FABIAN was hot and we were happy to place a song with him!
Recently we saw that this record, a promo copy and the LONDON -AMERICAN record put out in England were up for auction, and more, it finally showed up on Youtube!
Additional Notes March 23, 2011 Wes said, "Jimmy Bowen and I wrote "Break Down and Cry" with Frankie Avalon watching ... but we had Pat Boone in mind for this hit... Pat had just taken over the management of Fabian, and Jack Spena at Pat's company had also taken over Fabian management... "Break Down and Cry" was a strong song... Pat Boone felt it would fit Fabian better."
JIMMY BOWEN figures in my story from way back. I met Jimmy Bowen while he was passing through Akron, Ohio. He took me to a record hop there, where my first record was played. It was a record I home made in Winston-Salem without a label so it could not be played on the radio legally.
Jimmy Bowen and Buddy Knox had a group called The Rhythm Orchids. (They started out wearing light purple shirts when they played!) Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen were both Texas boys. Jimmy played a stand up bass, an instrument that featured in early rock and roll but soon disappeared from road performances.
Eventually I would perform with Jimmy on the road while on Roulette Records. I was on the Buddy Knox tour but I would occasionally meet up with Jimmy's tour.
The two of us showed up to work at American Music in Los Angeles. The two of us wrote some songs together... including "Break Down and Cry" which was recorded by Fabianand "Don't Stay Away" which was recorded by Jerry Fuller.
We're linking here to CMT (COUNTRY MUSIC) pages for Jimmy Bowen who has been recording with the band SANTA FE - back to his roots in music! And the next few videos will be a little Jimmy Bowen music festival!
My old friend from New York, Fabian (Fabian Forte), recorded a song that Jimmy Bowen and I wrote called "Break Down and Cry" and it was a hit for him! Pat Boone and Randy Wood (Dot was his label) were the producers.He recorded it as a 45 RPM single on Dot Records in 1962 (number 45-16413).
Then the song was recorded as a single on Chancellor (Number 16413).
Link now to Fabians official web site where you can find a link to his fan club by clicking on the title above!
Like many of my peers he has continued to sing his heart out, entertaining generations of Rock n' Roll fans!
He's been inducted into the Philadelphia Music Hall of Fame too. What a great contribution to music the sons and daughters of that city have made to American music!
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.
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:
Cliff Richard is one of those British artists who has been made a Sir by the Queen, like Paul McCartney and Elton John, for his achievements in the music business. His backing band in the late 1950's and early 1960's was called The Shadows and in the early 1960's he was running on the British charts before the Beatles.
Though Cliff Richards was considered to be "The British Elvis" and has had a career that spans decades and is still performing today, for some reason he never caught on in the United States and has remained a British phenomenon. Mysterious indeed! Because Cliff has sold singles and albums - millions - just like Elvis.
Could it be that because we Americans had Elvis we didn't need Cliff too?
Of course Cliff has an official site!Link above! He's very near 50 years of success!
My friend Fabian Forte put out six singles in 1961 that didn't make the top 100 on the music charts. His music career was on the wane with album sales in 1960 also failing. But Fabian still made the cover of Teen Magazine that October and when things looked down for him musically, acting picked up for him. That was the beauty of being a "singing-acting sensation" as I had once been groomed to be myself.
OFFICIAL FABIAN SITE LINK ABOVE - UPDATED MARCH 2011
Would Elvis would put on a suit and become a crooner like Bobby Darin and Fabian, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra?
Well, the answer to that seemed to be yes - and no. The American public did get to see Elvis on TV suited up. Frank Sinatra had a television special that introduced this new mature Elvis, a man who, I knew, was continuing to exercise his voice and singing capabilities to sound like the American tenor Mario Lanza. (His inspiration for the way he sang on "It's Now or Never.") Elvis's facial expressions and restrained but ever-Elvis body language communicated that beneath that straight suit he was still nothin but a hound dog!
To be sure Colonel Parker had as many members of the Elvis Presley Fan Club in the audience as he could get, and they out did the applause Frank got too.
Interestingly, the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra's entourage) was there, all but for Dean Martin, the one Elvis liked the most.
Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy, looking like a prom queen, not yet hip, and with her naturally not yet blonde blonde hair, made an appearance on the show, which had the highest ratings for the evening.
After being there for Elvis return to Memphis, I got back on the Buddy Knox tour, and was in New York City watching the show with a friend of mine, the country boy George Hamilton the IV. He was in our home state of North Carolina and we stayed on the telephone long distance with each other, comparing notes about Elvis' performance and the entire show. We agreed, Elvis sounded better than ever.
Here's a couple You Tube videos of Elvis on the "Frank Sinatra Special" which also got called the "Welcome Home Elvis" special which was broadcast live from Miami Beach, Florida, and sponsored by Timex, the watch company.
In this first You Tube video, Frank performs a tune - written for the show - about the army. This video includes Nancy Sinatra, Joey Bishop (he just died a day or so ago at 89!), and Sammy Davis Jr. Elvis walks onto the stage in his army uniform. This may just be the set up Colonel Parker needed to route Elvis Presley back to Las Vegas eventually but at this point Parker is going to use Elvis' military background to his advantage. And my friend Elvis was always a patriotic American, proud of his military service, and one for the veterans of this great country, so believe me, Elvis didn't mind one iota.
Elvis and Frank share songs but who are the girls screaming for? You can put Elvis is a suit but you can't take the Elvis out of him!
So Elvis was worried about Waylon Jennings and Fabian, and personally I think it was his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who decided it was best for Elvis to show his versatility by going more crooner than country.
Then again, Elvis may have seen that Bobby Darin was also making a move towards crooner with his success with "Mac the Knife" in 1959. It was the number one record in 1959 in the United States and in Great Britian!
