _4_ _20 19 , 17 MICKEY & SYLVIA (Groove) “Love Is Strange" . . 3 9 5 8 _19 20A LaVERN BAKER (Atlantic) ' “Jim Dandy" . . 2 7 6 _18 20B CREW-CUTS (Mercury) “Young Love” . 2 2 _18 22 IVORY JOE HUNTER (Atlantic) “Since I Met You, Baby" . 4 7 9 10 _14 23A 18 EDDIE FISHER (Victor) “Cindy, Oh Cindy" . 9 5 9 _10 23B, 24 JOHNNIE RAY (Columbia) “You Don’t Owe Me a Thing" . 7" .. 5 9 9 _10 25 18 PATIENCE & PRUDENCE (Liberty) “Gonna Get Along Without You" . . 10 9 t . 6 8