Auctioneer
Auctioneer is a country song released by Leroy Van Dyke in 1956 , which is one of the most successful pieces of the genre as a million seller .
History of origin
Leroy Van Dyke studied agriculture at the University of Missouri and worked as a cattle auctioneer modeled on his uncle Ray Sims of the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame. The work of his uncle ultimately inspired Van Dyke to write the song Auctioneer . In it he parodies the extremely quick language of American cattle auctioneers. An auctioneer can be heard confirming the bids of the public and asking them to make further bids. A text about a schoolboy who is interested in auctions and therefore later becomes an auctioneer himself after he was allowed to attend auctioneer school is placed around the auctioneer's language.
He first sang the song, which was partly composed when Van Dyke served in the military in Korea , in early 1956 at a talent competition on the WSM radio station in Chicago . This is where the disc jockey Buddy Black worked, who seized the opportunity to become the manager of the still unknown singer. The inexperienced Van Dyke signed a contract that illegally granted Black half of the author's royalties without Black having had any intellectual part in it.
Recording and publication
The title was created in Van Dyke's first recording session in September 1956 at Universal Recording Corporation in Chicago. In addition to the auctioneer , only one other title was recorded at this session, namely the I Fell in Love With a Pony Tail used as the B-side . Apart from guitarist Andy Nelson, nothing is known about Van Dyke's further musical accompaniment. The single Auctioneer / I Fell in Love With a Pony-Tail was published in October 1956 (Dot # 15503). It reached the country charts on January 5, 1957 , where it climbed to ninth place. With number 19 in the pop charts , the song also developed into a mean crossover hit . The placements in both charts did not reflect the enormous sales success of the title, because a total of almost three million copies were sold. A million singles had been sold within three months of its release.
Statistics and cover versions
The title Auctioneer is one of 15 compositions by Van Dyke that are copyrighted by the BMI . It is not surprising that the successful song was only covered six times , as the passages with the fast auctioneer language could only be imitated by a few performers. Country singer Chuck Miller recorded the title in October 1956 in the same recording studio as Leroy Van Dyke and was able to reach number 59 on the pop charts after it was released in November 1956. The remaining versions of Lynn Anderson (1969), Steve Goodman (1973), Gordon Lightfoot (1980), Joan Baez (1993) and Clifton Jansky (1999) did not hit the charts.
Van Dyke, Tex Ritter and Faron Young are in a feature film enriched with 13 country songs, What Am I Bid? about life on farms and livestock auctions, which hit theaters on July 26, 1967. This also includes the song auctioneer . The film title is a quote from the song that has long been one of the top-selling country singles. Leroy Van Dyke was inducted into the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame in 1996.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Answers.com via Leroy Van Dyke
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 87
- ↑ BMI entry from Auctioneer ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The American Film Institute, 1997, p. 1207
