(237) PRICING OLD RECORDS

If you're buying an old record from an e-Bay or other auction Internet site, or a record collector's store, you may wonder how a fare price is achieved. Of course, how much the buyer wants the record and is willing to pay is the most important thing. Here are some things to consider.

First of all the most difficult thing to find is the MASTER recording, which is the recording records were pressed from.

Then, DJ copies are the most rare. That's because these records were pressed to go out to a limited number of radio stations and DJs in comparison with the numbers pressed for initial sales, and in response to selling.

There may have been very few pressed, just for a region that a label did most business in. There may have been a few thousand pressed and sent out across the country, or to England to radio stations. Sometimes the version of the song, based on response to this pressing, was changed in the final press. This is like when advance- copies of a book are sent out pre-publication, trying to generate some press.

Then there is how many records were made which is of course is linked into how they sold. Just as with a best-selling novel, you're bound to find copies of Gold Records at garage sales and thrift stores, because so many were originally made.

With time, of course, records are worn out, or thrown out, or destroyed. So the number of records out there is really an unknown.

Last but not least is the quality of the recording - the condition of the plastic all these years later. Mint is usually a barely or never played record - no visible or audible scratches or skips. A record in a jukebox usually got hundreds of playings. How do you know? You have to play it. Like today's CDs sometimes a problem with the sound quality isn't readily visible.

Condition and the existence of original paper jacket, especially if it remains in cellophane or plastic, are also important. So if you find a mint condition copy of "Lonesome Love"/"Tiny Spaceman" in it's original color jacket, it's valuable. How valuable? Well, that was the VERY FIRST COLOR JACKET ON A 45 RPM record ever. (Elvis' was the second!)

Wes and Christine

RCS DISCOGRAPHY - WE LOVE THIS SITE!

We are so lucky to have a great resource like RCS discography on the Internet.

This volunteer project is a real labor of love and ROCKIN COUNTRY STYLE DISCOGRAPHY was probably the first Internet site to list me, WES BRYAN, which got us interested and then hooked.

We're talking here about early Rock and Roll - Rockabilly- Rockin Country Style and one of the most fascinating things about that era was that it was the time of small regional labels.

So using the LABEL search feature we can go right to them and see who they were recording, hear sound samples, get profiles and pictures in some cases.Now folks, RCS can't take donations as things are set up, but you can always express your appreciation in other ways.

Using the GEOGRAPHICAL search is a fascinating way to see what SMALL LABELS existed and who recorded on them. Elvis Presley and so many others walked into Sun Records in Memphis to produce a recording - vanity or low budget. Other Rockabilly and Country artists to be were doing so all over America in smaller towns and markets. Go to the state and the town/label and give a listen to a local hopeful giving it their all! You can also use the RCS LABEL search to see who was recording at Sun besides Elvis and get a feel for the body of work from a particular studio.

CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO GET TOTHE RCS MAIN PAGE ! AND MAYBE DO A SEARCH FOR AN ARTIST, like CLIFF GLEAVES!

(We'll be looking at the 1962 Rockabilly Chart soon!)

(236) MY BROTHER GERALD, A BROTHER AND BEST FRIEND

My older brother Gerald came out to live with me in Hollywood in the early 1960's. He wanted to give city life a try. I took Gerald up to meet Elvis, who welcomed him like - well, like a brother. He said "Gerald's just like my cousins - country!"

Gerald decided, just because he loved me and was proud of me, to do his part to make me a success. He started visiting restaurants and bars that had jukeboxes, and with my latest record in hand, would sell the managers on the idea of trading out one of their old tunes for mine. Gerald would slip the record into the jukebox for them. Very accommodating! He went all over Los Angeles - San Bernadino, sometimes with our friend Pete Tambunga along for the fun. Gerald was my pitch man and he loved (and loves) music. Yes, especially, country music.

Gerald made some friends of his own. One of his best friends was the comic stage magician Jim Carazini, otherwise known as The Great Carazini. Jim did a lot of television, including the Johnny Carson Show, where he smoked cigarettes turned inside his mouth and blew smoke out into a spoon. Jim and Pete were two people that Gerald and I thought of as a hell of a lot of fun to have around.

GERALD I LOVE YOU!

Wes

(235) "YOU'RE DRIVING ME OUT OF YOUR MIND!" PETE TAMBUMGA

"You're driving me out of your mind," was just one TAMBUNGAISM invented by my good friend Pete Tambunga. He was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Hollywood in the early 1960's. Pete worked for Decca Records in their plant in Santa Monica - the shipping department. But this was the start of a great career in the music business for Pete as a record promoter. He'd eventually work for the record company that signed me as their first act, United Artists!

Pete's sense of humor was based in "Reverse Psychology." Today I miss him greatly and continue to use his jokes, just as the great radio DJ Gary Owens did on the air.

Some months ago we put the call out for Pete Tambunga. If Pete or anyone else knows Pete's whereabouts, please e-mail us at:

wewritethebook@yahoo.com!

