SPRING 2009 BEGINS and We're Going On VACATION!

Friends, we are taking off for a couple weeks as spring begins. If you've arrived here at WES BRYAN- MY LIFE IN MUSIC during this time, please use this time to check out previous blogs or follow links to the artists you're most interested in or click on our Youtube station to the left and listen to the sound track of my life time!

Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna

ELVIS 1962 SHE'S NOT YOU Recorded in 1962 on this date!

Elvis You Tube video of "Shes Not You" recorded March 19, 1962 according to this Elvis fan YouTuber!

(241) ERSEL HICKEY on APOLLO

So Ersel stayed in New York, and continued to write songs and record and perform. One time, years later Johnny Rivers and I were talking, and Johnny said, "Ersel was like the original Punk Rocker!" Well, maybe not quite, but in his pose he was.

Here's the Rockin' Country Style discography for Ersel:
http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/h/hick1000.htm

You'll notice that in 1962 two of his songs were considered to be ROCKABILLY. "Upside Down Love" and "The Millionaire"

Terry Gorden over at RCS has listed the Apollo Label as founded in New York in 1942 by Ike and Bess Berman. As you know, if you've been reading WES BRYAN- MY LIFE IN MUSIC, small labels were often regional and many of us from that era recorded over time on several.

From JOHN LENNON by PHILIP NORMAN : ROULETTE RECORDS's MORRIS LEVY

quotes from pages 745-746 hardback edition of Philip Norman's JOHN LENNON biography...

Christine Trzyna here.

In WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC, we've mentioned a number of early rock and roll managers. One of them is Morris Levy, who both Wes Bryan and Buddy Knox had dealings with in the late 1950's and early 1960's. At they time he was the Roulette Records guy. In this book we learn that Morris Levy also had a deal with John Lennon. In 1975 John still owed Morris an album.

"To show that he and his band were not slipping back into old L.A. ways, he (John Lennon) broke an iron rule and sent Levy several tracks in a rough mix. But, tired of waiting around for his royalty cut, the Octopus issued the unfinished tracks as an album on his own Adam VIII label, titling it Roots:John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits, jacketing it with a garish head shot from the Let it Be Era and marketing it as a cheap-shot TV special offer. The result was a second round of litigating, with Levy suing John for defaulting on the judgement from their earlier court case and John counter suing for release of inferior product under his name without his authorization.'

"... On the witness stand, according to Bob Gruen, "John had to explain why a rough-mix tape was not meant to be sold on the market, and he ...described the difference between that and a final mix and how it was made.... He was incredibly clear and coherent and I remember thinking, if I was a musician this was the best description I could possible have."

John Lennon was awarded more than $144,700 and succeeded in having the Adam VIII compilation withdrawn from sale.

"Rush released before too many TV viewers could send their money to Morris Levy, John's fully mixed album was entitled simply Rock and Roll. Buyers who were expecting a straight nostalgia trip in the current mode were in for a surprise. Some of the tracks, like Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sure" and gene Vincents "Be Bop-a Lula," certainly were just as he used to play them with the Quarrymen and first -draft Beatles in Liverpool and Hamburg. Others, like Bobby Freeman's "Do you Want to Dance?" and Larry Williams, "Bony Maronie" were slowed down almost beyond recognition; Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen," seemed to have collided with the Coasters' "Little Egypt," while "You Cant' Catch Me" sounded like the Beatles "Come Together"....

TRIBUTE TO JAMES DEAN - THE ORIGINAL REBEL - USING THE CRYSTALS' HE'S A REBEL

James Dean - THE ORIGINAL REBEL...

(240) LIFE IN HOLLYWOOD RECORDING STUDIOS

In 1962 I was living in Hollywood, not far from all the famous haunts. My brother was living with me. But as I maybe mentioned before, an exodus of New Yorkers came out to Los Angeles, including Johnny Rivers, who stayed with us for a time. Ersel Hickey was the one who had too much New York in him to come out this way.

Hollywood was laid back, easy going compared to New York. The people in the business were generous with their time and referrals. I tried to be the same way.

Working for American Music, I ran into another New Yorker I knew from the east, music producer Phil Spector. He would use the big studio - A, where he perfected his "Wall of Sound" at Goldstar, while I used the small studio - B, there. Dave Gold and Stan Ross owned Goldstar and it was one of the best.

Use the search feature of this blog to read about Phil Spector and our blog called GOLDSTAR - THE LUCKY STUDIO!

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ALICE WALKER Quote on Friendship

"No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow." - Alice Walker

(239) PETER PAUL AND MARY DEBUT 1962

Here they are, the great Peter, Paul, and Mary, the trio who debuted about 1962, singing "Early In The Morning." "If I Had a Hammer" was about a year away.

If you'll click on the title above, you'll get to a great site Peter, Paul, and Mary. This site is theirs and features links with updates on what Noel Paul Stookey, Mary Travers, and Peter Yarrow are up to now... Folk singers and social activists for peace, they were almost ahead of their time. And we loved their vocal qualities...

video replaced March 2013

(238) 1962 BOBBY DENTON - CHANCELLOR COUNTRY RECORDS - I GUESS I'M STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU

Jimmy Bowen, who I first met in Akron, Ohio, and then performed with on Roulette Record promotional tours at dance hall venues, and I wrote "I Guess I'm Still In Love with You." Jimmy was one of my first advocates, taking me and the first demo I ever pressed - in a kitchen in North Carolina - to the local DJ in Akron. Jimmy became a big producer working for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label and bringing both Frank and Dean Martin hits in the early 1960's.

The song did well in the country market when it was put out by Chancellor Records, Bob Marcucci's Label in 1962.

Here's the RCS Discography for Chancellor Country Records out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadephia was so important to music at the time, bringing so many talents including Frankie Avalon and the Dick Clark American Band Stand show to America. My friends Fabian and Johnny Rivers also recorded on Chancellor.

http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/labels/c/c2818.htm

Chancellor also had a label that didn't focus on country. Here's a list of recordings and you see that Frankie Avalon and some other artists we've mentioned on this blog are listed:

http://www.globaldogproductions.info/c/chancellor.html

Check out our previous blogs on Bobby Denton, The Singing Senator, using the search feature of this blog or check out the links to the left!

ANONYMOUS Quote on Friendship

"Good friends are like angels. You don't have to see them to know they are there." - Anonymous