The Melody Man: Joe Davis and the New York Music Scene, 1916-1978

Chapter 8 Back to the Brill Building

200 Back to the Brill Building The year 1948 marked Joe Davis’s effective departure as a full-time record executive. He sold his West 51st Street building and moved back into the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway, the city’s longtime “home” for songwriters and publishers. Nonetheless, Davis occasionally ventured back into producing discs. The Billboard for February 21, 1948, carried this caption: Davis To Issue Celebrity Label. Beneath the caption it reported: Joe Davis, veteran music publisher and disker, has re-entered the pop platter field and will market pressings of his biscuit backlog, amassed thru a long career in the wax biz, under a new label called Celebrity. First releases of the diskery, Savannah Churchill’s “Fat Meat Is Good Meat” backed by “Tell Me Your Blues And I Will Tell You Mine,” are skedded for the retail market March 1. Diskery has named Larry Newton as sales manager and is trying to line-up national distribution. According to Davis, the label will have no effect upon his Davis label, which will continue its separate operation for the most part in the Latin-American field. This disc cross-coupled the 1942 Beacon session, released to cash in on her Manor hit. Anxious to obtain as much mileage as possible from his advertisement in The Billboard for “Fat Meat Is Good Meat” (Celebrity 2003) Davis included a copy of the record label, presumably to highlight some of the musicians present. Beneath this the ad stated that the wholesale price was 49 cents and the dealer price 75 cents, “all orders sent post paid without extra cost.” Below this, in capital letters, he wrote: LIVE WIRE GOOD-PAYING DISTRIBUTORS WANTED Many record producers must have smiled at that plea. Chapter Eight Back to the Brill Building 201 Davis printed a small Celebrity Records release sheet, No. 1 (seemingly the only one), offering availability of three records on March 19: the plugged release along with a picture of Celebrity 2007 by Sammy Kaye and his Orchestra with Tommy Ryan as vocalist. He proclaimed this coupling as, “Two ‘Oldies’ with the ‘New Look,’” and as part of the Popular-Standard series. Jan Peerce’s album sold over 11,000 copies and Davis issued Celebrity 2006 “Without a Song” and “I’m Falling in Love with Someone,” neither of which appeared on his album. Celebrity 2003 was the Savannah Churchill with the full personnel named after the caption Savannah at Her Best—Musicians That Sizzle. The release sheet included a double column listing of artists under the headings: Celebrity Records Promises Releases of Distinction— Songs of Appeal for Every Taste— A Roster of Celebrated Artists— Davis was clearly offering many potential releases, should the demand exist. Some Bon Bon reissues followed, but some were new releases of previously unissued material from earlier sessions. On February 26 Davis ordered 3,000 pairs of labels for Celebrity 2012 by Champion Jack Dupree; theremainingtwotitles,“BigLeggedMama”and“I’maDoctorforWomen,” from his last session. Celebrity 2012 remains virtually unknown to postwar blues collectors, though a handful of copies turned up in Davis’s effects. Interestingly, The Billboard account above mentions Davis’s reentry into the record scene, implying his retirement from the business. Davis eventually left a long and twisted trail of seemingly haphazard releases. For example, he reissued the 5 Red Caps’ JD 7142, “Strictly on the Safety Side” and “Words Can’t Explain,” which may date from this period, as Beacon 4120 (the only known one in the series). This release, however, could just as easily be from some later period, even from the early to mid-1950s. Davis also continued acquiring and assigning songs from his earlier companies and the following account accentuates the complex nature of music publishing. In 1948 he published a white gospel hymn, “What Would You Give in Exchange for Your Soul,” based on Matthew 16:26. A new arrangement had been given to the hymn published the previous year by Joe Davis Music Co., Inc. In turn Davis acquired it from Joseph M. Davis (music publishers) in 1941, which they had bought from William T. Pettengill in 1941. Pettengill renewed the original copyright of 1913, Back to the Brill Building 202 which had then been assigned to the Metropolitan Church Association of Waukesha, Wisconsin. Music publishing is a complex business. In March 1948, Davis received a fascinating letter from his old music...