MEMORIAL DAY 2011 ELVIS PATRIOTIC TRILOGY

AMERICANS STILL INVADING EUROPE : GENE VINCENT 1963 in EUROPE THE AMERICANS STILL GOING TO EUROPE

Gene continued to do rock and roll his way, touring in Europe for some time.

(362) CRUSADER RECORDS 1964 BBJ RECORDS BIG BAD JOHN FISHER and TERRY STAFFORD and THE BEATLES

So, it's 1964 and the Beatles are dominating the charts. Who challenges them? An American named Terry Stafford, who, like Bobby Vee, (and me), recorded on Big Bad John Fisher's Crusader Records. JOHN FISHER was an LA Promoter and music producer with his own "in house" label. "Suspicion" was the song that stood its ground with the Beatles. A keyboardist named Bob Summers played on this record and helped make it a hit. Bob had a recording studio where he overdubbed the keyboards.

LINKING ABOVE TO AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE BY PAT DINIZIO about TERRY STAFFORD!



Terry's version came after Elvis'.



We want to thank YouTubers. We've been posting Thankyou's and Invitations to visit us on the YouTuber's comments, but have been having a bad time getting into our account there over the last month or so.

(361) DAVID GATES SONGWRITER ARRANGER PRODUCER

"We drove from club to club, three a night, auditioned for everybody until we finally got a job and got rolling again. And then on Saturday nights, after hours, musicians from all over the city would meet at a place called the Crossbow, in the Valley. It was at the Crossbow that I met guys like Steve Douglas, Glen Campbell, James Burton, Leon Russell, Chuck Blackwell, Jerry Cole. Slowly they were getting into recordings, mostly demo sessions, some union jobs. By jamming with these people, I got more work. All of a sudden, I was being asked to play on demo sessions and then on recordings." - David Gates

Linking here to David Gates - In His Own

(I liked Johnny Crawford's hit "Sandy" that David arranged.)

A session player who became a composer, singer-songwriter, arranger, and music producer, before he became an entertainer, DAVID GATES is certainly an underrated talent. His work appears on many record labels. We chose this YouTube video because he's credited in every role he played. GWENN STACY from 1964:

QUOTE FROM "LIFE" BY KEITH RICHARDS with JAMES FOX

KEITH RICHARDS "LIFE"
pages 766-767 Large Print version (Don't you just love that?!)

"Eventually I played with almost all the survivors among my childhood heroes, like JAMES BURTON, the EVERLYS, THE CRICKETS, MERLE HAGGARD, JOHN LEE HOOKER and GEORGE JONES, with whom I recorded "Say It's Not You." The award I was proud of was when Mick (Jagger) and I were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, because it was signed by Sammy Cahn on his deathbed. It took me years to appreciate just how great was the art of Tin Pan Alley writing - I used to dismiss it or it went straight through me. But when I became a songwriter I could appreciate the construction and the skill of those guys..."

KEITH RICHARDS with JAMES FOX
Little, Brown, and Company
C 2010 by Mindless Records, LLC

(360) DEMO TREASURE CHEST! DAVID GATES, LEON RUSSEL, GLEN CAMPBELL, and ME

Here's a demo or two I would love to find and hear again!

Pat Boone paid for the session time.
David Gates was the arranger.
I was the producer.
Leon Russel played piano.
Glen Campbell and I did two instrumentals together.

I sang on two songs which were "20 Acres of Land," and "I'm Such a Fool."

Auctioneers and collectors!?

(359) LONELY WEEKENDS A SONG MADE A HIT FIRST BY CHARLIE RICH, COVERED BY MANY, A SONGWRITER'S DREAM

It's a songwriter's dream to write a song that is recorded - and made a hit - by others - maybe many others. Today there's an emphasis on an artist writing and recording and making a hit of their own song or the songs of the entire band, but the COVER TUNE ERA HAS NEVER REALLY ENDED! Charlie Rich, who I met when touring the south, made this one a hit first.



The song was written by Charlie Rich himself, and ended up being covered by The Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, even Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers! Those song writing residuals keep coming in!



LINKING TO THE OFFICIAL CHARLIE RICH web site!

(358) BBJ RECORDS : MY VERSION OF LONELY WEEKENDS : WES BRYAN 1964

Produced by Charlie Underwood and Big John Fisher... in Los Angeles. Charlie Rich, who I met early in my career made the hit out of it. Charlie Underwood's studio was called NASHVILLE -WEST and it was the old Decca studio that Frank Sinatra used, near a restaurant called Nicodells on Melrose.

Anyone who was anybody was in that studio at some time in their careers.

(357) WES BRYAN TAKES A QUESTION : DID YOU COVER OTHER SONGWRITER'S SONGS ?

Yes, I did cover other songwriter's songs. I did so live while on tour in addition to the songs I recorded. I also did so in the studios for presentation but also for fun.

First of all, part of the singer-songwriter scene was sharing songs. We sometimes did demo records of other people's songs in the studios because we decided that my voice was a better fit for the song. I actually recorded a few songs that Elvis also performed in the studio for fun.

When I was on tour with Buddy Knox I covered a lot of the rock and roll hits of those days, also playing my own guitar. I covered a song Gene Vincent wrote and made famous, Be Bop A Lula, and the song Buddy Knox wrote for Jimmy Bowen, "I'm Sitckin With You." (Which Jimmy recorded on Roulette and got a Gold Record for.)

Wes

LA TIMES BOOK FAIR : TO MY SURPRISE A FRANK SINATRA COLLECTION : NORRIS HALL

Christine here : I'm the one who goes to the LA Times Book Fair every other year, and delights in the panel discussions and evidence all around that people love books and love to read. This year, while waiting to hear a panel discussion by memoirists at Norris Hall, on the University of Southern California campus, I was surprised to see a FRANK SINATRA memorabilia collection in the entrance foyer.

On one wall 13 Platinum and 20 Gold records! Also on site, statue, movie posters, artist representations (but is the artist of all those wonderful portraits of Frank in various roles really unknown?). I saw his Gold records while on REPRISE - his own label, and one that Wes' old friend Jimmy Bowen produced music for Frank on!

Also were his many Grammy (National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) awards, his Congressional God Medal from 1997, and his awards for 1956 and 1958 Favorite Male Artist (Disc Jockey Poll) and 1959 Most Played Vocalist.

So, while the early rock and rollers strove for innovation Frank was still a huge favorite. And he was the cover tune artist, the singer, who so many of those we write about were up against.

You don't have to go to a book fair, or any other special event to see this collection. Just head over to USC during school hours.

PIONEER GIRLS LEADERS HANDBOOK Quote on Friendship

"Joyfully will a friend hear the song in my heart and sing it to me when any memory fails."