JOE VALINO - DECLARATION OF LOVE

WES BRYAN and JOE VALINO were the first two artists signed to UNITED ARTISTS RECORDS.

THE NEXT JAMES DEAN FAN PHOTO - THAT'S ME!

I was based in New York in the late 1950's though I spent more time on the road when my career went from acting to performing music. I took private acting lessons at Actor's Studio and made the rounds. This was a fan photo used by United Artists, where I was signed, to show my James Dean-like appearance. My looks were not identical to Jimmy's but even his family thought I could play him in a bio-pic about his life.

(413) DICK CLARK AMERICAN BANDSTAND - I PERFORMED ON THE SHOW THREE TIMES

The first time I performed on Dick Clark -American Bandstand I went to Philadephia, where I performed "Tiny Spaceman," and "Lonesome Love" in two separate spots.

The second time I performed on Dick Clark - American Bandstand I performed "Melodie D'Amour" and "I Guess I'll Never Know," (the song posted a couple down) in two separate spots.

The third time I performed on Dick Clark - American Bandstand I performed "Freeze."

Clips of these songs are on the left sidebar of this blog, in the Audio Gallery.

Dick's wife Kari was looking for some old films of me on the show, which I don't know still exist. Dick was so much a part of the music business and promotions for so many years, his life touched the lives of thousands of people. I'm one of them.

LINK TO TED STAUTON'S UNITED ARTISTS : WAIT FOR ME BABY : WES BRYAN LABEL and PAGE

We contributed an image of the United Artists red and black label that my song WAIT FOR ME BABY appeared on to Ted Stauton, and he sent us this page. He was so nice to credit me and provide links to the YouTube site and the blog.

"This Canadian release was produced by Quality Records of Ontario. Image courtesy of American songwriter and recording artist Wes Bryan. "

RARE OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR MY SONG FREEZE

Friends, Christine just alerted me to an e-bay auction of a promo copy (for DJ's) of my second record on United Artists, called Freeze. We've been watching Youtube for this, but it turns out an auctioneer has posted most of the song on a sample. Click on the title above and you'll get to this link. We don't know how long it will stay up so seize the moment! Wes





The saxophonist was BEN ALEXANDER. Ben and I practiced the song, over and over again, at his place in Harlem, then went into the studio. I thought his playing pushed this song over the top. I played the song on Dick Clark American Bandstand (my second live appearance on the show). The song inspired a dance craze across the nation and ended up giving me my second Gold. Freeze was also THE FIRST SONG I WROTE (with writing partner and friend Don Darcel) that became a record!

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2011: Here is Freeze from one of our YOUTUBER FRIENDS!

EBAY AUCTIONS HOT ON WES BRYAN !

I HAVEN'T SEEN THIS PHOTO OF MYSELF IN YEARS! WHILE THE ONE BELOW IS A BLACK AND WHITE OF MY RECORD COVER. Both pictures were taken by my then manager and used by United Artists for Press releases. Of interest is the back of the second photo which mentions my record as the United Artist Label's first release on a typed sheet of paper. And that these photos prove my likeness to James Dean.


You've seen this one before since it was used IN COLOR for the first colored record cover for a 45 RMP ever! (Elvis' came out very soon after!)

The Morning Call, according to the poster, was the Allentown, Pennsylvania local newspaper circa 1957. Now the Tribune, if we're reading that correctly! In some archives there are lots of press release materials.

(306) A LITTLE REITERATION OF MY STORY JUST TO GET YOU SITUATED !

This year we've been revisiting the smaller record labels in Hollywood and some of the songwriters and singer-songwriters who were making the scene in Southern California in about 1963.

But if you've been following my story, you know that I was born in Murphy, North Carolina, that I made my first recording in a kitchen in Winston-Salem, that I was discovered as THE NEXT JAMES DEAN in Akron, Ohio, in 1957, which lead to auditions in Hollywood and my living in New York City. I studied at Actors' Studio. I traveled all around the United States promoting my first couple records as the FIRST ARTIST SIGNED TO UNITED ARTISTS. Then, while on Roulette Records I toured for a couple years - in 47 states! -with rockabilly Superstar BUDDY KNOX. I became friends with Elvis Presley back in '57, one of the great friendships of my life.

I performed on Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar, Wink Martindale... so many television shows all around the country. I played live on radio stations. And then - then I moved to Southern California to work as a staff songwriter for AMERICAN MUSIC about 1960, after the KNOX tour was completed.

From the east coast to the west I moved and so did some of the people who were integral to my story. People like Elvis Presley, Johnny Rivers, and Jimmy Bowen were now also living in Hollywood for film or music...

RARE LONESOME LOVE SHEET MUSIC UP FOR E-BAY AUCTION NOW

Looks like someone in the UK is auctioning off the Lonesome Love sheet music over the next couple days! WOW! I didn't know this existed! Wes

(Link to the auction here!)


PS. It sold for about $150 U.S.

(229) WAIT FOR ME BABY on UNITED ARTISTS

"Wait For Me Baby," the flip side of "Freeze" was well received by my audiences, but it was along for the ride when "Freeze" sold the record to Gold in 1958.

(The song Freeze was co-written by a woman I met in Akron, Ohio while I was living there. She gave me the lead sheets. I took them to New York and made my own demo of the song, then presented it to United Artists, suggesting I record it on their label.)

At this time I was promoting my music career while United Artists groomed me to be the actor who would play James Dean in a biopic about his life - and take over where he had left off as an actor. Those were some big shoes to fill and I don't think anyone has yet managed to.

