S LINKS UPDATED and NEIL SEDAKA - SONGWRITER!

We checked around and we believe something close to a KEELY SMITH - the SINGER - official web site is in the works! 

NEIL SEDAKA - One of the singer-songwriters I met in the Brill Building when I first went to New York City about the same time I met Bobby Darin who was recording demos there. 

 

JIM MORRISON TRIVIA : HIS FAVORITE SINGER WAS ELVIS

According to the film WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE, a film about the Doors by Tom DiCillo,  Jim Morrison's favorite singer was Elvis.  Towards the end of Jim's career, he had switched his affiliation to FRANK SINATRA! 

When You're Strange is  C 2010

FRANK SINATRA Quote on Friendship

"A friend is never an imposition." - Frank Sinatra

FRANK SINATRA : FROM CAPITOL RECORDS TO WARNER AND HIS OWN LABLE : REPRISE :FROM OUR ARCHIVES

Post (416) FRANK SINATRA : FROM CAPITOL RECORDS TO WARNER AND HIS OWN LABLE : REPRISE

Capitol Records was probably the hottest big record label by 1965 other than RCA, Elvis' label. Capitol had the Beatles and Glen Campbell, but they lost Frank Sinatra to Warner Records where he got his own label and distributor which he called Reprise Records.

Jimmy Bowen produced the record "STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT" which was a hit for Frank, got him HIS FIRST GOLD RECORD, and is known today as "classic Frank Sinatra" though it was recorded years past his early days of performance and stardom.

We're linking to the official Frank Sinatra site so you can read about Frank his way!



Frank was on the same charts as his daughter Nancy!

(481) NANCY SINATRA'S BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKIN'

A while back we posted on Nancy Sinatra when she was one of the guests on the TV program that featured Elvis Presley and her father, Frank Sinatra, The Welcome Back Special. Elvis had just returned to the United States from Germany and the United States Army.

  

"Are you ready boots?  Start Walkin!"  These words are so associated with Nancy, who chose to record songs on Frank's Reprise label (where my friend Jimmy Bowen became a producer) that portrayed her as a take-charge, in control, and liberated woman.  The song was written for her by Lee Hazelwood and it became a number one hit in the United States and the United Kingdom, making Nancy one more American who Invaded Britain.

No doubt initially aided by her loving dad, Nancy, who appeared on the Welcome Back Special in what was a prim prom-gown kind of dress, had moved with the times, the early 1960's and the dancing Go Go Girls.

Now Nancy has her own site, but we found it down, and we think it may be bombarded because of the news recently that a son of Mia Farrow's may be Franks.  We proceeded to the Sinatra Family site and same thing. 

So we're going to post the links for you here and hopefully when you try them, they'll be up!

NANCY SINATRA OFFICAL link

SINATRA FAMILY OFFICIAL link

Lee Hazelwood passed away in 2007.  Here's a link to some good career information for the man who was known to be a rugged individualist!

CBENJAMIN WORDPRESS ON LEE HAZELWOOD link

Church Benjamin is a Blogger on Word Press!  His theme is SONGS YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD, and he's a good writer.

(418) DINO DESI AND BILLY ON REPRISE : I'M A FOOL

Jimmy Bowen also produced DINO DESI and BILLY, and they were hot in the mid sixties. They were so young themselves their appeal was mostly to the young teens. They did a whole album of cover tunes, and had two top hits, including "I'm a Fool." They were on TV commercials, toured the country, and then faded away, moving on to other ways to have a go at life. (That they did cover tunes at this point when everybody's competition became the Beatles, who were writing most of their own songs at this point, probably hurt them.)

Dean Martin's son, Dino Martin, was the DINO. Desi Arnez is the son of the famous television comedian Lucille Ball and her Cuban band leader husband Desi (of "I Love Lucy" fame). And BILLY was a school friend of theirs, Billy Hinsche. Dino went on to act and was doing well, but when he died in an aircrash Dean's heart was broken. Some said Dean was never the same after this loss. Today, Dean's younger son Ricci Martin takes his brother's place in a revival band with Billy Hinsche leading.

