(484) MERLE TRAVIS : A FIXTURE AT AMERICAN MUSIC AND SONGWRITER FOR TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD

I met Merle Travis, the country western singer who they called a "guitar picker" and who came from the South - Kentucky,  when he came into American Music, the big song publishing house I worked for as a staff writer for several years when I first moved to Los Angeles!  I grew up in North Carolina and Oregon listening to Country music and never lost my enthusiasm for it.  Merle wrote songs and played on sessions for demos and became a fixture there.  Great man!

So many artists who went into performance careers have worked making demos, Bobby Darin, as I recently mentioned, made demos in the recording studios in the Brill Building, in New York City.  Glen Campbell made demos in Los Angeles, some for American Music.  I made demos while at American Music and also I made demo's for Pat Boone's company, Cooga- Mooga! 

Demo records of songs with hit potential were send out - sometimes hand delivered by people like me - to the recording artists that the writer had in mind for their listen.  Sometimes they piled up in a corner and months went by before one got a listen, so that personal connection was important.

 

DISCOGS PAGE FOR MERLE TRAVIS link

TURN AROUND LOOK AT ME - WHO MADE THIS JERRY CAPEHEART SONG CLASSIC?

GLEN CAMPBELL
THEVOGUES TODAY  (It was their first million seller in 1968)
THE VOGUES ORIGINAL
THE BEE GEES?  
Or maybe ELVIS?

(435) ME AND COUNTRY MUSIC : MY ROOTS IN CHEROKEE COUNTY

I grew up in rural Cherokee County North Carolina - The Smokey Mountains - where I ran with a kid gang, and as a teen followed my father's work to Oregon and then around the country to Akron, Ohio, where I got my big break.  From there I would move to New York City as my base but tour throughout the South.

I grew up hearing Country Music and I've always loved it. Rockabilly, as you probably know, has strong roots in Country.  Many of my peers in the business in the late 1950's and early 1960's also had country roots, people like Buddy Knox, Jimmy Bowen and Buddy Holly, who were from West Texas, and Glen Campbell, who was from the "Deep South".

As a song writer, I was just as interested in writing for Country music artists as ever and I was able to place some of the songs I wrote or cowrote with Country artists.  

(407) ABOUT THOSE LOUSY LYRIC SITES

Lousy!?

Christine here: One of the things that makes me a little crazy is how bad about crediting songwriters most of the lyric sites on the Internet that I've visited are.

They (the site or the poster) will say a song is Elvis Presley's or Glen Campbell's because that is the artist who most made the song famous, or maybe that's the version that's their personal favorite.

It's easy to believe that Elvis Presley wrote a lot of songs, but he co-wrote one, "All Shook Up."

Glen Campbell did write songs. He also first became famous with songs by Jimmy Webb.

Maybe this is the place to also say that a lot of the lyric sites are Wikis and people, well meaning I'm sure, are writing down lyrics as they hear them, and posting, which accounts for the different lyrics you may find if you search various sites.

As a girl, who was already very much into lyrics as poetry and as stories, I had a song lyric collection myself. I'd hear a song come on the radio, grab my pen and paper and start writing. Sometimes I had to listen for the song to play again for days before I got it all down.

I got "By the Time I Get To Phoenix," and "Witchita Line Man" down accurately due to the pace and pronunciation of the lyrics by the artist, Glen Campbell, but I recently learned I'd been singing very wrong lyrics to a Rolling Stone's song, never mind which one. By getting the lyrics wrong, I got the meaning wrong too.

Since I know how difficult it is to get the information as to who the original song writers of a song were (more about this on the next post), I do understand that the Wiki people and the lyric sites don't want to put that expectation on people, however, I wish they would at least write something like "as sung by..."

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.

2012 : LAST NIGHT'S GRAMMYS : BEACH BOYS, GLEN CAMPBELL, PAUL McCARTNEY

THE GRAMMY AWARDS, which takes place at Staples Center, near the heart of downtown Los Angeles, is definitely one of those nights that brings excitement into those of us who live in Southern California, the way football brings excitement to residents in other cities.

