Variety (May 1958)

MUSIC PVB&iETf Wednesday, May 14, 1958 Grand Awards European lies | . Enoch Light, exec veepee at y Grand Awaird Records, returned ; from a six-Week overseas trek With j a batch 0f European deals in his ! pocket.. Deeds, in the main, were ] for representation of-the GA line y in Europe. . * ! Among the tie-ins set up by. Light were Italy’s Fonti-Cetra.Germany’s J Bertes'mann, and Holland’s Rove- ? nia. In addition. Light also had ; confabs with Pathe Marconi execs, ■ Geoffrey Capstick, Jean-Paul Giii- • ter and F. Mirichin, with whom GA , has been working for the past two • years, which resulted in a plan for j expanded activity on the GA line. I Light also huddled width Hans Test- ■} reicher of Turicaphon in Switzer- i land to discuss plans for the forth- j cotnihg year. j In Belgium, Light met with W.! Goldschmidt, of An ve Ts Radio in] Brussels, on the expansion of busi-: ness in a predominantly EP mar- i ket. The recent ties made by Light in Eur.ope now give GA representa¬ tion in almost every country throughout the world. Randy Brooks’ Comeback Boston, May 13. After eight years of forced inac¬ tivity as the result of a paralytic Stroke, bandleader Randy Brooks is making a comeback. i Brooks reentered the musical | scene with a new dance band at Sanford, Me., week before last. What Makes Garner Better Than “The Most”? He can’t read music — never knows what key he’s playing in—doesn’t know' how to use the foot pedals and used to think Bach was a kind of beer! Yet Erroll Garner was not only voted the No. 1 jazz pianist by Down Beat, but even the classicists think he’s; he’s a genius! In this week’s Saturday Evening Post, you’ll get a close-up of this strange talent who spends $10,000 a year on phone calls,. loses brand-new cars anti often forgets all his clothes in a hotel room when he’s leaving town! f$KlEXl[ Scoreboard OF TOP TALENT AND TUNES Compiled from Statistical Reports of Distribution Encompassing the Three Major Outlets Coin Machines Retail Disks Retail Sheet Music as Published in the Current Issue NOTE: The current comparative sales strength of.the Artists and Tunes listed hereunder is arrived at under a statistical system', comprising each of the three major, sales' outlets enu¬ merated above.. These findings are correlated with data from wider sources, which are exclusive - with Variety. The positions: resulting from these findings denote the OVERALL IMPACT de¬ veloped from the ratio of points scored, two ways in the case of talent (coin machines, retail disks) and three ways in the case of tune* (coin machines, retail disks and retail sheet music). POSITIONS This Last . Week Week TALENT ARTIST AND LABEL EVERLY BROS. (Cadence) All I Have To Do Is Dreamt DAVID SEVILLE (Liberty). ....,........... Witch Doctor* PLATTERS (Mercury) . . ..., ...... ..... . . ... Twilight Timef DEAN MARTIN (Capitql) .. ...... . .......... Return To Me* LAURIE LONDON .(Capitol).... Whole World In His Hands* ELVIS. PRESLEY (Victor),.,.......,...,... Wear My Ringf ART & DOTTY TODD (Era)....... ........ ChansonD’Amour* CHUCK BERRY (Chess) Johnny B. Goodef PERRY COMO (Victor)r.... |5 atch . A _ F f,!i ing Star * ' / Kewpie Doll* PAT BOONE (Dot) .........'Si*® 3 !; 3V !°?^!. IT . V ■ . |Wonderful Time Up Theref POSITIONS This Last. Week Week TUNES PUBLISHER 4 tALLLHAVE TO DO I§ DREAM .................. ........ Acuff-Rose 1 * WITCH DOCTOR y...:... •.:. ., ■ ...... <.............. y Monarch 3 fTWILIGHT TIME ........... Porgie 2 * WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS .................. ......... ChappeU 5 ^RETURN TO ME .....,.......... ........................ Southern 6 ^CHANSON D’AMOUR ..... .. .... ............. . Meadow Lark 7 fWEAR MY RING .....;.......,......................... Rush-Presley *KEWPIE DOLL . • > - Leeds fTEQUILA *WHO:S SORRY NOW .... . ... ... ... (*ASCAP fBMl F-Films) Smathers Bill Hearing Continued..from page 41 — And you’ll learn why hi* * first piano teacher gave up on him, even though he was play¬ ing piano at the age of three— and why, today, he is com¬ pletely unaware of his extra¬ ordinary, $200,000-a-year tal¬ ent—all in "Man With Maglo Fingers,” the story of music’s fabulous Erroll Garner; INALL, 9 articht, 4 ttorh*, 2 totialt, many cartoon*. Get your copy todoyl I lie- s.d uril.n cuing jir■i M;i\ I7.pr.rt /7 A CURTIS MAGAZ1NI We're Headin' For HOT SPELL Fi’srre the Paramount Picture “HOT SPELL 5 Recorded by MARGARET WHITING DOT ERNIE FELiCE VICTOR FAMOUS MUSIC CORPORATION charged that passage of bill Would create an undue hardship for studios. The networks and the major rec¬ ord companies will also have their day on the witness stand next week; Richard Salant, v.p. CBS, and Joseph MacDonald, attorney for NBC, are slated to appear. In addition, Goddard Lieberson, prexy of Columbia Records, and George Marek. v.p. and general manager of RCA Records, will oppose bill. Last week’s hearings took an un¬ expected turn When Marlin Obie, v.p. and general manager of KWAD, Wadena, Minn., charged Sesac with “unfair tactics,” stat¬ ing this licensing company had ac¬ tually “threatened” his station. Up to this point. Sesac had been mentioned only in most cursory fashion. Obie, backing up his state¬ ments with similar one from about a dozen midwest and western broad¬ casters, said that Sesac extracted fees averaging $25-$40 per month for small stations, for music that was “extremely limited in quan¬ tity.” Raibourn claimed