FRANK SINATRA and ELVIS PRESLEY : ELVIS ON THE WELCOME HOME SPECIAL

We've subbed in this historical music video of Elvis on the Frank Sinatra Welcome Home Elvis special... The other vide we posted is sounding warped... so... enjoy this one instead! (Thanks Bart for contacting us about the warp!) This is a longer video. ELVIS sings Jimmy Bowen's STUCK ON YOU!

(417) EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY SOMETIME : ESPECIALLY DEAN MARTIN ! LINK TO DEAN'S OFFICIAL SITE

We're linking to DEAN MARTIN'S OFFICIAL WEB SITE.

On it you'll see that, around Valentine's Day this year, fans voted the song "EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY SOMETIME" as their all time favorite Dean Martin song. The song is a Classic cover tune, and it's probably Dean's signature song, written by Ken Lane and Irving Taylor.

The producer was Jimmy Bowen, who was hired by Frank Sinatra for his Reprise record label. The arrangement was by Ernie Freeman for the record. The song went Gold in 1964 and was thought to have revived Dean's career. (In a few years Dean would also cover the songs Glen Campbell made famous, "By The Time I Get to Phoenix," and "Gentle On My Mind.")

From the distance of the years since then it's hard to believe that talents like Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, or Frank Sinatra were considered to have been "has beens" after years of ambition, hard work, chance taking, smart decisions, creativity, building a fan base, and all the rest that comes with negotiating a career. They (as well as Elvis Presley and Glen Campbell and so many others) had their ups and downs no doubt and in the end it all comes out CLASSIC!

KEELY SMITH AND FRANK SINATRA : SO IN LOVE

(415) JAZZ SINGER KEELY SMITH ON REPRISE : PRODUCED BY (HER THEN HUSBAND) JIMMY BOWEN

So Keely Smith and Jimmy Bowen were married and they wrote this uptempo song together, which he produced on the Reprise label, owned by Frank Sinatra. The production brings together the Big Band Sound with that 60's sound of brass.

It was during the mid 1960's the Bobby Darin bought my song "The Old Prospector" for his TM Music Publishing and took it to Vegas with him to present it to Keely Smith.

(414) JIMMY BOWEN and FRANK SINATRA and BOBBY DARIN and KEELY SMITH and DEAN MARTIN and DINO DESI AND BILLY and...

The last few posts and next several are about THE INTERCONNECTIONS PEOPLE IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS HAD FOR SEVERAL YEARS IN THE 1960's WHICH IS TO SAY AGAIN THAT WE WERE ALL INTERTWINED and that many of us from my old early rock and roll crowd that moved from New York to Los Angeles had moved from performing into song writing or music production or music publishing.

I never knew Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin personally the way I knew Elvis Presley. I heard a lot about them - knew of them. My relationship with them was usually one or two people away because I knew Jimmy Bowen and Bobby Darin. as an example. Jimmy was producing music at Frank Sinatra's lable Reprise and Bobby, besides singing himself, was publishing music, buying songs he liked and presenting them to singers he admired, trying to create an estate with his son's future in mind.

I don't remember exactly how Keely Shaye Smith, who had been married to Louie Prima and had performed in Vegas with him and then divorced, and my old friend Jimmy Bowen met, but Jimmy and Keely married in about 1965.

Keely remains one of my all time favorite singers. She put a CD out a few years ago and it was terrific, her voice as good if not better than ever! But let's slow the story down a little...

FRANK SINATRA quote

"May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine." - Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra had some horrible, I mean rotten, stuff to say about rock and roll and rock and rollers, including Elvis and The Beatles, and well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. As a young singer early in his career he earned the screams of the Bobbi Soxers, then, as things do, time passed and things changed. Frank changed too. (He eventually covered a song written by George Harrison of the Beatles, "Something," which he said he loved.) And when he had his own label he hired one of the original Rock and Rollers, Jimmy Bowen, to produce for him...

WES BRYAN and GLEN CAMPBELL SONGWRITERS : JOEY COOPER : I'M A FOOL

A Jimmy Bowen Production... About 1964-65 Jimmy, who I knew and worked with as far back as Akron, Ohio, got the career making break! (Producing for Frank Sinatra's lable REPRISE.) Here he produced for Joey Cooper on the Chancellor lable.