In many ways, though filming and recording take place all over the United States and the world, this is still a company town. Angelenos take pride in bringing entertainment to the world. The excitement that it was Grammy time was felt everywhere. People were talking about it in coffee houses, on phones, and a lot of parties were celebrated at home as people watched the tube. This is our way of participating. We're still talking about it today.

Last year, we embedded some YouTube videos of the Grammy Awards 2011, and very soon they were taken down from YouTube as copyright violations, so we aren't going to embed any videos from last night's performance.

Christine and I were interested in the performances of the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell and Paul McCartney, since they are artists we blog about here at WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC. (The news here on the West Coast is dominated by the death of the long term drug embattled but superior songstress Whitney Houston.)

The Beach Boys, all the original band members who remain alive, performed "Good Vibrations." That includes songwriting genius Brian Wilson, 70, who had his own long battle with drugs and mental illness but has recovered and reemerged to perform over the last few years.

Glen Campbell, 75,who toured with them for a year or so many years ago - as a Beach Boy - jumped up from his seat to the music. Glen, who now suffers from Alzheimer's and who has won five previous Grammys, was honored with a LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. He performed "Rhinestone Cowboy, his hit from the 1970's. We're attaching to an article that has a video of Glen about his Alzheimer's from CNN on line.

Paul McCartney, 70, sang an original song he wrote for Valentine's Day, which appears on his new album of classics, and some Beatle's songs of the slow variety. He can be heard in a radio promo for the album saying he's channeling Fats Waller and Fred Astaire.

Christine feels that none of these artists were in fine voice, that it was Glen Campbells' voice that still has some of the resonance that it used to. After years of performing, and with age, many artists do loose their voices. What can help, sometimes a whole lot, is practicing vocalizations, in other words, voice lessons. That's the way to keep and improve what you've got. Still, we have to appreciate that they lost their voices performing, for the fans, the audience.

This post was reposted due to configuration errors that were out of control. Thanks for your patience.

(383) GLEN CAMPBELL ON SHINDIG

Since we recently posted on Glen Campbell, we thought we'd start off our videos of this one of Glen on Shindig. Check out our other posts for more on Glen!

UPDATE BY WES: I forgot to mention that Glen's appearances on Shindig and then on The Joey Bishop show caught the attention of The Smothers Brothers, and they decided to produce a show for him on CBS.

(375) NICK VENET - PRODUCER AT CAPITOL HAD HIS OWN ROCKABILLY ORIGINS

CAPITOL RECORDS music producer Nick Venet had a rockabilly past of his own. This one is from 1957.
If you'll click on the title above you will go to a National Public Radio interview of Nick, who among many others, worked with Bobby Darin and Glen Campbell. This interview includes a Nick Venet produced version of Bobby Darin singing Dream Lover and is mostly about Bobby. Nick and Bobby went back to the Brill Building in New York, where Bobby was doing demos for other artists. There was a group of people who hung out in the restaurants nearby. I was one of them.

Nick Venet on Bobby Darin's career : "Being a songwriter was more realistic"

(374) FROM OUR ARCHIVE (316) VIVA LAS VEGAS AND GLEN CAMPBELL

Friday, June 18, 2010

(316) VIVA LAS VEGAS and GLEN CAMPBELL

Glen Campbell was aboard at American Music where I worked. When he moved to Los Angeles after Jerry Capeheart signed him, he spent a lot of time with me at my place. I got Glen Campbell the gig with Elvis Presley for the music for VIVA LAS VEGAS. Glen had asked me to introduce him to Elvis many times so I eventually did introduce the two men. Elvis asked Glen for a demo record and Glen provided it. Glen gave Elvis a demo of an instrumental he did called "Buzz Saw" that really showed off his musical genius. Because Elvis loved the demo he made the phone calls and Glen was assigned to be the LEAD GUITARIST - the LEADER OF THE BAND - for the movie music. As a member of the Musicians Union he was paid triple scale for the soundtrack work. This was before Glen become famous. He was a songwriter and studio musician much in demand for years before "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," the Jimmy Webb composition.

(373) GLEN CAMPBELL : ALZHEIMERS : LAST TOUR AND ALBUM

We're linking here to a recent LA Times Blog article about Glen Campbell, who has announced that, at 75, he has Alzheimer's but will go on one last tour.

