(419) WES BRYAN : LOST MUSIC : BOBBY DARIN TM MUSIC and THE OLD PROSPECTOR

After Bobby Darin had TM, his music publishing company which he started in about 1963, he bought a song from me called "The Old Prospector." He recorded it on a full session himself and he took it to Vegas to pitch it to Louie Prima and Keely Smith.

This is a song that has not been released by Bobby or his heirs and, like Elvis' version of my song "The Dying Ember," which was released on Dot Records by Randy Wood as recorded by Dorsey Burnett, it's a song that could be found in some archive somewhere and, due to the full production, could be released someday

There were a couple songs I was writer on that Bobby wanted to record but Sylvester Cross at American Music wouldn't split the Publishing with Bobby, so the business man Bobby walked away. He remained my friend though.

Bobby bought Trinity Music ("TM") from Ed Burton and Joe Csida, who'd managed Bobby, for about half a million. This move from entertainer to songwriter to music publisher is one I would someday make myself, with much less risk than Bobby had taken when I started U.S. International Records.

In previous posts we've talked about Bobby's early death and his desire to provide for his son Dodd and his heirs. You can use the search feature to pull up old posts and read more and listen to some music!

BOBBY DARIN : 1965 : WITH VIC DAMONE AND ANDY WILLIAMS ON ANDY'S SHOW

"BOBBY IF YOU COULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR PERSONALITY."

Lipsinking fun.

The "Act" on this Historical music video is Bobby Darin with the "Big Ego." Bobby was known for his confidence and ambition, but when we were all starting out, hanging out in diners and working around the Brill building, the Bobby I knew had a humble side, and he was a good, loyal, friend. Our plans to record together went by the wayside when he moved to Hollywood to act, met his wife Sandra Dee, and started a family.

KEVIN SPACEY : KATE BOSWORTH : BEYOND THE SEA

Christine here. As some of you know, these last few months I've been trying to catch up on old movies I've never seen before. So I got BEYOND THE SEA, the movie about Bobby Darin's life that came out a few years ago in 1994. I was so impressed! The movie didn't feel at all dated either. Kevin Spacey, who I learned had acquired the film rights along with Bobby's son Darin, and who also starred as Bobby (doing his own singing) as well as cowriting, coproducing, and directing, turned into Bobby Darin. But more than that, flashbacks and fantasy sequences were used to reveal what was going on in Bobby on the inside, the side that most entertainers hide.

Kate Bosworth as Sandra Dee had the vulnerability of the child star who was growing into a woman in front of the camera. The mothers were something else! The personal scandle Bobby comes to terms with is the news that his "sister" is really his mother and she doesn't know who his father is. It was a stunning, humbling, event, which Bobby came to terms with, along with finding his more serious side, a side that cared about the way the world was turning.

In short, I loved this film!

So if you, instead of me, haven't seen it yet... do!

Linking to the IMDb site on BEYOND THE SEA!

BARBARA KINGSOLVER Quotation on Friendship

"The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away." - Barbara Kingsolver

THE ORIGINAL CRYPT ELVIS WAS LAID TO REST IN GOES TO AUCTION

One of many news articles saying about the same thing, Darien Julien, auctioneer, will auction Elvis' original crypt. Linking to the AP Press article by Derrik J. Lang. A note: this is the same place that Elvis' mother was laid to rest for years before Elvis died. Both bodies were moved to Graceland, though there are those who believe that they are actually secretly buried elsewhere.

78th BIRTHDAY OF ROBERT MOOG : INVENTOR OF THE MOOG SYNTHESIZER

As we get ready to take off for a long MEMORIAL DAY weekend, we want to celebrate the 78th birthday of Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer.

We're linking to the on line WIRED magazine and an informational article, which reminds us that GOOGLE is celebrating this day with an icon you can PLAY... Have fun!

HELLO TO OUR READERS AROUND THE WORLD - FANS OF EARLY ROCK AND ROLL

Hello to Germany, Ukraine, Australia, China, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Belgium, Japan, Italy, and Slovenia! Wes and Christine

NEW GOOGLE TRANSLATER INSTALLED : GIVE IT A TRY!