Here's a You Tube presentation of Bobby Darin doing Mac, another suited up Rock and Roller, going the way of the Frank Sinatra "Rat Pack."
No matter what direction Elvis took musically, he would never give up singing Gospel music.
Elvis confided in me that he was worried about his career. "Music's changin' Wes," he said. He was worried about two men... Fabian Forte, called Fabian, an Italian kid from Phili, younger than Elvis, was a big worry for him.
Fabian was a friend of mine from New York. He was part of the "in crowd," an all for one and one for all guy I spent time with who had encouraged me to move ahead in my career by leaving United Artists, just as several other musical peers had. Fabian had seemingly captured a great number of Elvis Presley fans while Elvis was away in Germany, record releases or magazine and newspaper articles about Elvis or not. Fans could not wait to see their idol, Elvis, on television again, and it had been communicated to Elvis that it might be Fabian who had taken what we would call today his "market share."
Perhaps Fabian was also on Elvis' mind because he had the attention of Dean Martin, and Dean Martin was someone Elvis admired, imitated in his youth, and wanted to meet. Dean Martin did not seem to share the same enthusiasm for Elvis, but he liked Fabian! He had Fabian on his show, singing with him. Maybe Fabian was even Dean Martin's protege?
Now as you watch these You-Tube presentations, I want you to notice how Fabian is dressed in a suit, presented as a sort of young Dean Martin, a crooner. Fabian is younger than Elvis, handsome, and talented, and he fits in his tailored suit.
An early Fabian singing "Turn Me Loose" in his early, Rock and Roll personae. Cliff Richard, "The English Elvis" also covered this song, complete with Elvis-like sneers. Fabian had a hit with "Turn Me Loose," which came out as a single on Chancellor Records.
Fabian wasn't objecting to becoming a crooner. Should Elvis? Is Fabian Dean Martin's protege? Fabian singing "All of Me" seems to be part of Frank Sinatra's "Rat Pack" here!
UPDATED JANUARY 26, 2011 NEW LINK TO FABIAN's OFFICIAL SITE above!
I played live at record hops, accompanying myself on a guitar, and when I was on television performing, I sang either live or along with a recording. I never just lip sync-ed (silently moved my lips) to a tune and as a result I kept my voice honed. Having to perform live, with no technology to cover your mistakes, meant having to be your best at all times. There was no slacking off. Touring was grueling and I often suffered from sleep deprivation, but being your best at all times also meant clean living. Though years later I would realize that some of my peers had begun to take drugs to keep going, for the most part the ones I associated with at the time kept drinking to a minimum and relied on their youthful energy to keep going!
I had lost all shyness of performing. I was better than ever! My confidence had grown as I traveled and met people all around the country and from all walks of life. I felt myself to be part of the vital New York music scene too. I had begun writing songs and presenting them to my peers. Besides my own hit songs, I performed many of the popular Rockabilly and early Rock and Roll songs of my era.
In the summer of 1958, on the United Artists record label, I put out another single. This one had "Wait for Me Baby," on one side, and a song called "Freeze," on the other.
Once again I made an appearance on Dick Clark's American Bandstand television show, performing "Freeze." It seemed that my first appearance on Dick Clark's, singing "Tiny Spaceman," with a prop flying saucer going around my head, had been an eon ago - when it had been a bit more than a year.
Now "Freeze" was meant to be a record hop - dance party tune. When I sang the word "freeze!" the kids on the dance floor would stop for a moment wherever they were. It was like vogue-ing, late 1950's style. The song started a bit of dance craze around the nation!
(My writing partner, Christine, has a memory of learning this dance as a kid. She says a neighbor's mom owned an old copy and her friends played the record while they ran through the lawn sprinklers! Their idea was to stick someone else in the sprinkler for a moment at freeze!)
Now at this point Elvis Presley was over in Germany in the United States Army. He had the opportunity to be part of Special Services and spend his time there as an entertainer but Elvis (some say Colonel Tom Parker chose this for him) chose to be regular army. Elvis was granted the privilege of living off base and rented a house over there, and he had some of his favorite companions come over there to keep him company including Cliff Gleaves, the hep cat DJ, who clicked his fingers and joked "We have James Dean in the car with us," about me. Officially autographing was kept to an hour or so every day, when Elvis was in residence.
I, like just about everyone else, kept reading the fan magazines, to keep up on Elvis, but also to keep up on the competition. Frankie Avalon - Fabian - Pat Boone. Meanwhile Elvis kept up on us. He was very worried about Fabian as his competition. He had magazines, demo-records, the top 40, and even movies brought over so he wouldn't loose touch with what was happening in the United States.
Frankie Avalon was a friend of mine in New York. His dad came to town from Philadelphia to visit and we all went out to dinner. Despite my success with "Freeze!" Frankie was one of my singer-songwriter peers - and another fellow who was being marketed as a "Singing-Acting Sensation" - who urged me to consider changing labels. Believe it or not, I too was up for the parts he got as a beach boy! Frankie, Buddy Knox, and some others, felt that I could be doing more with my career, even as the whole Next James Dean promotion continued to propel me forwards. They felt that United Artists Records was just too new at the music business and as for my acting career - well, it had stalled out for reasons I can't reveal here - but it was stalled.
Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's manager, had enough records to put out while Elvis was in Germany to keep the fans thinking of - and buying - Elvis. Throughout Elvis' time in Germany he and I passed hellos and good wishes through people we knew in common. I think we were all waiting to see what would happen when Elvis returned to the States.
I've earned 8 Gold Records in my career, my first as the performer, the rest as a songwriter. I've been the writer or co-writer of over 800 songs. I've had an uncommon life and now I'm writing about it.
WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC is a labor of love rooted in our excitement about our subject.
FABIAN was hot and we were happy to place a song with him!
