John Marascalco

John Marascalco in 2002

John S. Marascalco (born March 27, 1931 in Grenada, Mississippi ) is an American songwriter , producer and publisher in the genres of rhythm and blues , rock 'n' roll and surf .

John Marascalco was already practicing songwriting in high school in his hometown. One of his first attempts was a country-style version of Rip It Up . When he heard Elvis Presley's first recordings for Sun Records on the radio in 1955 , he attended a concert by the budding star in Charleston, Mississippi, on April 5, and played him the track in the backstage area. Elvis liked the song and sent the songwriter to Memphis, where he could not agree on a writing contract with the label boss Sam Phillips . After all, Marascalco organized a concert by Presley in his hometown of Grenada two weeks later. Elvis Presley did n't record Rip It Up for RCA Records until a few years later . Through this contact with Sam Phillips, Marascalco was later able to place his composition Wouldn't You Know and Dance with Me Honey, recorded by Billy Lee Riley in 1957, on Sun Records, of which only the first was released soon.

After the first unsuccessful attempt at Sun, Marascalco became aware of rock 'n' roll Little Richards when he heard his second single Long Tall Sally on the radio in early 1956. He wrote Ready Teddy for him and offered it to Little Richards producer Bumps Blackwell in Los Angeles for publication on Specialty Records . He asked for further compositions and Marascalco reworked Rip It Up for the extroverted singer, arranger Blackwell registered as co-author of both songs. Another co-production of the two was Good Golly Miss Molly , with Leo Price he wrote Send Me Some Lovin ' and with Maybelle Jackson Heeby-Jeebies . For Little Richards I Got It Marascalco contributed a new text and the new title She's Got It . Marascalco was only able to benefit to a limited extent from the success of his songs through Little Richard, as the label boss Art Rupe had the titles exploited by his own music publishers at poor conditions, so that the songwriting royalties were low and the majority of the profit remained with the Specialty label. In an interview with Goldmine Magazine in 1989, Little Richard himself claimed to have composed most of Marascalco's songs himself. Marascalco was just his driver who suggested some text ideas. Other Marascalco compositions at Specialty included Lloyd Price ' Rock' n 'Roll Dance in 1956 and Roy Montrell's (Everytime I Hear) That Mellow Saxophone , which became the R&B standard.

Marascalco used his experience at Specialty Records when he led or founded his own small record labels as a songwriter and producer in the early 1960s, including Infinity Records , Lola Records , Cee-Jam Records , JC Records, Sabrina Records, Ruby-Doo Records and Zooma Records Most of the songs he published himself for his music publisher Robin Hood Music. Marascalco worked with several well-known musicians in their early careers, including the Burnette Brothers , songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart before they worked together for The Monkees and George Motola in Hollywood . Well-known tracks are Dorsey Burnettes Bertha Lou on Surf Records , Fats Dominos Be My Guest on Imperial Records and Jesse Belvin's Goodnight My Love (Pleasant Dreams) on Modern Records .

The company sleeve of the record company Surf Records advertises compositions by John Marascalco.

As a producer and publisher, Marascalco was also involved in the development of surf and garage rock around 1963 . So he was involved with Richard Delvy from the Challengers in the creation of the surf classic Wipe Out of the Surfaris . He also financially supported the young Harry Nilsson , whose career he pushed together with colleague Scott Turner . Together they wrote and published Nilsson's early singles under various pseudonyms, including the titles Groovy Little Suzie , which Little Richard adapted, Baa Baa Blacksheep and All for the Beatles . Marascalco's songs also became popular in Australia and New Zealand from local performers: Lonnie Lee successfully recorded Star Light Star Bright and Mr. Lee Grant had a number 1 hit with Opportunity . Marascalco promoted his productions on radio, including the Irish-American DJ Godfrey Kerr , whose own recording of The Trip he released on Cee-Jam Records. Other artists that Marascalco supervised and published on his labels were The Electras with the doo-wop songs Ten Steps to Love and Can't You See It in My Eyes, as well as The Jaguars , whose song Charlena he is publishing. 1975 appeared with Back Door Sally a Marascalco composition on Keith Moon's only solo album Two Sides of the Moon .

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See also

• List of author participations and productions by John Marascalco

Web links

• Dik de Heer: John Marascalco In: Black Cat Rockabilly, June 2017, accessed August 19, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ken Sharp: John Marascalco In: Elvis Presley. Writing for the King . FTD Books. Denmark 2006, pages = 37-39
2. ^ Charles White: The Life and Times of Little Richard. The Authorized Biography . Omnibus Press, London / New York / Paris / Sydney / Copenhagen / Berlin / Madrid / Tokyo 2003, ISBN 0-7119-9761-6 , Tutti Frutti, p. 55-79 (first edition: 1984).
3. ↑ Jeff Tamarkin: Little Richard . In: Tim Neely (Ed.): Goldmine Roots of Rock Digest . Krause Publications, Iola 1999, ISBN 0-87341-775-5 , pp. 87-93 (American English).
4. ^ Marv Goldberg: The Valiants. In: Marv Goldberg′s R&B Notebook. 2002, accessed September 30, 2008 . 
5. ^ Alyn Shipton : Nilsson. The life of a singer-songwriter . 1st edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-975657-5 , Good Old Desk, pp. 31 f . (American English).