Wes

MELODIE D'AMOUR LISTEN TO IT ON EBAY NOW

No friends, I'm not selling my personal record collection on e-bay. This seller has it rigged up that when you go to their auction you get to hear me sing, so click on the title above if you're interested and once there click on the record icon! (This is a picture of the flip side - another song I wrote! - called I GUESS I'LL NEVER KNOW!)

From MC CARTNEY by CHRISTOPHER SANFORD

McCARTNEY by CHRISTOPHER SANFORD
page 150 of the hardback...


"Back in the old days, even John (Lennon) had been forced to concede that McCartney, unlike him, could pull off brilliant impersonations of high-octane Fifties rock 'n' rollers. And Paul was still a chameleon, or liked to portray himself as one. The first thing he did each afternoon when he arrived in the studio was to warm up by hollering two or three Little Richard and Buddy Holly hits, then casually switch to Dean Martin mode. Once or twice, he succumbed, to the charms of "That's Amore." McCartney's vocal on Lady Madonna was a particularly rich, unpigeonholable mishmash - Memphis-cum-high Vegas, with funk and soul and boogie-woogie all showing up for the party. It was Elvis with a sense of irony.


Book is C 2006 Christopher Sanford

published by Carrol and Graf Publishers,
an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group, New York

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT Quote on Friendship

"Stay" is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary." - Louise May Alcott

WES BRYAN ON YOU TUBE ANYONE ?

If anyone has any videos of Wes Bryan performing, we would love to see them. Most likely these would be television performances from 1957 to 1961.

Wes Bryan performed on The Ed Sullivan Show (New York), Dick Clark American Bandstand (Philadelphia), performing "Little Spaceman" in 1957 and about a year or so later, performing "Freeze," Wink Martindale Show (Memphis - and later Los Angeles), Dewey Phillips Dance Party (in Memphis), Milt Grant Show (Washington, DC.),Phil McClain Show (Cleveland, Ohio), co-staring Joann Campbell, Buddy Deane Show (Baltimore), Fran Rattery Show (Saint Petersburg, Florida), Jack Parr Show (New York), WCOP Wink Martindale Show (Los Angeles), Bob Roberts Show (Albany, New York WABY), and many others throughout the United States.

In the late 1950's and into 1960 Wes Bryan performed on many radio programs live, throughout the country, including his hometown of Murphy, North Carolina, as well.

Wes performed live for two years on the road with Rockabilly Star Buddy Knox's road tour, as a separate act. They played in 47 states. He also performed while on Roulette Records with Jimmy Bowen at dance party venues.

Christine Trzyna

(234) THE CRICKETS (WITHOUT BUDDY HOLLY) 1962

The Crickets, without Buddy Holly, did go on for some time. I'd recorded with the Cricket's left behind while I was in Texas, Norman Petty the producer. I was shocked by the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, who I had met in New York.

Now if you search for Buddy Holly using the search feature of this Google blogger, you'll read a three part story we wrote about the Day The Music Died...

THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (on the Youtube presentation below) is another of the Cricket's songs. They're moving towards surf music and away from Bobby Darin's "Splish Splash" in a tub!

(233) TAB HUNTER - MY COMPETITION ONCE UPON A TIME !

Tab Hunter was another young Rock and Roll star, a contemporary of mine, Ersel Hickey, Buddy Knox, and several others, who was getting his clothes torn off my female fans. Tab had the hit "Young Love," about the time I had "Freeze." Dick Clayton, a famous Hollywood agent, was handling Tab. They're still friends. Tab and my friend Christine White, who had been such a great friend of James Dean's, were also friends. Christine eventually introduced me to Dick Clayton suggesting he be my new agent as well !

Here is a YouTube video in which Tab, who is now also a successful author, tells his own story...



Tab was at the UCLA book fair a couple years ago with his great autobiography. We read it!

CLICK ON THE TITLE to link to the official TAB HUNTER WEB SITE and a bit about his book.

BUDDY KNOX BUDDY HOLLY TRIBUTE I NAMED MY LITTLE GIRL HOLLY

Buddy Knox wrote this tribute to Buddy Holly....

ORIGINAL VIDEO of Buddy Knox singing this son on this blog REPLACED May 26 2010 with this tribute.

(232) AN AIRPLANE HAS CRASHED - IN IT BUDDY HOLLY, THE BIG BOPPER, and RITCHIE VALENS

On February 3, 1959, Buddy Knox and I were traveling on tour. We were both on Roulette Records by then.

After a late night we got up and went to breakfast. I ran to get the newspaper and was shocked to see the headline.

Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson also known as JP), and Ritchie Valens had been killed in a plane crash. The three men had been trying to make time on their own road tour.

Now Paul McCartney owns the Buddy Holly music catalogue and there's a musical about Buddy in Australia.

CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO GET TO THE LINK ABOUT THE MUSICAL. And check out our previous blogs on the impact of this plane crash by using the search feature of this blog above!