“Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody” - Henry David Thoreau
Showing posts with label Music Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music Business. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
FRANKIE VALLI Quote
"You can take the guy out of the neighorhood but you can't take the neighborhood out of the guy."
Frankie Valli
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
(429) HOUND DOG : THE LEIBER and STOLLER AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Christine here!
I've been wanting to read this book for a long time and finished it over the Labor Day weekend. It was edited wonderfully so that the conversational - story-telling quality was preserved and so the story moved at a good pace.
Of interest to the readers of WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC is the material on Elvis Presley, the effects of the British Invasion on songwriters in the mid 1960's, and the Brill Building New York scene and their LA-New York bicoastal music business. Of course the title HOUND DOG is also the name of their song that was recorded by Big Mama Thornton but which Elvis Presley broke out with, and which put this song writing due into early fame.
An excerpt from the book from pages 93 and 94!
Leiber: ..."As for the amazing fact that Elvis had recorded "Hound Dog," well, I had different feelings. The first feeling is the one that washes over any songwriter when he learns he has a hit: He hears the cash register ring and the Sale! sign come up. That's a good feeling. But when I heard Elvis' version, I had a bad feeling. I didn't like the way he did it. Somebody changed the lyrics. I had written:
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Quit snooping 'round my door
You can wag your tail,
But I ain't gonna feed you no more
But Elvis sang:
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Crying all the time
You ain't never caught a rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine
To this day I have no idea what the rabbit business is all about. The song is not about a dog; it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis's version makes no sense to me, and even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote. Of course, the fact that it sold more than seven million copies took the sting our of what seemed to be a capricious chance of lyrics. But, lick for lick, there's no comparison between the Presley version and the Big Mama original. Elvis played with the song; Bib Mama nailed it."
HOUND DOG : THE LEIBER and STOLLER AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller with David Ritz Copyright 2009
Simon and Shuster Publishers
I've been wanting to read this book for a long time and finished it over the Labor Day weekend. It was edited wonderfully so that the conversational - story-telling quality was preserved and so the story moved at a good pace.
Of interest to the readers of WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC is the material on Elvis Presley, the effects of the British Invasion on songwriters in the mid 1960's, and the Brill Building New York scene and their LA-New York bicoastal music business. Of course the title HOUND DOG is also the name of their song that was recorded by Big Mama Thornton but which Elvis Presley broke out with, and which put this song writing due into early fame.
An excerpt from the book from pages 93 and 94!
Leiber: ..."As for the amazing fact that Elvis had recorded "Hound Dog," well, I had different feelings. The first feeling is the one that washes over any songwriter when he learns he has a hit: He hears the cash register ring and the Sale! sign come up. That's a good feeling. But when I heard Elvis' version, I had a bad feeling. I didn't like the way he did it. Somebody changed the lyrics. I had written:
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Quit snooping 'round my door
You can wag your tail,
But I ain't gonna feed you no more
But Elvis sang:
You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Crying all the time
You ain't never caught a rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine
To this day I have no idea what the rabbit business is all about. The song is not about a dog; it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis's version makes no sense to me, and even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote. Of course, the fact that it sold more than seven million copies took the sting our of what seemed to be a capricious chance of lyrics. But, lick for lick, there's no comparison between the Presley version and the Big Mama original. Elvis played with the song; Bib Mama nailed it."
HOUND DOG : THE LEIBER and STOLLER AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller with David Ritz Copyright 2009
Simon and Shuster Publishers
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
(408) LOUIS "LOU" HALMY : A WHIZZ IN THE BIZZ
LOU HALMY, a trumpeter born in Budapest Hungary, was one of my favorite people in the music business. He was also one of the most brilliant.
Lou had started out on the East Coast where he worked as a musician for "society" bands like Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra. (They played on"The Woodbury Hour With Bob Hope") and in the "The Big Broadcast of 1938," a movie with Bob Hope, W.C. Fields and Dorothy Lamour - the Great Depression era.
He worked for Bob Ross Music Publishing at the time I worked with him and did a lot of work for Pat Boone at the time too.
When I wrote a song, I would play it on the guitar for Lou. LOU WOULD WHISTLE THE SONG BACK TO ME. Then I knew he "got it." Based on his whistling, he would write the lead sheet and pass it on to one of the "copiers" who wrote the actual music sheet with notations. Lou was considered a professional whistler!
Lou could "authenticate" music. He had that audiographic memory, so he appeared in many court hearings where various people were trying to establish their rights to intellectual properties and other issues. He was an expert.
Lou passed away up in Oregon on March 14, 2005. He had been in the music business for about 75 years and was 94 years old! One of my favorite memories of Lou was him driving the car he had, a tiny MG with the fancy spokes.
