Felice and Boudleaux Bryant

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Felice Bryant (actually Matilda Genevieve Scaduto ; born August 7, 1925 in Milwaukee , Wisconsin ; † April 22, 2003 ) and Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant (born February 13, 1920 in Shellman , Georgia ; † June 26, 1987 in Gatlinburg , Tennessee ) were an American couple who are among the most successful writers of country and pop music ; Among other things, they wrote great hits for the Everly Brothers .

Beginnings

Boudleaux's father, Daniel Green Bryant, was a lawyer, and his mother, Louise Farham Bryant, played the guitar and mandolin. Her son learned violin from 1925 with the aim of becoming a concert violinist. This wish was fulfilled for a short time in 1938 when Boudleaux Bryant played violin for one season with the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra. However, the following year he switched from classical music to country music. Bryant first worked in July 1939 with Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys on recordings as Fiddler with when 13 tracks were recorded. The next day, five more pictures were taken. It wasn't until June 1940 that the formation re-entered a recording studio, and Bryant is listed as a member again. From 1941, Bryant no longer participated in recordings, but continued to perform with the country group.

Felice Bryant's maiden name was Matilda Geneviève Scaduto; she was the daughter of Italian parents named Salvatore and Katherine Loverdi Scaduto. In the spring of 1945, while working as an elevator operator at the Schroeder Hotel in her hometown of Milwaukee , she caught up with Boudleaux Bryant, who was still performing with Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys in the hotel's cocktail lounge. Five days later, they both ran away and married on September 5, 1945.

The first joint composition was written in 1946. When the Bryants had composed a repertoire of around 80 titles, they initially tried to get rid of around 20 titles from their collection of self-composed songs to performers every day. At first that only succeeded with Country Boy , but the well-known radio and television presenter Arthur Godfrey (TV talent show) wanted to claim half of the copyrights if the song was brokered. When they caught the attention of Fred Rose , they left their mobile home and went to the Nashville Country Music Center in 1950 .

The 1950s

Little Jimmy Dickens - Country Boy

In early 1949 they sent one of their first compositions together to modern country music mentor and music publisher Fred Rose. This conveyed the rather unorthodox country song Country Boy to the newcomer "Little" Jimmy Dickens , who recorded it in April 1949 in Nashville, so that it was ranked 7th on the country chart and sold 250,000 copies. For his session in October 1949, they delivered A-Sleepin 'at the Foot of the Bed (Rank 6). Dickens also took over I'm Little but I'm Loud (recorded in November 1950), Out behind the Barn (January 1954; rank 9), Take Me as I Am (May 1954), We Could (May 1955) and from them A Hole in My Pocket (April 1958). Together with Chet Atkins , Boudleaux Bryant wrote the title Midnight (September 1951) for Red Foley , the first top note for the Bryants in the country charts. Tony Bennett brought her Have a Good Time to number 16 on the pop charts in August 1952 , her first pop chart note. Between 1950 and 1954, the Bryants worked for the music publisher Tannen Music.

Red Foley - Midnight

For Ernest Tubb they wrote Somebody's Stolen My Honey (November 1951; number 9 on the country charts). Moon Mullican took up Sugar Beet in September 1952 . The collaboration of B. Bryant and Atkins also resulted in How's the World Treating You for Eddy Arnold (March 1953; 4th place). Frankie Laine reached number 7 on the British charts with the pop title Hawk-Eye in September 1955. Alma Cogan also transported Willie Can into the British charts up to number 13 in March 1956, the original probably being attributed to Shirley Abicair. In the same year 1956, the Bryants received a ten-year contract with the dominant music publisher for country music, Acuff-Rose Music Publishing in Nashville.

Frankie Laine - Hey Joe!

Country singer Carl Smith became another main buyer of Bryant compositions, with titles such as It's a Lovely, Lovely World (February 1952; rank 5), Our Honeymoon (July 1952; rank 6), Just Wait Till I Get Your Alone (February 1953; Rank 7; B-side This Orchid Means Goodbye by B. Bryant / Smith; Rank 4), Hey Joe! (May 1953; ranked 1 for 8 weeks) in the country charts. Back Up Buddy was created for Smith in December 1953 and after its release in March 1954 it reached number 2 on the C&W charts. A little later, the pop singer Frankie Laine covered the first top hit for the Bryants, Hey Joe! , and after it was released in August 1953, the couple achieved first place in the British pop hit parade with their first crossover success (USA: rank 6 pop). In the text, the singer warns his friend Joe in a question-and-answer game not to relax his girlfriend because then the friendship would end. Except for the question-and-answer game and the argument about a girl, it has nothing in common with the Jimi Hendrix title of the same name, Hey Joe, from 1967.

