BIRMINGHAM RECORD COLLECTORS
DEDICATED TO THE COLLECTING OF MUSIC, ITS PRESERVATION AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH 2:00 PM
HOMEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY 1721 OXMOOR RD BIRMINGHAM, AL 35209
NEXT MEETING, DECEMBER 11TH 2:00 PM
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
Thanks to Bob Friedman for playing some great doo wop and group harmony 78’s at last month’s meeting. Bob is our doo wop expert-in-resident and his knowledge of the genre was on display as he talked about the records he was playing. Thanks, Bob.
This month we have scheduled to be with us long-time local band member, BRC Music Hall Of Fame member (3-time inductee) and just a good friend of BRC, Henry Lovoy. Henry has been with us before in the past and everyone always looks forward to hearing from him. Henry will be updating us on his recent musical activities and some memories of the past. Hope you can make it. Bring a friend!
Next month we will have our annual Christmas party including playing the fun game, Dirty Santa. Plan on wrapping up a small gift of any kind and drop by and join the fun. Don’t want to play but want to drop by, no problem. See ya there!
LAST MAN STANDING
Of all the early Memphis Recording Service, aka Sun Studio recording stars, the group that help bring about and put R&R on the map, Jerry Lee Lewis was as he put it the ‘last man standing’ as time went on. So many big names in the recording business would get their start at Sun and move on to other labels and we enjoyed the music and as time went on we would see them pass away. Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Howlin’ Wolf, B. B. King and Ike Turner and many more would come through the Sun Studio doors and make great sounds that would make the public clamor for more. Well, Jerry Lee was the last and now he is gone. The Killer died on October 28, 2022 at the age of 87. Jerry Lee’s recordings were some of the early piano rock that made me a fan of the piano. So it was sad to hear that The Killer’s hands are now quite. Thank goodness he took the chance on recording his music and we will always be able to hear those sounds with just a drop of a needle or the push of a button.
I have to mention a story which includes The Killer. If you ever saw the PBS documentary on the History of Rock & Roll, you may remember this. At the beginning of one of the segments, one about the progression of R&R in or around 1957, 1958 the viewer sees an older car driving down the road with a rock song playing on the drivers radio. If memory serves me well it was ‘Good Rockin’ Tonight’ with Elvis singing. A quote appears on the screen which says, ‘When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake’: Plato. Then after a brief moment another quote appears, ‘Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On’: Jerry Lee Lewis. What a great combo of quotes. This stuck with me for a long time. Years later while I was working at a college I contacted a professor who was a philosophy instructor. I asked him if that quote from Plato was real and he said it was. So although Jerry Lee didn’t write the lyrics to “Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On’, they were written by Dave ‘Curlee’ Williams and wasn’t the first to record it, he opened up the eyes and ears of many a music listener to such rockin’ sounds. After he heard an Elvis record for the first time Jerry Lee said ‘Wow!. Looka right here. I don’t know who the dude is but someone just done opened the door’. How right he was. RIP, Jerry Lee.
Enjoy some of The Killer’s music. Click to play.
‘Who’s Gonna Play This Old Piano’
(good question from 1972)
(Jerry Lee plays ‘you a little lick on this piano’ 1979)
(one of my favorite non-charted 45’s he did. flip side is ‘Money’. 1961)
‘Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On’
(’nuff said. 1957)
LEIBER & STOLLER, POMUS & SHUMAN, OTIS BLACKWELL, AARON……….WHO?
Elvis Presley had eighteen #1 Billboard hits in the US and twenty-one #1’s in the UK. The writers of these songs are well-known in the music business and many of the writers’ names are famously known among record collectors and listeners. If the names Leiber & Stoller are mentioned we all think of ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘Hound Dog’. These two guys wrote many songs for Elvis including three that topped the US charts. Doc Pumus and Mort Shuman’s names bring to mind ‘Little Sister’, ‘Suspicion’ and ‘Surrender’. The duo had one #1 for Elvis in the US and three in the UK. And the name of Otis Blackwell brings to mind ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ and ‘All Shook Up’. He had two of his compositions go to #1 for Elvis in the US and three in the UK.
But the name that not many know, unless they look at the labels of 45’s closely or the credits on the back of LP’s, is a man that wrote for Elvis as well would be Aaron Schroeder. In his career Mr. Schroeder is credited with writing over 1500 songs, songs recorded by the likes of Roy Orbison, Duane Eddy, Sammy Davis, Jr, Perry Como and Nat King Cole. So if you compare his collection of Elvis songs with those writers mentioned above you will find he wrote SEVENTEEN songs that Elvis recorded and a total of FOUR that went to #1 in the US and THREE in the UK. His #1 hits in the US included ‘A Big Hunk O’ Love’, ‘Stuck On You’, It’s Now Or Never’ and ‘Good Luck Charm’. Schroeder had many co-writers work with him throughout the years one being Wally Gold who was a co-writer on both ‘It’s Now Or Never’ and ‘Good Luck Charm’. Gold said after Schroeder’s death, speaking about the song ‘It’s Now Or Never’, ‘Aaron wrote other hits, I wrote other hits. But a song we finished in 20 minutes to a half-hour was the biggest of our career.’
Schroeder’s career accomplishments also included being the founder and president of Musicor Records. He would discover and manage Gene Pitney, producing Pitney’s hit, ‘Town Without Pity’. He would pair Pitney with Hal David and Burt Bacharach which produced the hit’s ‘(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance’, ‘Only Love Can Break A Heart’ and ’24 Hours From Tulsa’.
Schroeder would help the careers in some way or another over the years of many including Barry White, Randy Newman, Al Kooper, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Jimi Hendrix.
So the next time you hear the writing teams of Leiber & Stoller or Pumus & Shuman mentioned don’t forget Schroeder & Gold and specifically Aaron Schroeder. The writer of more #1 songs by Elvis than anyone else.
BRC RADIO
Check out our latest shows at birminghamrecord.com. Click on ‘RADIO’ and listen to some long-lost music and even some new sounds. There is a wide variety of music now that we have 4 hosts doing shows which provides a wide-range of musical genres.
See ya,
Charlie