PS: Lou had a giant record that sold excellent called "THE HAPPY WHISTLER!" The song was covered by a number of other artists.
Lou had started out on the East Coast where he worked as a musician for "society" bands like Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra. (They played on"The Woodbury Hour With Bob Hope") and in the "The Big Broadcast of 1938," a movie with Bob Hope, W.C. Fields and Dorothy Lamour - the Great Depression era.
He worked for Bob Ross Music Publishing at the time I worked with him and did a lot of work for Pat Boone at the time too.
When I wrote a song, I would play it on the guitar for Lou. LOU WOULD WHISTLE THE SONG BACK TO ME. Then I knew he "got it." Based on his whistling, he would write the lead sheet and pass it on to one of the "copiers" who wrote the actual music sheet with notations. Lou was considered a professional whistler!
Lou could "authenticate" music. He had that audiographic memory, so he appeared in many court hearings where various people were trying to establish their rights to intellectual properties and other issues. He was an expert.
Lou passed away up in Oregon on March 14, 2005. He had been in the music business for about 75 years and was 94 years old! One of my favorite memories of Lou was him driving the car he had, a tiny MG with the fancy spokes.
PS: Lou had a giant record that sold excellent called "THE HAPPY WHISTLER!" The song was covered by a number of other artists.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
FROM OUR ARCHIVES : POST (75) BMI AND OTHER REGISTRIES TO PROTECT THE SONGWRITER
In the early 1960's I decided it was time to officially join either BMI or ASCAP. BMI - Broadcast Music, Inc. and ASCAP- The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, were there to make sure that a songwriter got his or her residuals - payment for work that was recorded by others or used by others in a performance. At the time it seemed that most of the younger guys - my peers - were choosing BMI.
A songwriter can be a member of one or both of these organizations. It's a choice. You can also choose not to join at all. BMI and ASCAP don't have worldwide authority. There are other organizations that do what these two do for their member artists.
These organizations monitor the use or play of a song and provide collection and pay services for "performance royalties" to the publishers and the songwriters. Each and every time a song is played on the radio or the television there are royalties to be paid to the publisher, to the performer, and to the songwriter(s.)
I suspect that with computers involved the accounting might be more accurate. Radio stations have to keep reports of their play lists.
So if you're a serious songwriter and want to make money from your creative output, the thing to do is to register with a publisher.
A songwriter can be a member of one or both of these organizations. It's a choice. You can also choose not to join at all. BMI and ASCAP don't have worldwide authority. There are other organizations that do what these two do for their member artists.
These organizations monitor the use or play of a song and provide collection and pay services for "performance royalties" to the publishers and the songwriters. Each and every time a song is played on the radio or the television there are royalties to be paid to the publisher, to the performer, and to the songwriter(s.)
I suspect that with computers involved the accounting might be more accurate. Radio stations have to keep reports of their play lists.
So if you're a serious songwriter and want to make money from your creative output, the thing to do is to register with a publisher.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
(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..."
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..."
Sunday, March 4, 2012
(406) YOU CAN'T COPYRIGHT A SONG TITLE
If you explore a music/song database, such as BMI, using the title of one of your favorite songs, you may be surprised to learn that several songs share a title.
That's because titles of songs are NOT copyrightable.
Let's say then that you search by artist, because you associate the artist with the song. That might help you get to the right song with that title you remember. But several artists may be shown associated with that song as well because the truth is the COVER TUNE ERA never really went away.
This is where a YouTube video may help.
If it's a historical music video, at least you can hear the song and confirm that it's the song you associate with an artist, and sometimes the video poster will have a picture of a label and other information.
Yet, we also have to tell you, small record labels didn't always have the labels printed correctly. There are times when the actual label on the record has mispellings or missing information!
That's because titles of songs are NOT copyrightable.
Let's say then that you search by artist, because you associate the artist with the song. That might help you get to the right song with that title you remember. But several artists may be shown associated with that song as well because the truth is the COVER TUNE ERA never really went away.
This is where a YouTube video may help.
If it's a historical music video, at least you can hear the song and confirm that it's the song you associate with an artist, and sometimes the video poster will have a picture of a label and other information.
Yet, we also have to tell you, small record labels didn't always have the labels printed correctly. There are times when the actual label on the record has mispellings or missing information!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
(405) THEN THERE'S THE BUSINESS OF SONG WRITING
ASCAP (THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF COMPOSERS, AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS)
BROADCAST MUSIC (BMI)
NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FOUNDATION
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC EDUCATION : MUSIC COPYRIGHT
PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY for MUSIC (UK)
RECORDING INDUSTRY OF AMERICA
SOCAN CANADA SONGWRITERS REGISTRY
These are links to the left side of the blog on the links panel.