passage of bill would “bring about restrictions of a segment of American business which Is unwarranted and unnec¬ essary.” He added that, “In . the present , state of the motion picture industry, which is known to all,” adjunct sources of income, such as derived from Pairamount’s inter¬ ests in L.A» station KTLA, Dot Rec¬ ords, and Par’s two music publish¬ ing subsidiaries, Famous and Para¬ mount Music, were vital to com¬ pany’s existence. . The Paramount exec emphatical¬ ly stated that KTLA plays a pre¬ ponderance of ASCAP music, com¬ pared to BMI tunes, and that the number of Dot tunes played on the station were infinitesimal. Like all other anti-bill witnesses, he de¬ clared only public taste and de¬ mand, were considered in choice of music. Raibourn also pointed out that films and music were so inter¬ twined, that “many a motion pic¬ ture has been helped to success just because of the popularity of a song.” He cited “To Each His Own” and “Golden Earrings’’ as well as such hit tunes irom films as “Buttons and Bows” and “Cool of the Evening” as examples. . Elder declared that conditions of bill, would require his company to divest itself of its two music subsidiaries, Ampco Music and Pamco Music, even though it owned only 3,344 shares, or about 4 V 2 % of BMl’s total issue of 73,864 shares of stock. Otherwise' he added, it would have to sell its owned & operated stations. Charles Cowley, head of Muzak Corp., similarly requested amend¬ ment of bill so as “to clearly ex¬ empt from its provisions a back¬ ground music service such as ours.” At one stage of hearing, Sen. Pastore expressed grave concern about the recent riots in Boston. Mrs. Mae Axton,. Florida school- marm; and writer of r ’n’ r music, assured him. that the Uprise could not have been connected “in the slightest, degree” with. the music itself,. .Pastore questioned whether It. could be the mariner in which ; thje emcee (Alan Freed) “excites” the juvesy and Mrs. Axton pointed proudly, to the many r ’n’ r ses¬ sions sponsored by her school and others which served to “loosen the tensions”, of the youngsters, rather than stimulate them. . At one point, Seri. Pastore served notice on ASCAP that he would j Helen Meyers j — Continued from pass (S aa j It soon became evident that it was j without teeth to enforce a sup- | posed system of fines for payolas. ! She also credits Variety for coin- : ing the payola term itself, also disk i jockey and other identifications j which have become brass-accepted. 1 The history of Nathan Burkari [and Victor Herbert in the forma- ition of ASCAP is compared with : the 1940 creation of BMI. Sbe j compares Broadcast Music Inc. at- ' torney Sidney M. Kaye' with Bur- | kart for astuteness and strategy. ■ The payoffs by each performing : rights society are stated in broad J terms, also their respective merits. The author has organized her i book with somewhat whimsical j chapter headings. Thus The Trail fpioneer days of Tin Pan Alley) leads into The Road (Chapter 2) and The Alley (Chapter 3). The Big Plug; the Big Change the Wire ... and Haywire;" “They’re Playing Our Song”—ASCAP and BMI; Tempo Fidgets; “Pop” Goes to School (educational pop music and “building a standard”); D. J* Plus A. & R. Equal'YLP.; Payola!; Copyrights, Copycats and Con Men; A Songwriter Has Two Heads; A Publisher Wears Three Hats; and Hits Aren’t Made ... They Hap¬ pen, are the respective chapter headings and each speaks succinct¬ ly for the subjects covered. There is. also an index. require an explanation of Mrs. Ax- ton’s charges that, at beginning of her songwriting career, she bad written two letters to ASCAP, In¬ quiring about membership, but had received no answer. Mills on top with . . XgSffk • -.0^® X MILLS MUSIC, INC —j ContlnuRd from 41 — ficial program to greet the opera¬ tors and express hope for an “early and amicable resolution of our dif¬ ferences.” Miller implied a David-Goliath contest on the issue of performance fees. He said MOA operates for a year on $75,000, contrasting this with ASCAP expenditures last year, according to him, of $400,000 in legal fees and over $151,000 for miscellaneous. Atty. Nicholas Allen, MOA’s new counsel, said , performance fees would be an “onerous burden” that would “break the industry’s back.” Replying to “free ride” charges from the opposition, tie pointed out that ASCAP receives, nothing front I the motion picture industry either. Miller noted that ops are willing to pay more in mechanical royal¬ ties than the 2c. a record side they’re now charged. Passage of the bill, Allen as¬ serted, would eliminate many operators, and would also result, in raising the pfice-per-play. •. There j wasn’t a demurring sojund in the general meetings room when the lawyer added that coin. machines provide lots of “high quality” en¬ tertainment for teenagers. Miller, who testified with other MOA’ers two weeks ago before Sen. O’Mahoney* s subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights, questioned how such hearings could be impartial if their chair¬ man and the bill’s author were one and the same. He sounded pes¬ simistic about the Capitol Hill trip, saying, “We felt we were talking to a wall—to closed ears.” WMCA’S HERB OSCAR ANDERSON wishes the best success to FRANKIE RECORDS and a new star JOHNNY JACKSON "HE WAS A GOOD MAN" b/w "HEY YOU" FRANKIE RECORDS Hartford-N. Y. ADDISON AMOR-Gea. Mgr. 233 E. 32d St. New York 16. New York Di's pitas* call coll ft MU 6-1786