Eddy Arnold became aware of the up-and-coming author couple and took their I've Been Thinking in September 1954 , which reached second place in the country charts in January 1955; The Richest Man (In the World) was created in April 1955 (rank 10), which also hit the lower ranks of the pop charts in December 1955. Kitty Wells took up I'd Rather Stay Home (January 1955) (B-side of Searching (For Someone Like You) ; Rank 4). Wanda Jackson took on Don'a Wann'a in March 1957 , Jim Reeves took second place in the Blue Boy , created in January 1958 , while Rusty & Doug Kershaw took over Hey Sheriff (March 1958). Roy Orbison also failed to find his style with Seems To Me (produced by Chet Atkins in Nashville in September 1958; B-side by Sweet and Innocent ) and Jolie (B-side by Almost Eighteen ; December 1958). Buddy Holly , who rarely used material from outside authors, presented a compelling version of Raining in My Heart in its final recording session in October 1958 at the Pythian Temple with Dick Jacobs as producer.

Everly Brothers

Everly Brothers - Bye Bye Love

While the previous Bryant compositions were focused almost exclusively on the country hit parade, the picture changed with the Everly Brothers. On the mediation of Wesley Rose , the brothers received a recording contract with Cadence Records in February 1957 . Label boss Archie Bleyer produced the first session with the brothers on March 1, 1957 at the RCA studio in Nashville. Accompaniment were Chet Atkins and Ray Edenton (guitar), Jimmy Day (steel guitar), Lightnin 'Chance (bass) and Buddy Harman (drums), all of them belonged to a loose connection of session musicians , which the experts Nashville A-Team called . Of the three tracks in the session, Bye Bye Love / I Wonder If I Care as Much were selected as the first single, which was released in April 1957 and sold over two million copies. The result was a crossover hit that was number one on the country charts for seven weeks and number two on the pop charts for four weeks. The title had previously been rejected by 30 other performers, but producer Atkins used a different arrangement. He added a robust sound with controlled acoustic guitars and a rock and roll rhythm to the high close harmony tenor voices, which differ by about a third . Her sentence singing was mostly based on parallel thirds. With this mixture the conceptual basis for further hits was created.

Wake Up Little Susie (August 1957) sold 1.8 million (ranked 1 for eight weeks on the country charts and four weeks on the pop charts). All I Have to Do Is Dream (March 1958) came to 1.5 million (three weeks country, five weeks pop charts), Bird Dog / Devoted to You (July 1958; six weeks country, one week pop charts) ) over 1.2 million, Problems (October 1958), Take A Message to Mary / Poor Jenny (March 1959), Til I Kissed You (July 1959) or Like Strangers (February 1960). When the Everly Brothers chose Always It's True as the B-side of their original composition Cathy's Clown (March 1960), they had already switched to Warner Brothers.

The Bryants initially supplied the Everly Brothers with song material. A Change of Heart (July 1960), So How Come (No One Loves Me) (July 1960) (the original was published by the Omegas in May 1960), or Like Strangers (November 1960). Love Hurts by the Everly Brothers turned out to be a much-covered title (July 1960), which was first picked up by Roy Orbison in February 1961. In the Bryants, the Everly Brothers found "two expert songwriters who were able to outline the subject area of ​​school, cinema, parental home, ice cream bar and gang meeting with catchy formulations".

The 1960s

In the 1960s, both the intensity and the success rate of compositions by the Bryants decreased. Bob Luman took over Let's Think About Living (July 1960; 9th country, 7th pop charts). Skeeter Davis grabbed My Last Date (With You) to (Oct 1960), produced by Atkins. Bob Moore & His Orchestra led the instrumental piece Mexico to first place on the German charts in October 1961; With over two million copies sold, it was another million seller . The first African American country singer Leona Douglas took over her Too Many Chicks in late 1962 , and Kris Jensen recorded her Donna Donna (as the B-side of Big As I Can Dream ) in September 1962. Sonny James took on Baltimore (January 1964), Ernest Ashworth I Love to Dance (January 1964), Ray Price took on Take Me As I Am (Or Let Me Go) (February 1964).

