On This Date (September 26, 2008) Bryan Morrison / Managed Pink Floyd, Pretty Things

Bryan Morrison
1943(?) – September 26, 2008

Byran Morrison was a music publisher and manager who guided the careers of the Pretty Things and Pink Floyd during their early years.  As a music publisher, he owned the valuable catalogs of Wham, T. Rex, the Bee Gees and the Jam.  In 2006, Morrison was involved in an accident, leaving him in a coma ever since.  On September 26, 2008, Bryan Morrison died due to an apparent infection at the age of 65.

Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number1Albums

RIP, Ellie Greenwich (August 26, 2009) Wrote Many Hits In The ’60s

Ellie Greenwich
October 23, 1940 – August 26, 2009

Ellie Greenwich was a prolific songwriter, writing or co-writing some of the most enduring pop songs of the ’60s and ’70s.  Either on her own or with such songwriting partners as her one-time husband, Jeff Barry, Greenwich penned such gems as “Be My Baby” (The Ronettes), “Then He Kissed Me” (The Crystals), “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” (Darlene Love), “Hanky Panky” (Tommy James & The Shondells), “River Deep, Mountain High” (Ike & Tina Turner), and “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (Manfred Mann).  In later years, Greenwich co-formed Tallyrand Music to publish her recent discovery, Neil Diamond.  Ellie Greenwich died of a heart attack on August 26, 2009.  She was 68 years old.

Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number1Albums for the lead

On This Date (June 4, 1973) Murry Wilson

Murry Wilson
July 2, 1917 – June 4, 1973

Murry Wilson was a songwriter, musician, record producer, and most importantly, the father of Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.  Wilson began as a songwriter during the ’50s, having a couple of his songs covered but never gaining much success.  All the while, he was teaching his own sons how to write, sing and play music.   The brothers eventually added cousin Mike Love and schoolmate, Al Jardine to become the Beach Boys.  The Beach Boys would soon become one of the most popular bands in rock history by almost single-handedly definining a musical genre.  While managing the boys’ career, Murry was known to be a fierce negotiator, and was reportedly just as ruthless at home.  He and his sons had a tough relationship that may have actually fueled their creativity and drive.  Murry Wilson died following a heart attack at the age of 55.

On This Date (May 15, 2008) Al Gallico / Famed Music Publisher

Al Gallico
1920 – May 15, 2008

Al Gallico at center

Al Gallico was an immensely  successful music publisher who owned the copyrights on such classics as “Stand By Your Man,” “House Of The Rising Sun,” “Ring Of Fire,” ” “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA,” and “Time Of The Season.”  Over a career that stretched some 70 years, Gallico worked with such talent as the Zombies, Billy Sherrill, Joe Stampley, and Donna Fargo, whom he discovered.  He began his career in his late teens, working first as an errand boy for a publishing house, and later a song plugger for Leed’s Music.  Gallico died of cardiac arrest and pulmonary disease at the age of 88.

On This Date (March 28, 1958) W.C. Handy / Father Of The Blues

William Christopher Handy
November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958

W.C. Handy was born in Florence, Alabama in a log cabin that was built by his grandfather.  By the time he was a teenager he was playing both trumpet and clarinet in a band. He would become a teacher by trade and was soon writing songs that would become blues standards.  His “St. Louis Blues” as recorded by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong is considered one of the finest songs of the era.  Along with his autobiography, Handy wrote five books on the subject of music, blues and African American life in the early 20th century.  In 1943, Handy was blinded as a result of a fall from a subway platform.  He passes away  at the age of 84 fom pneumonia.  An estimated 25,000 people attended his funeral while an additional 125,000 gathered in nearby streets to pay their respects.

RIP, Ralph Mercado (March 10, 2009) Known as the “Berry Gordy of Salsa”

Ralph Mercado
September 29, 1941 – March 10, 2009

Ralph Mercado, a promoter who took his passion for Latin music and built an empire around it, not only staging concerts but creating a recording and publishing label, a film and video company, and nightclubs and restaurants, died on Tuesday in Hackensack, N.J. He was 67.  The cause was cancer, said Blanca Lasalle, a spokeswoman, who gave no other details. Mr. Mercado managed stars like Tito Puente and Celia Cruz, and discovered and helped shape the careers of others like Marc Anthony and La India. He organized concerts of salsa music — that lively hybrid of Cuban rhythms, big bands and American harmonies — in large halls like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. His RMM label recorded more than 130 artists in genres including salsa, Latin jazz, Latin rock and merengue. “Artists are on the map because of his label,” Eddie Palmieri the Latin jazz and salsa pianist, said in an interview with The New York Times in 2001. “He took us to Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall.” Mr. Mercado helped inject new energy into salsa with powerful percussion and brass lines as he took advantage of the surging population and purchasing power of Latinos. He promoted blending the music with other influences, including Brazilian and African. He expanded internationally, and even brought an 11-member native-Japanese salsa band to the United States. Mr. Mercado was routinely called the largest promoter of salsa music. He was compared to Norman Granz or George Wein in jazz, or Berry Gordy in soul and R&B. Billboard in 1991 called him “the entrepreneur who took salsa from New York to the world.” Ralph Mercado Jr. was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 29, 1941. His father was a Dominican dockworker and his mother a Puerto Rican factory worker. Mr. Mercado told The Boston Globe in 1998 that he learned to dance the merengue, which comes from the Dominican Republic, in the hallway of the family’s fifth-floor walkup as soon as he could walk. As a young teenager he went to the Palladium nightclub in Manhattan to hear his first live concert, the Machito Orchestra. He was “completely blown away,” he told The Globe, adding, “I came out of there knowing I had to be involved in this music somehow, personally involved.” But he couldn’t sing or play an instrument. Then he remembered he was good with numbers. He and some friends started a social club and began booking live music in the basements of apartment buildings for what they called “waistline parties,” in which a couple’s admission fee was based on the size of the woman’s waist. (The smaller, the cheaper.) The parties attracted thousands. Mr. Mercado stood at the door with a tape measure. Sometimes going beyond salsa, he was soon putting together concerts with big acts like James Brown. But he began losing money in concert promotion and turned to managing individual performers. By the 1970s Forbes magazine said that Mr. Mercado was the nation’s biggest salsa manager. When the music sagged a bit in the 1980s, he lent money to money-losing club owners. Mr. Mercado started RMM Records in 1987. He sold it to the Universal and Music and Video Distribution Corporation in 2001 after he lost a copyright-infringement suit and fell into financial straits. He then threw himself into the business of producing Latin music events around the world. – Douglas Martin (New York Times)