And to what we believe to be his own site which has some excellent photos including of his latest album: http://surfdog.com/glencampbellshow/index.html

Glen was blessed with amazing musical talent, has had a long and winding road of a career and is known for his dozens of hit records, but his journey in life was not and is not easy going.

GLEN CAMPBELL : A AND W ROOTBEER 1966

Yes, Glen even worked on commercial jingles and promotions for products like rootbeer. But besides the interest here in Glen Campbell, let's just say in posting this that there has never been any shame attached to an honest day's work.

And for all of you who love music (and you have to love music to be in the business) there is no shame in background singing, jingle writing, or any of the behind the scenes work, like songwriting or music production; not everyone can become a star or have a public career that goes on for years. I feel lucky to have participated as much as I have! Wes

(372) GLEN CAMPBELL 1964 ALBUM SHOWS OFF HIS 12 STRING GUITAR PLAYING EXCELLENCE

Jerry Capeheart, Eddie Cochran's old manager, discovered Glen Campbell and invited him out to Los Angeles, gave him an American Music songwriting contract. Glen played in studios as a musician, making his living behind the scenes, until performing called to him again.

(371) CAPITOL RECORDS : A GREAT BIG RECORD LABEL

Throughout this blog we've posted on many of the smaller or regional record labels.

These labels were extrememly important to my generation of rockabilly and early rock and roll artists, as was the personality DJ who still was able to pick his or her favorites and give them a spin on the radio, often making stars out of artists. Many of these smaller labels had near no budget for promotion but the great big labels, such as Capitol Records did and so being signed by them usually meant that you'd have a publicity machine behind your efforts.

(YOU CAN USE THE SEARCH FEATURE OF THIS GOOGLE BLOGGER TO look up "personality DJ's" such as Cliff Gleaves, or Wolfman Jack!)

By 1964 Capitol had The Beatles of Great Britain and The Beach Boys of Los Angeles, California. They also had Glen Campbell, who was starting to move forward in his entertainment career after years of performing in small venues. (But let's hold a bit on the Glen Campbell story, which has been in the media lately.)

We're linking to the present day Capitol Records site where we noticed that BRIAN WILSON of the Beach Boys and RINGO STAR of the Beatles are still signed artists with this label!

(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!?

(316) VIVA LAS VEGAS and GLEN CAMPBELL

Glen Campbell was aboard at American Music where I worked. When he moved to Los Angeles after Jerry Capeheart signed him, he spent a lot of time with me at my place. I got Glen Campbell the gig with Elvis Presley for the music for VIVA LAS VEGAS. Glen had asked me to introduce him to Elvis many times so I eventually did introduce the two men.

Elvis asked Glen for a demo record and Glen provided it. Glen gave Elvis a demo of an instrumental he did called "Buzz Saw" that really showed off his musical genius. Because Elvis loved the demo he made the phone calls and Glen was assigned to be the LEAD GUITARIST - the LEADER OF THE BAND - for the movie music. As a member of the Musicians Union he was paid triple scale for the soundtrack work.

This was before Glen become famous. He was a songwriter and studio musician much in demand for years before "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," the Jimmy Webb composition.

(303) SHARON SHEELEY - SONGWRITER

We're linking to the ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME page for songwriter SHARON SHEELEY here. SHARON was Eddie Cockran's girlfriend at the time he was killed in the car accident in England and that is unfortunately, what she first became famous for. She and Gene Vincent survived the car crash. She was still dating Eddie when I first met her. I was with the Everly Brothers at the time. Sharon was great friends with Nan Morris, the agent I've blogged about - a friend of mine to this day. It was Nan who took a demo of "POOR LITTLE FOOL" to Rick Nelson. In fact the two women were near stalking Rick to get that song to him because they were so sure it was going to be a hit for him. And they were right.

Sharon Sheeley continued to write songs including in collaboration with Jackie DeShannon and Brenda Lee.

Now we've mentioned before (and on some of our Youtube postings) that many DEMOS were made that did not turn into records for the market and that on many of these DEMOS some artists performed who became famous in their own time.

Some of the Demo Makers included Glen Campbell and Leon Russel and David Gates. A few years ago demos of some of Sharon's compositions that featured these artists came out on the market. And one of the singers is P.J. Proby, another demo maker who became famous and continues to perform, and who remained a friend of Sharon's until her death a few years ago ...