Let's say you've written a song tonight! Is it time to register it with ASCAP, BMI, or another organization, say in the United Kingdom or Canada?
That depends. Copyright law is that an Intellectual Property is copyrighted the moment it is written. Maybe you wrote the song alone, maybe there was a group of musicians and singers working together, maybe you have a verbal agreement with your friends, maybe you don't, about who gets credited.
Let's stick with the easy situation, you and only you have written the lyrics and the melody. No one else can take credit for the song. No one else has even heard the song!
Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself, for a YouTube video to promote it , expose the song potentially to the Entire World, or at least show your friends at the next party you go to? Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself at the next Open Mic, or at a club in Hollywood where you like to go?
Let's stick with the easy situation.
If you're on YouTube or at a party or a club I'd announce to the world that I am the singer-songwriter of the song.
You still really don't have to belong to any society to tabulate any money you might make on the song, as the performer, as the singer-songwriter, or as a publisher of the song, though there is always the chance you might be blown away to hear your song or a part of it on the radio, some other singer or band cashing in. Blown away that someone you trusted is profiting off you. IT HAPPENS!
You can, though the Copyright Office of the United States will tell you this is no official way to prove copyright, send your Intellectual Properties to yourself in the mail. They call that the POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT because it costs a lot less than the Copyright Office.
If you do the POOR MAN's COPYRIGHT, you can send one or a hundred, printed, on a CD or stick full of songs to yourself, just make sure that there is a OFFICIAL POST MARK from the post office on the envelope and then YOU DO NOT OPEN IT! (When it gets to court to hand the envelope to the judge and let him be the one who opens it.)
The point I want to make here, is that if you're serious about making money as a song-writer, there is a lot of business after writing that song!
If you're just starting out (and that doesn't mean that the first song you wrote isn't a hit) you may wait a while to sign up with an ASCAP or a BMI, but if your friend's band starts playing your song at the Whisky, I'd get that going ASAP! If your friend's band gets signed and the song appears on their first album, there is no way you're not going to!
BROADCAST MUSIC (BMI)
NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FOUNDATION
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC EDUCATION : MUSIC COPYRIGHT
PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY for MUSIC (UK)
RECORDING INDUSTRY OF AMERICA
SOCAN CANADA SONGWRITERS REGISTRY
These are links to the left side of the blog on the links panel.
Let's say you've written a song tonight! Is it time to register it with ASCAP, BMI, or another organization, say in the United Kingdom or Canada?
That depends. Copyright law is that an Intellectual Property is copyrighted the moment it is written. Maybe you wrote the song alone, maybe there was a group of musicians and singers working together, maybe you have a verbal agreement with your friends, maybe you don't, about who gets credited.
Let's stick with the easy situation, you and only you have written the lyrics and the melody. No one else can take credit for the song. No one else has even heard the song!
Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself, for a YouTube video to promote it , expose the song potentially to the Entire World, or at least show your friends at the next party you go to? Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself at the next Open Mic, or at a club in Hollywood where you like to go?
Let's stick with the easy situation.
If you're on YouTube or at a party or a club I'd announce to the world that I am the singer-songwriter of the song.
You still really don't have to belong to any society to tabulate any money you might make on the song, as the performer, as the singer-songwriter, or as a publisher of the song, though there is always the chance you might be blown away to hear your song or a part of it on the radio, some other singer or band cashing in. Blown away that someone you trusted is profiting off you. IT HAPPENS!
You can, though the Copyright Office of the United States will tell you this is no official way to prove copyright, send your Intellectual Properties to yourself in the mail. They call that the POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT because it costs a lot less than the Copyright Office.
If you do the POOR MAN's COPYRIGHT, you can send one or a hundred, printed, on a CD or stick full of songs to yourself, just make sure that there is a OFFICIAL POST MARK from the post office on the envelope and then YOU DO NOT OPEN IT! (When it gets to court to hand the envelope to the judge and let him be the one who opens it.)
The point I want to make here, is that if you're serious about making money as a song-writer, there is a lot of business after writing that song!
If you're just starting out (and that doesn't mean that the first song you wrote isn't a hit) you may wait a while to sign up with an ASCAP or a BMI, but if your friend's band starts playing your song at the Whisky, I'd get that going ASAP! If your friend's band gets signed and the song appears on their first album, there is no way you're not going to!
Monday, July 11, 2011
CAPITOL RECORDS and THE PLAZA HOTEL
From Our Archives
Capitol Records and the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood circa 1960, credited to photographer Roy Hankey, through Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Database. We've been looking through free image collections for a good photo of the Capitol building which looked a bit like a stack of records.
Besides Capitol records, we also see the Plaza Hotel- where I had tea with actress and James Dean's great friend Christine White, the Huntington-Hartford, and the Broadway Department store.
