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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 4 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Re: Billy Davis, R.I.P.
From: Austin Roberts
2. Re: Billy Davis, R.I.P.
From: Charles Ellis
3. Re: Billy Davis
From: Phil X Milstein
4. "Every Little Bit Hurts"
From: Mick Patrick
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 22:56:41 EDT
From: Austin Roberts
Subject: Re: Billy Davis, R.I.P.
Mick Patrick:
> I'd be interested to learn of other S'poppers favourites from
> his massive body of work, or any interesting stories from
> anyone who might have worked with him.
Billy Davis produced and wrote many of the Coke commercials. I
worked with him in the early 70's around the time Something's
Wrong With Me hit. We wrote a Coke song for me to sing as a
commercial. Unfortunately, it never got made but Billy was cool
to work with and very talented. Sorry to hear that he died.
Austin Roberts
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 06:54:53 -0000
From: Charles Ellis
Subject: Re: Billy Davis, R.I.P.
How heartbreaking- as a longtime fan of Chicago soul (a genre that
has been VASTLY underrated!), it's quite sad to hear of Mr. Davis'
passing. He did so much as Chess Records' A&R chief in the 60s,
especially with Etta James, Billy Stewart, Sugar Pie DeSanto, the
Dells, Tony Clarke, Fontella Bass, Mitty Collier, Jan Bradley, the
Ramsey Lewis Trio, Jackie Ross- and that's just the tip of the
iceberg! And he gave big breaks to future stars Minnuie Riperton
and Maurice White of Earth, Wind, & Fire ( a Chess studio musician
in the 60s). It's a big loss because the music industry just
doesn't have the same type of man with "the golden ear" any more.
In retrospect we can also say that Mr. Davis had a big influence on
what became Motown because of his early partnership with Berry
Gordy. He WILL be missed........
Charles Ellis
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Message: 3
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:41:03 +0000
From: Phil X Milstein
Subject: Re: Billy Davis
The New York Times’s obituary of Billy Davis:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Billy Davis, Who Developed Iconic TV Ads, Dies at 72
by Margalit Fox
September 10, 2004
Billy Davis, a Detroit singer and songwriter turned advertising
executive who was involved in many of the most memorable R&B hits and
musical ad campaigns of the late 20th century, died on Sept. 2 at his
home in New Rochelle, N.Y. He was 72. Mr. Davis's sister, Gladys Adams,
did not announce a cause, saying only that he had been ill for some time.
His most famous campaign, "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke," was a
long-running television commercial and later a hit song on its own.
As a rhythm-and-blues singer, Mr. Davis performed with an early version
of the Four Tops and helped the group get its first recording contract.
Under the name Tyran Carlo, he wrote music and lyrics for stars like
Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, James Brown and the Supremes. Mr. Davis's
hit songs, many written with Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records,
included "Reet Petite," "Lonely Teardrops" and "That's Why (I Love You
So)."
In later years, Mr. Davis also composed a string of successful
advertising jingles, also including "It's the Real Thing" and "Things Go
Better With Coke" for Coca-Cola, and "If You've Got the Time" for Miller
Beer.
Roquel Billy Davis was born July 11, 1932, in Detroit. His early musical
experience had its roots in the city, with its vigorous popular music
scene, and in his extended family.
"My career started early, singing on street corners," The Financial
Times quoted Mr. Davis as having said. "There was a doo-wop group for
every neighborhood and talent shows every week."
In the early 1950's, a cousin of Mr. Davis, Lawrence Payton, started a
group called the Four Aims. Mr. Davis, who sometimes sang with them as a
fifth member, sent a tape of the group to Chess Records in Chicago.
Although Chess was more enthusiastic about Mr. Davis's original material
than about the group itself, it signed the Four Aims to the label in
1956. To avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers, the group changed its
name to the Four Tops.
Though the Four Tops did poorly at Chess, the label gave several of Mr.
Davis's compositions to its other artists, including "See Saw," recorded
by the Moonglows and "A Kiss From Your Lips," recorded by the Flamingos.
In the late 1950's, Mr. Davis joined forces with Mr. Gordy when he was
an up-and-coming Detroit songwriter and producer. They collaborated on
several hits, including "To Be Loved" and "I'll Be Satisfied," for
another of Mr. Davis's cousins, Jackie Wilson.
At first, writing for Mr. Wilson was reward enough in itself.
"We didn't even know we were supposed to be paid," Mr. Davis told The
Detroit News last year.
When they finally asked for money, it caused a break with Mr. Wilson's
manager. The two men struck out on their own. Mr. Davis helped start
Anna Records, later absorbed into Mr. Gordy's Motown label.
"If it wasn't for that rejection, then maybe there wouldn't have been a
Motown," Mr. Davis said last year.
In the early 1960's, Mr. Davis became a producer and A&R director at
Chess. There, he produced the hit "Rescue Me," sung by Fontella Bass.
The record caught the attention of the New York advertising agency
McCann-Erickson. In 1968, Mr. Davis joined the agency, becoming music
director and eventually a senior vice president.