(282) PJ PROBY LIVED IN A CASTLE and DROVE A ROLLS - MAKING DEMOS IS HONORABLE WORK

Like Bobby Darin and several other other music stars and singer-songwriters, P.J. Proby recorded demos for other artists.

If you can get this work today, do it! It can be a very smart move. First of all it gives you experience recording in a studio, all the equipment and possibilities open to you working in there. Other artists are recording in the same or adjacent studios. You meet singers, musicians, and producers. You get to test and train your voice. It's an in.

PJ recorded demo records for Elvis Presley, though you can hear the difference in his and Elvis' voices. This is how it worked in the songwriting business. The demo singer tried to emulate the style or sound of the singer so that he or she could really try it on. Sometimes the end result was a record that was very different from the demo anyway and sometimes the song was picked up by another artist. This kind of pitch honored the artist that may have had the song written with him or her in mind.

P.J. got his own career going and he still does! P.J. lived in a castle and drove a Rolls when he got his going. He's a hardworking and talented man and I'm happy to call him a friend!



And yes, David Gates, Leon Russel, and Glen Campbell, who were session musicians on this song, all went on to have great individual careers!

(182) GLEN CAMPBELL RECORDS JERRY CAPEHEART'S TURN AROUND LOOK AT ME

Jerry Capehart was the man who signed me to American Music. (I've seen Jerry's surname spelled Capeheart and Capehart by the way, and I don't remember which he preferred.) I was honored to be signed by a man who was a great songwriter himself. Jerry and I remained friends until he also passed into Eternal Life.

This is the YouTube video of Glen Campbell singing Jerry's "Turn Around Look At Me."

Versions of Jerry's hit song were later recorded by the Vogues and Elvis Presley. This one, the original circa 1961, came out on Crest Records. Guess who owned Crest Records? Sylvester Cross who owned American Music! And guess who was a staff songwriter at American Music? Glen!

VIDEO REPLACED MARCH 2013 ]

(94) AMERICAN MUSIC AND ELVIS

While Sylvester Cross never pressed me to take demos directly to Elvis when I went to parties at his home or socialized with Elvis, he did thank me more than once for "bringing Elvis to my house." What he meant was not his home, but his music publishing house. What he meant was that because of me Elvis was open to getting demo from various American Music songwriters delivered to him for his consideration.

Actually American Music had a lot to thank Elvis Presley for already. It happened this way. Sylvester had the copyright on "Blue Christmas," which had been recorded by Ernest Tubb, the country music star. He'd hit with it in the 1940s. In about 1958 Elvis recorded it, because it was his personal favorite Christmas song! Every year American Music got a giant revenue from the song because it was so associated with Elvis and his version sold so well.

Now, Elvis also had an interesting relationship with the songwriters at American Music, which was at the time located at 9109 Sunset Boulevard, cross street Doheny, adjacent to Beverly Hills. When Elvis was at MGM or Paramount, on his way home to Bel Air, he would pass by driving in his car, usually later in the day, 5 or 5:30 say. If none of us were standing outside, Elvis would honk six times, then take off. This was his hello. If we were standing out there he would stop and chat with me, Glen Campbell, Jerry Capehart - whomever was out there.

(84) BOBBY DARIN, FRED HORTON, GLEN CAMPBELL, and ME

Fred Horton and I wrote "Ashes of Time." Fred didn't work for American Music like I did, but the collaboration was OK'd by Sylvester Cross. Bobby Darin loved the song and I pitched it to him and he went around humming it a bit.

Bobby Darin bought my song "The Old Prospector" for TM Music, his publishing company. He took it to Vegas to pitch it to Keely Smith and Louie Prima. They didn't record it.

Glen Campbell is one of the artist who recorded "Ashes of Time," on his album called "Country Music Star Number One." This album came out in 1969. By then a lot of things had changed. I was no longer working for American Music at all. I had my own company called U.S. International Records. Still, Fred and I were happy that my old co-worker Glen had decided to use our songs.

Linked above: Here's a bit from Answers.com on the album, and all the songs for the album which were written by Fred Horton and me.