On This Date (February 1, 1986) Dick James / Established The Beatles’ Publishing Company

Dick James (Born Reginald Vapnick)
December 12, 1920 – February 1, 1986

L-R: George Martin, Dick James, Brian Epstein

Dick James was a music publisher and the founder of the DJM record label and recording studios, as well as (with Brian Epstein) The Beatles’ publisher Northern Songs.  James sang with North London dance bands in his early teens, and was a regular vocalist at the Cricklewood Palais by the age of seventeen. He joined the Henry Hall band, and made first radio broadcast in 1940. Joining the Army in 1942, after World War II he continued to sing with top post-war bands, including Geraldo’s. Later still, James was also a part time member of The Stargazers, a popular early 1950s vocal group. James entered the music publishing business as his singing career tapered off, and in 1963 established Northern Songs Ltd., with Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney, to publish Lennon and McCartney’s original songs. (Fellow Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr were also signed to Northern Songs as songwriters, but did not renew their contracts in 1968). James’s company, Dick James Music, administered Northern Songs. What initially began as an amicable working relationship between the Beatles and James disintegrated by the late 1960s; the Beatles considered that James had betrayed and taken advantage of them when he sold Northern Songs in 1969 without offering the band an opportunity to buy control of the publishing company. James profited handsomely from the sale of Northern Songs, but the Beatles never again had the rights to their own songs. During the 1960s he also handled Billy J. Kramer and Gerry & The Pacemakers. James signed Elton John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin as untried unknowns in 1967, and formed DJM Records in ‘69. Indeed, all of John’s early releases (up to 1976) were issued on the DJM record label. The label also carried Jasper Carrott, RAH Band and even John Inman.  John formed his own Rocket label in 1976, but in 1982, John was involved in a long court case with James about royalties. James died of an heart attack in early 1986, at the age of 65. – From wikipedia

On This Date (January 17, 1998) Cliffie Stone

Cliffie Stone (Born Clifford Snyder)
March 1, 1917 – January 17, 1998

A native of California, Cliffie Stone was born Clifford Gilpin Snyder in Burbank on March 1, 1917. The son of entertainer, comedy star, and banjo picker Herman the Hermit, Stone was known for his struggle to bring California’s country & western music into favor in post-World War II America. He began playing bass in big bands with Freddie Slack and Anson Weeks as well as with other bands around Hollywood and Pasadena, but it was his work on radio stations KFUD and KFWB that brought him respect. Shows such as Covered Wagon Jubilee and Lucky Stars, broadcast out of Los Angeles, allowed him to show off his numerous skills. Working as a DJ, comedian, performer, and host, Stone won fame doing 28 radio shows a week between 1943 and 1947. As a featured performer on the Hollywood Barn Dance, he made a place for himself in country music history. In 1946 he accepted a position with Capitol Records, who were gearing up for the still as yet undefined Bakersfield movement. An A&R executive with Capitol for 20 years, Stone discovered Tennessee Ernie Ford, whom he managed from 1947 to 1957, Molly Bee, Hank Thompson, and others who were flocking to L.A. to record.  In spite of his success at Capitol, Stone was best remembered for his radio work. His show on Pasadena radio station KXLA, Dinner Bell Roundup, was a daily variety presentation that brought large numbers of country & western entertainers into the homes of his listeners. In 1944 the show picked up and moved to El Monte. The new location brought with it a new name, Hometown Jamboree. Recording six albums of his own he earned co-writing credits on hits “Divorce Me C.O.D.,” “So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed,” and in 1947, “Silver Stars, Purple Sage, Eyes of Blue.” He recorded with various versions of his own band, including Cliffie Stone & His Orchestra, Cliffie Stone & His Barn Dance Band, as well as Cliffie Stone’s Country Hombres.  Concentrating on the business side of things, the 1960s saw Stone’s publishing company, Central Songs, flourish. He even headed up a label, Granite, for a time. The father of Curtis Stone, one of the founding members of Highway 101, Stone wrote several books, including Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Songwriting but Didn’t Know Who to Ask, published in 1991. He died of a heart attack on January 17, 1998.  – Jena Pendragon (allmusic)