Word: ertegun
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...Irving Berlin?s "Alexander?s Ragtime Band" and the Arlen-Mercer "Come Rain or Come Shine." Then he was gone -away from Atlantic, off to ABC Paramount, for the life of an interpretive rather than creative artist. Ray Charles sings country? Well, why not? But not at Atlantic, where Ertegun had to be asking, "Where...
...PRINCE How much had changed since 1947, when Ertegun founded the company; or even since 1954, when Big Joe Turner?s "Shake, Rattle and Roll," an Atlantic song covered and euphemized for white folks by Billy Haley, ushered in what became known as rock ?n roll. An artistic and commercial restlessness sent agreeable tremors through the industry. As Leiber and Stoller could simultaneously produce the Coasters and the Drifters, a performer like Darin could quickly switch from rocker to saloon singer...
...Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto in 1936) had cut a few sides for Atco, the Atlantic subsidiary, with little impact. Herb Abramson, head of Atco, wanted to drop him, but Ertegun overruled the decision. Ahmet and ace engineer Tom Dowd supervised the kid?s next session, using their new Ampex eight-track recording system; out of this came two 1958 hits, "Splish Splash" and "Queen of the Hop." The first song, which Darin had written in 12 minutes, begins with water-bubble sounds, cueing its novelty nature; but it had drive and its narrator?s tough-guy befuddlement at finding...
...attack by lead singer Carl Gardner. The vocal could have come right off the Chitlin Circuit of black vaudeville; imagine Mantan Moreland as a great belter. The production is full, clear and incorrigibly boppin?- Leiber and Stoller, out by the Pacific, showing the Atlantic boys how it?s done. Ertegun was smart enough to know he wanted not just the record but its begettors. So he hired L&S as independent producers - the first in music-biz history...
...hits in the rock era. Wilbert Harrison had a #1 hit with "Kansas City" in 1959, seven years after Little Willie Littlefield recorded it as "K.C. Lovin?." "Hound Dog," written for Big Mama Thornton, and "Love Me," for Willy and Ruth, were covered by Elvis Presley (whose Sun contract Ertegun had tried to buy, in 1955, for $25,000; RCA, which outbid him by $20,000, got a quick and lasting return on its investment). And somewhere beyond the sea, Edith Piaf would translate "Black Denim Trousers," which L&S wrote for The Cheers (featuring future Broadway "Cabaret" star...