UPDATE July 2011. We're linking to a Hollywood/ Capitol Records Memory Site by Nori Muster. This site includes "The Capitol Tower Turned fifty in 2006. Read correspondence, remembrance, and images from the grand opening, including the 1956 press release, information sheet, tour guide script, and Tower booklet." and more!
Capitol Records and the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood circa 1960, credited to photographer Roy Hankey, through Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Database. We've been looking through free image collections for a good photo of the Capitol building which looked a bit like a stack of records.
Besides Capitol records, we also see the Plaza Hotel- where I had tea with actress and James Dean's great friend Christine White, the Huntington-Hartford, and the Broadway Department store.
UPDATE July 2011. We're linking to a Hollywood/ Capitol Records Memory Site by Nori Muster. This site includes "The Capitol Tower Turned fifty in 2006. Read correspondence, remembrance, and images from the grand opening, including the 1956 press release, information sheet, tour guide script, and Tower booklet." and more!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
WE'RE MOVING OUR STORY FORWARD THROUGH 1964!
Friends, we've decided to move forward in our story while continuing to update. We've kind of been doing that over the last couple weeks anyway, and though we like the smooth flow of the story, we also don't mind interrupting that with posts such as the recent ebay auction of old photos of me and records that I wrote songs on.
We are always open to finding pennies from heaven right on the pavement we walk on!
We'll be inserting some older posts with great stories from our archives between new ones.
Back when we started blogging Youtube was a brand new thing and we were not sure of it and didn't know if we should include videos in our blog - even though this is a MUSIC BLOG - and the whole INTERNET was burgeoning; we were just learning. Well, we're still learning. And in the process of updating we've been realizing we forgot a few artists along the way!
Some of these people should really be included in this blog because if I met them, knew them, worked with them, became friends with them, or was inspired by them, they belong here!
If these artists are still with us, I hope to hear from them, and if they aren't this blog serves to give them the honor they deserve!
Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna
We are always open to finding pennies from heaven right on the pavement we walk on!
We'll be inserting some older posts with great stories from our archives between new ones.
Back when we started blogging Youtube was a brand new thing and we were not sure of it and didn't know if we should include videos in our blog - even though this is a MUSIC BLOG - and the whole INTERNET was burgeoning; we were just learning. Well, we're still learning. And in the process of updating we've been realizing we forgot a few artists along the way!
Some of these people should really be included in this blog because if I met them, knew them, worked with them, became friends with them, or was inspired by them, they belong here!
If these artists are still with us, I hope to hear from them, and if they aren't this blog serves to give them the honor they deserve!
Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna
Sunday, November 7, 2010
(338) CASHBOX MAGAZINE 2010 : 58 YEARS OLD
CASHBOX, Billboard's big competitor, has been around 58 years now and it's been charting music in the United States all that time.
The methods for charting music are controversial especially as the way music is selected to be played on the radio has changed over the years from the days when the Personality DJ's personally selected records and played the ones they loved over and over again. (Dewey Philips was the personality DJ who broke Elvis Presley's first recording!)
Personality DJ's were responsible for making or breaking artists for some time and then radio went to a top 40 format based on charting sales.
Today, by my way of thinking, it might be more difficult than ever to gauge popularity based on sales because there are so many ways to listen to music without buying it (or concert tickets).
In 2006 Cashbox became an INTERNET-ONLY magazine so we are linking to this site which has lots of links and a jukebox. Like other music sites there is a contributory aspect to the on-line magazine.
The methods for charting music are controversial especially as the way music is selected to be played on the radio has changed over the years from the days when the Personality DJ's personally selected records and played the ones they loved over and over again. (Dewey Philips was the personality DJ who broke Elvis Presley's first recording!)
Personality DJ's were responsible for making or breaking artists for some time and then radio went to a top 40 format based on charting sales.
Today, by my way of thinking, it might be more difficult than ever to gauge popularity based on sales because there are so many ways to listen to music without buying it (or concert tickets).
In 2006 Cashbox became an INTERNET-ONLY magazine so we are linking to this site which has lots of links and a jukebox. Like other music sites there is a contributory aspect to the on-line magazine.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO OUR READERS OF WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC
Thank You for reading my saga, and let's all give thanks for what we do have at this time in our lives.
Wes
Wes
Saturday, September 8, 2007
ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL ?
Are you a singer - songwriter? Where are you living?
Are musicians and singers and songwriters in your area helpful to each other ?
One of the most fantastic parts about being part of that whole New York scene in the late 1950's was the way we were united to succeed!
Are musicians and singers and songwriters in your area helpful to each other ?
One of the most fantastic parts about being part of that whole New York scene in the late 1950's was the way we were united to succeed!
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