(364) DONNIE BROOKS RECORDED UNDER SEVERAL NAMES BEFORE HE HIT IT BIG

I first met DONNIE BROOKS in the late 1950's - early 1960's in New York City. Then, since he also moved out to LA, I saw him on this coast.

He became a very good friend of mine, as well as Dorsey Burnett's and P.J. Probys.

We're linking to the DONNIE BROOKS ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME LINK ABOVE!

Donnie, like many others who moved between studio work - making demos - and entertainment, recorded under different names and on different record labels before he settled on Donnie Brooks and had that hit. In 1964 he moved on to Frank Sinatra's label, Reprise (where Jimmy Bowen had become a producer), and eventually Gene Autry's Challenge, continuing his career into the 1970's.



And sadly, an article from the United Kingdown, Independent newspaper, his obit...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/donnie-brooks-439032.html

(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.

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.

(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!

(209) DRUMMER EARL PALMER - A "SECRET" HIT MAKER

Another great musician that I met at the Musician's Union and became friends with was Earl Palmer.
Earl just went into Eternal Life September 18, 2008 - several weeks ago - at the age of 84.

He worked with Elvis. He worked for Motown and Phil Spector. The Righteous Brothers. Frank Sinatra.

I used to go into the Union looking for Earl and get on him about being from Louisiana in the way that only one Southerner can get on another Southerner. Out in LA it seemed like no matter what your race or background, being from the South was like being from the hood.

And he earned it; Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, here's Earl's link there.

ROCKHALL : EARL PALMER BIO
updated March 2014

(184) PAT BOONE MIGHT'VE BEEN ELVIS' BIGGEST COMPETITOR ! 12 GOLD RECORDS BY 1961

My voice had once been compared to his...You may find this hard to believe today, but there was one person who was better liked during the early Rock and Roll era by the general public than Elvis, and that was Pat Boone, who never did have that dark edge of a Rock-a-billy artist that Elvis had and had a wider audience.

Now friends, we're still in the cover tune era here, so you'll find if you look at who recorded what and when you'll find that songs that Pat recorded were later recorded by other artists we mention. For instance, Pat recorded "Moody River," in 1961 and the next year Johnny Burnette recorded it. So do you think I was pitching songs to Pat?

You'd better believe it. Pat started his own publishing company called Cooga Mooga! (Guess who eventually did some work for Pat there?)

Here's Pat on the Lawrence Welk show singing "Moody River," and then Johnny Burnette's 1962 version, as presented by YouTube video-ers. As Lawrence mentions, Pat had 12 Gold Records by the time he did this show.

Pat Boone on the Welk singing "Moody River."

Johnny Burnette covering "Moody River," (and sounding very Elvis-like.)

Now a little later, when Frank Sinatra gets his own label, Reprise, he records "Moody River" too. Here's his swinging 60's version. My co-worker at American Music, Jimmy Bowen went to Reprise as Frank's producer.

No replacement for Johnny Burnette. Frank's version of "Moody River." VIDEOS RELACED APRIL 2011

(121) THERE'S A HOUSE PARTY TONIGHT - KEELY SMITH

Keely Smith and Louis Prima were one of the favorite Lounge Acts acts of Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack in Vegas.

I thought Keely was terrific and had an amazing voice. Make that HAS an amazing voice that has only gotten better with time. Keely performed at J.F.K.'s inauguration and in the 2000's she's recording CD's and making appearances on television shows sans Louie who passed some time ago in 1978. So many of the songs she and Louie recorded were high energy and positive. They were good time party songs, fun in Vegas songs, and "There's A House Party Tonight," is one of my favorites! Now, we searched for a video of Keely and Louie and this song to no avail, but we didn't want to miss posting about them. House parties, be it Vegas, Palm Springs, or Los Angeles, were the rage. They were private parties. Parties of the rich. Elvis' kind of party.

Link above to a NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO site that features an interview with Keely.

From YouTube a Video of Louie and Keely in the mid to late fifties singing "When You're Smiling." Keely's stone face is in direct contrast to Louie and the band's energetic performance, and that's exactly what's so funny about it!

On March 22 2011 we substituted in the below YouTube video, which is not of the song "There's A House Party Tonight," but does document Keely's act with Louis!