When their 10-year contract with Acuff-Rose ended in 1966, they founded their own music publisher, House of Bryant Publications, in Gatlinburg , Tennessee . This music publisher registered one of the Bryants' best-known compositions , Rocky Top, recorded by the Osborne Brothers in November 1967 . After its publication in December 1967, it only reached 33rd place in the country charts. The title, composed in ten minutes, exists in at least 32 versions, according to Coverinfo, of which only Lynn Anderson's version from April 1970, with position 17 in the country charts, achieved the best hit parade placement. The fast-paced song tells the story of a city dweller who thinks sentimentally back to his time in the remote mountains. It originated in the Gatlinburg Inn , where the Bryants withdrew very often.

Some compositions developed into late bloomers. For example We Could from 1955, which only entered the pop charts in November 1964 with Al Martino (41st place). She Wears My Ring was created in 1960, but only entered the charts in August 1968 with Ray Price (number 6 in the country charts) or Penny Arcade from 1969, which Cristy Lane only became a country hit in July 1978 (number 7) made.

The 1970s and 1980s

In the 1970s all was quiet about the author couple. Roy Clark brought Come Live With Me out (November, 1972); Elvis Presley coverte She Wears My Ring , which he in December 1973 in the Stax studios in Memphis (Tennessee) recorded. In 1978, the Bryants moved from Nashville to Gatlinburg, where they opened a motel in the Great Smoky Mountains on January 17, 1983 called the Rocky Top Village Inn , which still exists today and is run by the sons. In April 1980, their only own album, A Touch of Bryant , was released, followed by Chet Atkins and Lenny Breau.

Boudleaux Bryant died in 1987 at the age of 67; Felice Bryant in 2003 at the age of 77. Both were buried in the Woodlawn Memorial Park artist cemetery in Nashville.

Statistics and awards

It is estimated that over 800 titles have been implemented worldwide by around 400 performers 300 million times. 757 titles are copyright registered at BMI , of which 26 titles made it into the top 40 of Billboard. The Bryants supplied the Everly Brothers at Cadence with 27 compositions, 71% of the total of 38 recorded tracks for Cadence. Of the 18 A- and B-sides of the singles, a total of nine came from the pen of the Bryants by 1959, including six million seller. The Bryant compositions generated eleven million out of a total of 18 million record sales for the Everly Brothers.

Of the numerous awards, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1972), the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriters Hall of Fame (1986) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (1991) are noteworthy . In the same year, the Nashville Arts Foundation honored her with the Living Legend Award ("Living Legend"). Felice & Boudleaux Bryant received a total of 59 BMI Pop, Country and R&B Awards. Rocky Top , the widely covered title, was voted the State Song of Tennessee on February 15, 1982 and received a BMI award. In 2015, Rolling Stone listed the couple as 89th of the 100 best songwriters of all time .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Don Tyler, Music of the Post War Era . 2008, p. 187 ff.
  2. Felice and Boudleaux Bryant on Rockabillyhall
  3. American Icons - Felice and Boudleaux Bryant . American songwriter, April 30, 2010.
  4. Duke 'n' Duchess . In: Billboard Magazine , Nov. 23, 1959, p. 8.
  5. To Acuff-Rose Chronology , Billboard Magazine, December 11, 1982.
  6. Smash Hits Cue Platinum Award For Artists . In: Billboard Magazine , October 13, 1958, p. 6.
  7. ^ Siegfried Schmidt-Joos, Barry Graves : RoRoRo Rock-Lexikon . 1975, p. 132
  8. ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records . 1985, p. 155
  9. ^ Alan Cackett: The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music . 1994, p. 24
  10. Rocky Top Penned at Gatlinburg Inn .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. WBIR, September 4, 2009.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wbir.com  
  11. ^ William Ruhlmann: Bryant, Boudleaux, and Felice . In: Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians.
  12. Bryant on Find a Grave
  13. Boudleaux Bryant  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , BMI entry@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / repertoire.bmi.com  
  14. ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records . 1985, p. 106 f.
  15. The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 .