Francis Craig

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Francis Craig (born September 10, 1900 in Dickson , Tennessee , † November 19, 1966 in Nashville , Tennessee) was an American pianist, composer and band leader.

Life

The son of a Methodist minister and a pianist, Craig grew up in various parts of Tennessee. He learned to play the piano as a child and discovered his love for jazz during his student days . As a student at Vanderbilt University , he founded his first orchestra in 1921, with which he performed at numerous dance events in the central south of the United States and which soon gained regional importance. In 1924 he married Elizabeth Gewin and after completing his studies in 1925 settled permanently in Nashville, where he had spent much of his youth and where his family had lived to work as a professional musician.

His orchestra became the house band of the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville and played for twenty years until 1947 at the events of the hotel, all major dance events in Nashville and also all dance events of Vanderbilt University. In 1925, his orchestra played at the opening event of the WSM radio station in Nashville, owned by the Nashville-based insurance company National Life , owned by his cousin Edwin Craig. In addition to numerous appearances in Nashville and the surrounding area, Craig received a regular radio show on WSM, which was also broadcast nationwide on NBC's Sunday evening program.

In 1926 Craig and his orchestra recorded several tracks for Columbia Records : Moonlight in Mandalay , Hard to Get Gertie and That Florida Low Down (Esa Florida Baja) , which also appeared on singles, but had no national success.

After a few quick Dixieland recordings in the late 1920s, Craig developed a calm, moderate and, above all, danceable sound that made his orchestra the leading dance band in Nashville and the surrounding area in the 1930s and early 1940s. Thanks to the contracts with the Hermitage Hotel, the radio stations WMS and NBC as well as the numerous appearances at all major social events in Nashville, Craig had a financially secure income and after the commercially unsuccessful recordings on Columbia in the twenties made no further attempt to go beyond the regional Significance also to achieve nationwide success. He was content to lead the leading big band in the Middle South.

Numerous singers of the Francis Craig Orchestra who began their careers in this orchestra later achieved stardom, most notably Dinah Shore and Kitty Kallen , as well as Irene Beasley, Phil Harris , Jimmy Melton and Kenny Sargent . Some musicians in the orchestra formed their own jazz bands in the 1930s, such as Jimmy Gallagher, Clint Garvin , Jolin Gordy and Red McEwen.

Francis Graig - Near You

In 1947 his contracts with the Hermitage Hotel and the radio station NBC expired and should not be renewed. In this situation he was hired by Jim Bulleit, the owner of the record company Bullet Records, which was newly founded in Nashville in 1946, for a record. The signature tune of the Francis Craig Orchestra Red Rose was to be released as a record, on the B-side the title Near You , also a composition by Francis Craig, the lyrics by Kermit Goell. The blind singer and trumpeter Bob Lamm took over the vocal part. The single was recorded in the 1947 newly formed Castle Studio in Nashville.

But the radio stations did not play the A-side Red Rose , but rather the B-side Near You at the request of the young listeners . This title became the most successful song of 1947, it was number one on Billboard's “Honor Roll of Hits” for seventeen weeks in a row, making it the title that had the longest stay at the top of a US hit parade. The single entered the bestseller charts for the first time on August 30, 1947, reached number one and stayed in the charts for 21 weeks. In the version by Francis Craig, Near You was the best-selling single in the USA in 1947 and was the first time a single produced in a Nashville studio and released by a big band from Nashville on a Nashville-based record label "Bullett Records" was released in the USA Number one of the best-selling singles of the year. This was the hour of birth of Nashville as the future music metropolis of the 1950s and 1960s.

The surprising thing about the success of Near You was that a typical big band title had such a success after the end of the “big band era”.