UPDATE 2011 : A YouTuber posts WAIT FOR ME BABY

GOING Going GONE! E-BAY AUCTION OF TINY SPACEMAN

What the heck! Christine and I decided to give ol' JD's record shop a little help in auctioing off a copy of my Gold Record, "Tiny Spaceman" and "Lonesome Love." Click on the Title above Going Going Gone! and give a listen to my 1957 hit that lauched my United Artists career!

Photo WES BRYAN - TEEN DELIGHT September 1959

SEPTEMBER 1959. I was 22 years old. This is STARDOM MAGAZINE...

Photographed in the finest old movie star mode, and frequently compared to the late, great, actor James Dean, through the years people would look at me and ask themselves "Is that what James Dean would look like if he were 40, 50, 60, 70?" I can only disappoint. In my opinion, feature by feature, I never looked that much like Jimmy, but there was a resemblance, and the Deans told me I had the same slump posture and a way of walking and moving that was like their grandson when I visited them on the farm to prepare for my role as James Dean.

This article, calling me a Teen Delight, was a bit erroneous as I was not a teenager myself in these photos, but I was supposed to be every teenage girl's delight, and the magazines ran articles about me that gave many teenage girls every reason to fantasize about me. I received thousands of letters, huge, heavy bags of fan mail. It was exciting but to tell you the truth at the very start I was petrified. It took the experience of performing and meeting people all over the country to relax into stardom. And, as part of stardom, I met other stars. I met most of them with ease but once in a while I had a total fan reaction myself.

It was growing up in the Smokey Mountains and having sensible down to earth parents and kin that served me well when I was meeting people.

(35) FREEZE! A DANCE CRAZE SPARKED ON AMERICAN BANDSTAND BY THIS "SINGING - ACTING SENSATION"

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.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2011

FREEZE HAS APPEARED ON YOUTUBE! THANKS FRIEND!

(30) LONDON RECORDS puts out "Lonesome Love"

From time to time something related to me or my career - a magazine, a record, a signed photograph, something shows up on the e-Bay auctions or at a record collector's on the Internet. Once in a while I'm suprised to see what's out there on the market and I admit I watch the prices...

A few years ago I had no idea I had any web presence at all, and as I mentioned in a previous post, now there are a lot of Wes Bryan's to sort through to find me, the one born in Murphy, North Carolina in the late 1930's. So Christine Trzyna, my writing partner, and me decided to blog and take a bit of responsibility for what you might read about me.

When I was twenty and launched my career with United Artists Records I trusted my management to do right by me. I was living a planes, trains, and automobiles kind of existence, traveling constantly, touring all over the country, particularly in the markets that seemed to enjoy me - a country boy at heart - the best. I always wanted to go to England, like the Everly Brothers had.

Well LONDON RECORDS put out "Lonesome Love" and "Tiny Spaceman," in the British Isles in 1958, testifying, I think to how long a hit took to get across the Big Pond. I think the one sided "demo" version for radio play that came up on e-Bay recently of another of my songs may be a collectors item because even I don't have a copy!

LINKING HERE TO GLOBAL DOG PRODUCTIONS LONDON RECORDS DISCOGRAPHY which shows my record came out in April 1958.

(22) JIMMY BOWEN : HIS LIFE AND MINE INTERTWINE

Jimmy Bowen of Buddy Knox's group, called The Rhythm Orchids, was passing though Akron, Ohio when I first met him at a record hop where I'd taken a demo I made in a kitchen in Winston-Salem to the local DJ Art Roberts. It was against the radio station policy to play a demo, so the key was to get it into the man's hands at the hop.

Art Roberts loved my demo record and so did Jimmy, who'd already had a hit. So I met Jimmy Bowen before I was discovered off the Akron Beacon Journal-Roto cover or had signed my contracts with United Artists.

Jimmy Bowen's life and mine would intertwine for years. We would perform together as solo artists signed to Roulette Records, after I left United Artists, and would work together as staff song writers at American Music in Los Angeles a few years later in the early 1960's. He went on to be a well respected music producer.

I'm getting a bit ahead of my story here, though.

ROCKIN COUNTRY STYLE DISCOGRAPHY - JIMMY BOWEN
Click on the title to get to the new link!

Here's Jimmy Bowen from a You-Tube presentation circa 1957

doing his song "Cross Over."

New Youtube Video January 20, 2011

LONESOME LOVE - WES BRYAN LOOKING VERY JAMES DEAN LIKE!

LONESOME LOVE COVER: THAT's ME LOOKING LIKE JAMES DEAN. The photo was taken by my manager in Central Park, New York City. I was about 20 years old. It was 1957.

(17) My First Record Goes GOLD! FIRST COLOR RECORD SLEEVE!

While the publicity drums at United Artists beat for me, I began to tour all over, appearing on radio and television - dance party type shows - and record hops, to promote my new record. "Lonesome Love" was on one side and the novelty tune, "Tiny Spaceman," on the other. Sometimes I performed other Rock-a-Billy or Rock-n-Roll hits that other artists made as well and after appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand I lost my shyness.

My 45 RPM had a full color picture of me on one side, taken in New York near a tree (which has been identified erroneously as being, not me, but James Dean!) and on the other side there's a collage of black and white photos against a red background. (I see it on the e-bay auctions and at on-line record stores today.)

Not only did my first record have the VERY FIRST COLOR RECORD SLEEVE (Elvis Presley's "Don't" had the very next color sleeve!) but it WENT GOLD!

To this day I'm excited about it!

Video added January 19, 2011