In hiring Mr. Davis, McCann-Erickson was one of the first agencies to
take pop music seriously as a way to sell consumer goods. Working with
the agency's creative director, Bill Backer, and the British songwriter
Roger Cook, Mr. Davis created a jingle for Coca-Cola tentatively titled
"Mom, True Love and Apple Pie." Mr. Davis adapted the tune from an
earlier song by Mr. Cook and Roger Greenaway.
Recorded by the New Seekers under the title "I'd Like to Buy the World a
Coke," the song was a failure when it was first played on the radio in
1971. But when it was rerecorded for a television spot, this time sung
by an enormous children's chorus, it quickly and indelibly imprinted
itself in the minds of a generation.
Mr. Davis rewrote it as "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect
Harmony)."
Mr. Davis is survived by his sister, of Baldwin, N.Y., and a son, Shawn,
of New Rochelle. His wife, Patricia Hardy, died last year.
"Using music in a commercial is a great aid to recall," Mr. Davis told
The Detroit Free Press in 1983. "It will help you remember the
commercial and the product. Music allows you to add emotional content."
But Pepsi, not Coke, was the beverage of choice when he was a teenager,
he told the paper, because a Pepsi was only a nickel, while it took two
to buy a Coke.
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 4
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 20:04:08 +0100
From: Mick Patrick
Subject: "Every Little Bit Hurts"
Don't ask me where they originate from, but dozens, possibly
hundreds, of unissued Motown recordings are presently in
circulation. Among them is an unidentified version of "Every
Little Bit Hurts", a song most of you will know by Brenda
Holloway. Rumour has it that this mystery rendition is by Oma
Heard, also known as Oma Drake, and frequently erroneously
billed by Motown themselves as Oma Page. Anyway, that's all
by the by, because having recently heard the track, I can
report that it's very obvious to me that the unidentified
vocalist and Oma Heard sound nothing alike. So who is the
unnamed singer?
Well, after much ferreting around in the heap of junk I
sometimes refer to as my archives, I found an interview with
Ed Cobb, who wrote the song. A 15-page epic, it was published
in issues 38, 39 and 40 of Blitz magazine in 1980/1. The
interview rather dwells of Cobb's years in the Four Preps and
his later work with the Standells and the Chocolate Watch
Band, but does touch upon "Every Little Bit Hurts". For the
benefit of my Motown-obsessed pals, here's what Ed has to say:
-------------------------------------------------------------
>From the Ed Cobb Story by Mike McDowell
Part Three, The Production Years
Blitz magazine, #40, July-August, 1981
Ed Cobb: I wrote "Every Little Bit Hurts", cut the tracks and
had a girl named Barbara Wilson singing on it. I spent $3,000
in plane fares shopping it around to every record company
there was. I finally ended up at Motown in Detroit.
Berry Gordy's secretary asked me if I had an appointment. I
said that I didn't. She said, "Mr Gordy can't see you right
now. If you call for an appointment, we'll set one up." I told
her, "You don't understand. I've got to see him. Please tell
him where I'm staying and that I'll be there until he calls me."
Three days went by. I finally got a call saying that he wanted
to see me. I walked into his office. He didn't say much. He put
the record on and said, "Sounds like a hit to me." He added,
"We've got a girl on the west coast by the name of Brenda
Holloway. We're just starting up our west coast operations. Go
see Mark Gordon and Hal Davis out there."
I don't hold any hostility at this juncture in my life over
what happened after that. But what happened was that I put the
entire record together. Hal came in with me and put on Brenda
Holloway's voice, but I had produced the whole record. I told
Berry Gordy that I get the production credits when the record
comes out. We mixed it down and sent it to him.
Then I went back on the road, because I was still with the
Four Preps doing college concerts. We were in North Carolina,
and I heard the record coming on the air. I thought that was
great.
While I was in Detroit, Berry had me cut the Supremes, Marvin
Gaye and a whole bunch of other artists. I was up three nights
in a row, doing one session after another. In the middle of
that, the contracts went by. These were the contracts for
publishing and at that time what I thought was producer's
royalty. None of those things happened. I wound up with my
writing royalties on that record, and nothing else.
I was dazzled by all these artists I was producing, and never
paid any attention to the business. I was still a kid. That
was my first lesson about the business. When I finally got a
copy of the record to show my wife, it said that Ed Cobb wrote
it, but that Jobete published it. That was not my company. And
it listed Hal Davis and Mark Gordon as the producers! But
nothing was altered on the rhythm tracks. It was the exact
same demo that I brought to Motown in the first place.
I cut two records with Brenda Holloway for Motown. Berry Gordy
wanted me to come back to Detroit and cut some more, but I
said, "No! I've cut my last record for Motown. That's it!"
>From there, I went strictly on my own to other labels. I
watched every piece of paper from that day henceforth.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I have a nagging suspicion that Barbara Wilson was related to
west coast Motowner Frank Wilson. Also, I seem to recall
reading elsewhere - maybe in an interview with Brenda Holloway
- that the singer with whom Ed Cobb recorded the original
version of "Every Little Bit Hurts" died shortly afterwards.
Maybe someone can confirm?
"Every Little Bit Hurts" by Barbara Wilson is now playing @
musica: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spectropop/files/musica/
Enjoy.
Hey la,
Mick Patrick
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