COMMENT ON (73) SYLVESTER CROSS - CREST RECORDS and AMERICAN Q and A

Question left on comments :

Hey Wes,
Do you know what happened to Crest's catalogue? I'm trying to track the master license for the song "Primitive Love" by Tom Reeves.

Thanks,

Jullianne

Our Reply:

I have no idea where the whole Crest Catalogue is at this point. Sylvester Cross died about 1965 and his widow sold the catalogue to, I believe, Hill and Range in New York City. Crest was an in house label of American Music where I worked. Some things were, I believe, sold to Lawrence Welk's Vogue Music.

Jullianne, I think the thing to do is look for the copyright including Publishing Rights in the online BMI and ASCAP databases. These databases are not perfect and there is misinformation at times because Rights can be sold (people who were never songwriters but inherited songwriters rights are listed as songwriters). Also since song titles are not copyrightable, be aware that the song you want must be proven to have been performed by Tom Reeves.

Let us know what happens!

Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna