Posted on 07/04/2015 6:25:17 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
Those who own the publishing aren’t necessarily the ones who owned them at the point of creation. It’s a big monopoly and it proves that payola works since half a century later those are still the only songs being played on radio.
As for dictating what someone is going to run, scratch the surface and you’ll find that often it was some connected producer who owned some old song and wanted to bring it back to make more dough-re-mi.
Rock Around The Clock was the b-side of Bill Haley’s single for Decca (he’d already been recording for Essex and Vogue among others). The record guy owned publishing on “13 Women” and wanted his song recorded (as the A-side so he’d get the money from sales). He was so fixated on his own investment that the Comets only had 30 minutes to record Rock Around The Clock. They managed to record 2 takes and they had to be spliced together to get a usable track.
Blueberry Hill, Keep A Knockin’, Are You Lonesome Tonight? All of these were decades old songs by the time they became “rock and roll” hits.
My favorite version of the gospel song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” is by the Old Fashioned Revival Hour Quartet. However, I don’t believe it’s available anywhere online by itself, although it can be found in some of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour worship service broadcast transcripts that are available online.
Look in Amazon MP3 downloads. Sometimes old lost songs show up there and can be downloaded even songs you can’t otherwise find or buy anymore. Check back every month or so if it’s not there.
You are right.
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