Sudden unexpected windfall
Posted by Richard Lowe on 18 April 2008 - 1:00pm.
The fantastic new Kelly Rowland single, which I imagine is going to be a pretty big hit, is a cover of an old Bobby Womack song, Daylight.
Presumably it means Bobby will soon be trousering a pretty hefty chunk of loot. (Unless he cashed in his royalty rights to buy drugs, which isn't beyond the realms of possibility given his form as Sly Stone's partner-in-excess). Couldn't happen to a more deserving undersung talent.
How great must it be for a songwriter to get a sudden unexpected windfall like that.
Wasn't Nick Lowe suffering an uncomfortable juxtaposition of wolf and door before Peace Love & Understanding was used in The Bodyguard?
Any other examples of writers hitting the jackpot out of the blue?
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Ewan Mccoll
I always wondered what Ewan Maccoll must have made of the no doubt steady flow of money which came his way from The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.
In About a Boy the main character lives off the royalties of a Christmas single penned by his dad, I wonder if Nick Hornby based this on anyone.
Seeing as you mention The Bodyguard
Dolly Parton was asked by Elvis Presley's management in the 70s if he could record I Will Always Love You. She, as much as it pained her, had to decline because they wanted Elvis to have rights to some of the publishing. Which must have made it all ok when Whitney Houston over-emoted the song to death and turned it into a substantial moneyspinner for old Dolly.
An Artistic Tragedy
I wonder how many great songs Elvis never did because of the publishing "arrangements" that the Colonel insisted on. A great talent who largely did mediocre-to-poor material. An artistic tragedy really.
Yeah...
But once in a while, he'd come across a song that fitted him so well it hurt, like this one:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=257541286&...
Reg Presley
Didn't Reg Presley trouser a fortune in royalties from Wet Wet Wet's version of "Love is All Around"? All subsequently spent on "crop circle research", which may be a euphimism...
The Action
When Boney M covered "Painter Man", wasn't one of the writers driving a cab in Luton?
The Creation
not The Action. And they were a bit down-at-heel I think when Boney M did Painter Man. Inspired the name of Oasis's record label though. For what that's worth. And came up with a great quote: "our music is red ... with purple flashes".
The Action became Mighty Baby. Godawful by all accounts, though I've never heard them. And then - couple of members anyway - Ace.
Eddie Phillips, the guitarist in The Creation who wrote Painter Man was asked to join The Who as lead guitarist, but turned them down. Don't suppose he's kicking himself.
Another Creation related windfall.
Kenny Pickett of The Creation co wrote Grandad for Clive Dunn with Herbie Flowers.
Mighty Baby
Not quite as awful as godawful. I only last year bought Jug of Love, their 2nd outing, I believe, having ben drawn into the mystique by exploring the whereabouts of Martin Stone, esteemed guitar overlord for Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. After the Willis he was in the excellently named Jivebombers, seen once by me at the Hope and Anchor. Then he disappeared into becoming a second hand bookfinder, and there are some excellent tales of him if you google him under second hand books. Prior to the Willis he was in Mighty Baby and then Savoy Brown. Very idisyncratic guitar style and tone, a little akin to when people tried to simulate pedal steel runs, without the glissando, on a normal guitar, pre stringbender. A rush of very short notes, crowding in and off the beat. Mighty Baby all converted to Islam, but Martin returned to the Devil, it seems, as it was too strict for him, apparently. The CD is ok but you can't listen to it all in one go. Or I can't.
Other famous Willis: Phil Lithman (aka Snakefinger) rejoined the Residents before an early death. Paul Riley joined Roogalator.And Pete Thomas became an Attraction. I can't even remember the name of the 5th member. Or who Etleeb the giant beetle, on mouthorgan, on Bongos over Balham, was
Ray of Light
is the best example I've heard. Madonna based it on a track called Sepheryn by an obscure early seventies duo Curtiss Maldoon (Dave Curtiss and Clive Maldoon).
In 1971 you sell a few hundred albums, and pack it in a few years later.
In 1998 you wake up to find a song you wrote nearly 30 years ago is number one all over the world.
Wow
Curtiss Maldoon are ace. It's quite a lot different though, she could surely have got away with it if she changed the name.
The Real People
In 1987, Liverpool-based musician Anthony Griffiths penned 'One By One' for his band, "Jo Jo & The Real People". The band later shortened their name to The Real People and it was not included among the 12 tracks of their self titled debut album The Real People in 1991 on CBS Records. The band went on to have a couple of top 40 hits and were a big influence on Oasis.
In 1995, Cher recorded the song and released it in 1996 as the first U.S. and second European official single for her thirtieth album It's a Man's World. UK and US top ten hit followed - ker-ching for the Realies!
Reg Presley
also gave a lot of his fortune to Chip Taylor for Wild Thing.
Kurt Wallinger must raise a glass to the gobby Port Vale fan every time he hears 'Shes the one'.
He may well do...
...but artistic sensibilities demand that on R2's appalling "Jamming" he performed said number with the slightly altered lyric "If there's somebody stealing my song, he's the one". Not on the same scale as Peter Green giving his royalties back at shotgun point, but I treasure the Crowded House stage intro to "Don't Dream It's Over" which went "Here's a song stolen by Paul Young - we're stealing it back", a Bonio-related aside, I believe. And who knew that "Shaddap Your Face" was originally performed by Ugly Rumours? It wasn't, but that might help get it on wikipedia.
Quite a lot of people are unaware of the original providence of quite a lot of Led Zeppelin's output apparently. Including, judging by the writing credits, themselves.
Bobby Womack
Didn't Bobby Womack co-write Rolling Stones hit 'It's All Over Now'?? In which case I suspect he was doing OK for beer money before the 'Daylight' cover.
Dave from Zutons
must say a little prayer of thanks to Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson every single day....
Sorry for being longwinded but the chain of events is weird
Legend has it that in the 50's Australia's first rock n roll star Johnny O'Keefe was playing out in the sticks in the same building a wedding was going on.
The two events finished simultaneously, a fracas broke out in the streets and was watched from a balcony by a member of JOK's band and a guitarist who'd been playing at the wedding.
With nothing else to do they wrote a song on the spot called "The Wild One" and gave it to JOK to record. Like Elvis JOK took a share of the royalties. It became a sizable local hit and was recorded by (among others) Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis.
It was the only song the man from the wedding ever wrote and he completely forgot about it. In the 1980's he picked up a cd boxed set of JOK and he thought, "Hey I wrote that, they must owe me some money" So he rung up the publishing company expecting a fight. Much to his surprise they said "We've been looking for you." They gave him a cheque for $10,000.00 and he was estatic, it was money that may have well fallen from the sky for all the effort he put in.
This is where it gets interesting. David Bowie purchased the same boxed set and was looking for songs for Iggy Pop's new record and they recorded the song (rechristened "Real Wild Child") Iggy released it as a single, it sold a few copies and was used on advertisments and the soundtrack of every teen-oriented film for the next twenty years.
The last I heard that fellow had made over half a million dollars from it. Not bad for a song he'd forgotten he'd written. Any or all of these details may be wrong, I'm basing this post on an interview of the man I read about 10 years ago.