Friends, we've installed the newest GADGET provided by GOOGLE, which should translate WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC with all the latest bells and whistles working. GIVE IT A TRY. FOR NOW IT'S AT THE TOP OF THE SIDE BAR. GIVE IT A TRY EVEN IF YOU READ IN ENGLISH. Report back to us, please! Christine

(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!

ANDY WARHOL DOUBLE ELVIS AUCTION : 37 MILLION

"And the buyer? According to The New York Times, the winning bidder was dealer José Mugrabi, who was once reported to have the “ world largest private stash ” of Warhol paintings — 800 of them in total. Th Wall Street Journal profile of the dealer in 2008 included one humorous incident highlighting how hard it must be to keep track of his hundreds of purchases.."

Linked to the LA Times Article - click on the title!

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.

KEELY SMITH : THERE'S A HOUSE PARTY TONIGHT: FROM OUR ARCHIVES POST (121)

POST (121) on KEELY SMITH From March 2008

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 the historical music YouTube video below, which is not of the song "There's A House Party Tonight," but does document Keely's act with Louis! You could say she's the "straight man" to his exuberance!

SAYING HELLO TO OUR INTERNATIONAL READERS! CANADA and POLAND HAVE BEEN HITTING THIS SITE LIKE CRAZY!

As you know, we do our best to post interesting information, historical music videos, a few good pictures, and a bit about my life in the music business, starting as a singer, then singer-songwriter, then music producer. I've had an uncommon life and decided to write about it but several years ago I was shocked to find out that Rockin Country Style (RCS) and the on line Rockabilly Hall of Fame mentioned me. Me on the Internet? It took some getting used to.

Christine Trzyna and I wrote for a long time before Google installed some basic statistical info gadgets on blogs and we find the data that comes up kind of interesting.

Christine, who is an American with Polish ancestors, tells me that suddenly a lot more readers are coming to the site from Canada and Poland. We think the Canadian hits are a result of Ted Stauton's record lable history site which we've posted on with links to his recent Wes Bryan page. (We thank you again Ted!) She likes the idea that there are Polish rock and roll fans checking in especially because she hopes to visit Poland someday. She went to the Polish festival here in Los Angeles last year at one of the oldest Catholic churches in the country and got to hear "The Polish Elvis" who came in from Chicago. She said he had a great voice and she gave him our contact info but he never got in touch after he left town.

We appreciate hearing from our readers and we want to thank you again for keeping us in mind - we know you only have so much time to get on the net. In the last year top hits came from USA, Germany, UK, Russia, Canada, Netherlands, France, Spain, Poland, and Australia. In the last month it was USA, Canada, Russia, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, Sweden, Brazil, and UK. In the last week or so it was USA, Russia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Thailand, Japan, Canada, and Columbia. In the last few days Finland and India have been checking in too! We even got one hit from Uganda!

It makes us happy...

THIS IS NOT A "CASH FOR CLICKS" SITE

Just a reminder... WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC has no affiliation with any "Cash for Clicks" type organization.  We love it when you visit us because you're interested in our subject, but no organization is getting a penny because you visit.  We mention this because we notice when there are a big number of hits from another link.  We visit those links to see what's up.

(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...

JIMMY BOWEN : SINGER SONGWRITER AND FAMOUS MUSIC PRODUCER TO BE (307) FROM OUR ARCHIVES

FROM OUR ARCHIVES POST (307) JIMMY BOWEN : SINGER SONGWRITER AND FAMOUS MUSIC PRODUCER TO BE! from April 26 2010.


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 Fabian and "Don't Stay Away" which was recorded by Jerry Fuller.

JIMMY BOWEN : MY BABY'S GONE : FLIP SIDE OF BUDDY KNOX'S PARTY DOLL

JIMMY BOWEN and the RHYTHM ORCHIDS : "My Baby's Gone" was the flip side of fellow Rhythm Orchid BUDDY KNOX'S hit "Party Doll." Jimmy was instrumental in my early career as far back as Akron, Ohio. This song is one of many I remember from touring in the late 1950's. The Rhythm Orchids formed when Jimmy and Buddy and Don Lanier met at West Texas State College. Jimmy played stand up base, Donny played lead guitar, and David Alldred, who they first met when they recorded with Norman Petty, played drums.