The following single Sometimes I Wonder / Hot Biscuits was unsuccessful, but the next record release , Beg Your Pardon , was a Top10 hit and one of the most successful titles of 1948. However, when after two more singles there were no successes, Craig switched in December 1948 to MGM Records , Since the singles released by MGM were unsuccessful, Craig and Bob Lamm signed a record deal with Decca Records on January 1, 1952 . On the A side of the first Decca single in 1952, the title For the First Time (In a Long Time) was a recording based on the hit title Near You , in which Bob Lamm again took over the vocal part. Despite considerable advertising expenditure by the new record company, Craig did not get any further chart placements. After two unsuccessful years at Decca, Dot Records signed Craig in 1954 . On the first record release for Dot you coupled the two most successful tracks Craigs Near You and Beg Your Pardon on a single. From the fall of 1954, the Francis Craig Orchestra no longer performed live in public, but only concentrated on radio appearances. In July 1955 his last single was released with the catalog number Dot 15400: In the Shade of the Moonlight / If You Care At All ; the single was unsuccessful. In the mid-1950s, Craig retired from the music business. In 1958, Roger Williams again reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the title Near You .

With the money he earned in the music business, Craig financed the construction of the first record press plant in Nashville and thus laid another cornerstone for the later rise of Nashville to the music metropolis in addition to his track Near You , the first number one hit produced in Nashville.

The track Dynamite , composed in 1922 by Craig, is the official song of Vanderbilt University, which is played at all official sporting events of the university.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Short German-language biography in: Laufenberg, Frank / Hake, Ingrid: Rock- und Poplexikon. Vol. 1: ABBA - Kay Kyser . Düsseldorf / Vienna: Econ Verlag, 1994, p. 317f
  2. ↑ Composition: Herscher, Naylor & Fay; Photographed on April 22, 1926 in Atlanta, Ga .; Catalog number Columbia # 1266
  3. ↑ Composition: Ager & Yellen; Photographed on April 21, 1926 in Atlanta, Ga .; Catalog number Columbia # 709
  4. ↑ Composition: Coots, Trent & Waller; Photographed on April 26, 1926 in Atlanta, Ga .; Catalog number Columbia # 1266
  5. ↑ For Francis Craig and his orchestra see: Simon, Georg T .: The Big Bands . Foreword by Frank Sinatra. 4th edition, New York: Schirmer Books, 1981, p. 504
  6. ↑ Catalog number Bullet # 1001
  7. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Records 1940-1955 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1973, p. 16
  8. ^ The Billboard Second Annual Music-Record Poll . In: Billboard , January 3, 1948 issue, p. 19
  9. ↑ Simon, George T .: The Big Bands . Foreword by Frank Sinatra. 2nd revised edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. / London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1974, p. 504
  10. ↑ Catalog number Bullett # 1002
  11. ↑ B-side: I'm Looking for a Sweetheart ' , catalog number Bullet # 1012
  12. ↑ Craig's single landed in the Billboard list of the most successful records of 1948 at number 18. Billboard 3rd Annual Music Record Poll . In: Billboard , January 1, 1949 issue, p. 12
  13. ↑ Bullet # 1013: Foolin ' , B-Side Do Me a Favor (Will Ya?) And Bullet # 1065: It Hurts Me More Than It Does You ; B-side: Hot Biscuits
  14. ^ Billboard , December 25, 1948, issue, p. 21
  15. ^ The first MGM single came out in March 1949: I Thought I Was Dreaming / Tennessee Tango ; MGM catalog number # 10378
  16. ^ Decca Signs Francis Craig . In: Billboard , January 12, 1952 issue, p. 26
  17. ↑ Composition by Kermit Goell and Bernie Wayne; Catalog number Decca # 45-82002; the following was Play Them Bones , composed by Francis Craig and Beastley Smith, vocal part: Roland Johnson, catalog number Decca # 45-82004
  18. ↑ Dot catalog # 15159, published early May 1954
  19. ^ Billboard , October 9, 1954, issue, p. 48
  20. ↑ Incidentally, with the following catalog number 15401, Dot Records released the biggest hit Craigs again at the same time: Near You - in the version by Tony Almerico
  21. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 650
  22. ^ Laufenberg, Frank / Hake, Ingrid: Rock and Pop Lexicon. Vol. 1: ABBA - Kay Kyser . Düsseldorf / Vienna: Econ Verlag, 1994, p. 318

literature

  • Ikard, Robert W .: Near You: Francis Craig, Dean Of Southern Maestros. With a music CD. Franklin, Tennessee: Hillsboro Press 1999 (Tennessee Heritage Library Bicentennial Collection), ISBN 978-1-57736-161-9 , 192 pages.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Craig, Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Dickson, Tennessee, USA
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1966
Place of death Nashville , Tennessee , USA