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22 chapter Teen Scene Cast of Characters Julius Dixson, Deb Records Clyde Otis, Mercury Records A&R man and songwriter Harold B. Lipsius, Jamie-Guyden Records Bob Marcucci, Chancellor Records Doc Pomus, Fabian songwriter Dave Appell, Cameo-Parkway Records Hank Ballard, “The Twist” songwriter Paul Evans, Carlton-Guaranteed Records artist-songwriter also featuring Dick Clark, American Bandstand host; and Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann, Cameo-Parkway Records By the late 1950s, heavy rock ’n’ roll, mixing the harsher elements of R&B with testosterone-laden rockabilly, had seen its best days. Or so it seemed. Even Sun Records’ Sam Phillips was talking about rock ’n’ roll in the past tense. He was paraphrased by Billboard in May 1959 as saying, “Perhaps never again will pop music be so dominated by a single style of sound. But the kids ‘got tired of the ruckus’ and we are moving into a period of greater variety in taste.” The story noted that “the explosive trend put music on equal terms economically with other leading entertainment forms and he [Phillips] credited it with being the miracle drug that saved the life of radio.” As well, “R & r. pulled a coup, where many previous campaigns failed, in getting young America to dance again.” Interestingly, Phillips forecast “a grand re-entrance of the big dance bands,” which showed that his crystal ball was not always correct.1 Now it was the turn of innocent teen idols singing innocuous teen songs. The smarter record makers were well aware that the first baby boomers were approaching money-spending age and that the majority of teen buyers were impressionable young girls. The continued strength of the carriers of teenage music was expressed graphically in i-xvi_1-592_Brov.indd 415 11/19/09 10:45:07 AM 416 rock ’n’ roll is here to stay a 1958 year-end Billboard report by Bob Rolontz, who stated that “76 percent of all hits” were on indie labels, with “only 24 percent belonging to the four majors, Capitol, Columbia, Victor and Decca.”2 Fourteen months earlier, that esteemed entertainment weekly Variety had chronicled the ongoing majors vs. indies, David and Goliath saga in a ribald feature by Mike Gross that was as relevant as ever, perhaps even more so. Noted Gross, “It’s all a matter of ‘wheeling and dealing,’ a game in which the indies are making their bigtime rivals look like pigeons. Working with hustling freelance distributors, the indies have been able to pile up a long line of regional hits with quite a number eventually falling into the national sweepstakes.” The writer hinted that the “indie distribs” were romancing the jukebox operators and dealers with “under-the-counter” giveaways, as well as offering “special” consideration to the disc jockeys. “It’s all written off, somehow, by a special process developed by the indies,” he opined. “Some of it is written off to promotion and sundry other expenses, while at other times it’s just conveniently forgotten when accounting time to the publishers comes around.” Gross acknowledged that “the indies continue to move in from left field and take away the play.”3 RCA’s major label intervention into the teen arena with Elvis Presley meant that the writing would be on the wall, eventually, for the independents. A big market leap forward had come in 1956, Presley’s annus mirabilis, when record sales nationally increased from $277 million to $377 million. It was a massive year-on-year uptick of 36 percent. Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” full of angst and atmosphere, was the perfect record to kick-start his career on RCA Victor after the Sun transfer, and it simply flew off the record shop shelves into teenagers’ dens nationwide. In its slipstream came the ultimate back-to-back hit coupling of “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel,” followed through by “All Shook Up.” Not only were Elvis’s records for RCA selling by the millions , the productions were works of professional craftsmanship. He was also breaking new ground for fellow rock ’n’ rollers in the movies and on television: The Ed Sullivan Show TV clips, in particular, reveal that Presley was way ahead of the field in terms of brio, bravado, and star quality. Moreover, he was introducing subtly into his repertoire gentle ballads such as “Love Me Tender” and “Love Me.” Meanwhile, the hunt was on for the next Elvis by the majors and the indies alike. Perhaps the best of the rest was Ricky Nelson. Lew Chudd of Imperial Records...

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