Rum and Coca-Cola
Rum and Coca-Cola is a pop song in calypso style , which during the Second World War in Trinidad was born. In 1944 it became the Andrews Sisters' biggest seller with a million, their most successful title, which aroused interest in the Caribbean and the calypso. The play was the subject of two plagiarism lawsuits .
History of origin
From 1940 to 1963 the northwestern tip of the then British island of Trinidad, Chaguaramas , was rented by the British colonial rulers to the United States as part of the destroyer-for-base agreement , which set up a naval base and later a missile early warning system there. The Trinidadian Calypsonian Lord Invader had written the lyrics of the song in late 1942 and had it registered under copyright law in February 1943. Grant's original text deals with the rampant prostitution in Trinidad since the Yankees were stationed on the island. The line sung by the Andrew Sisters in the first stanza ... and make Trinidad a paradise was Granted ... and they give them a better price in the sense of "the Yankees pay better for the services". He had observed American GIs on Point Cumana Beach in Chaguaramas when they drank Coca-Cola, which has been available in Trinidad since 1919, mixed with Caribbean rum .
From March 1943 he began to sing his text on the basis of a melody that had already been composed in Trinidad in 1906 by Lionel Belasco and Massie Patterson under the title L'année passée ("The past year"). Belasco has been mentioned as a co-author since he first had his song registered in 1943. In September 1943 comedian Morey Amsterdam came to Trinidad as an entertainer for the US soldiers, when Lord Invader's song was already known all over the island. Back in New York in November 1943, Amsterdam offered the song Jeri Sullivan, a long-forgotten singer, and hired the music publisher Leo Feist Inc. to register the copyright. Amsterdam later asserted that it did not know that both the text and the music were already protected by copyright.
Recording session with the Andrews Sisters
On October 18, 1944, the Andrews Sisters had already recorded two tracks in the Decca studios ( I'm in a Jam (With Baby) / One Meat Ball ) and still had 30 minutes of free studio time during which they were unprepared under the production direction of Milt Gabler and improvised the little-known song Rum and Coca-Cola together with the orchestra of Vic Schoen without an elaborated arrangement . The recording was ready in less than ten minutes. In December 1944, the single Rum and Coca-Cola / One Meat Ball (Decca # 18636) was released. In the same month they introduced the Calypso on the radio in the programs of GI Journal and Command Performance .
The song has not had a good star since it was released. At first, the text was heavily criticized because "Rum" glorified alcohol and "Coca-Cola" was linked to surreptitious advertising. The company, otherwise concerned about protecting the brand name of its drink, was not bothered by the unauthorized advertising this time. In addition, the text of the Andrew Sisters still contained indications of possible prostitution. The Andrews Sisters and everyone involved allegedly had given no further thought to the meaning of the text. The British BBC was not ready to play the song until the title was changed to Rum and Limonada in England .
Sales success
Despite, or perhaps because of, the wide range of criticism, the title quickly gained popularity when it hit the pop charts on January 6, 1945. On February 10, he reached number one, which he then held for ten weeks until March 17, 1945. According to the star magazine Variety , the song had sold 650,000 copies within the first four weeks of its publication, and by the end of 1946 2.5 million records had been sold in the United States. Around seven million copies were sold worldwide, with Decca having to borrow shellac from other record companies to meet the high demand.
Copyright dispute
The above genesis already indicates the doubts about the authorship of the song. The Andrews Sisters' first 200,000 singles mentioned Morey Amsterdam as the sole composer and lyricist. As early as December 1944, Amsterdam, Sullivan and Baron were listed as authors on the label. The enormous success spurred those involved to have the authorship checked by a court. On October 26, 1946, according to Billboard magazine, the music publisher representing Lord Invader sued the Leo Feist Publishing Company, representing Morey Amsterdam, for copyright infringement. The plaintiff alleged that Morey Amsterdam's text was illegally distributed as plagiarism by Lord Invader's protected text while he was in Trinidad. In a parallel process, Lionel Belascos Musikverlag also sued the Leo Feist Publishing Company because the melody had been illegally taken over from L'année passée .
The processes also reflected the pre-litigation actions of those involved. Rupert Westmore Grant had the text on Rum and Coca-Cola secured by copyright in February 1943 , and in January 1944 the copyright for L'année passée was secured. The first contract between the music publisher Feist, Amsterdam and Baron from October 18, 1944 awarded two thirds of the royalties to Amsterdam, while Baron was not named as a composer. A new contract dated December 14, 1944 now thirds the income between Amsterdam as a lyricist and Sullivan / Baron as a composer.
Ultimately, the appellate court ruled on December 20, 1947 that Rum and Coca-Cola were very similar to the original text and that the Andrews Sisters version was therefore plagiarized. The second method dealt with music. "The rhythm, construction and harmonies of both songs ... are almost identical," the court ruled in the second instance on March 16, 1949. Lord Invader and Belasco were awarded US $ 132,000 each as damages, but the copyright infringers retained their copyrights.
statistics
According to the recording date, Lord Invader is likely to be the original artist because he probably recorded the song in Trinidad as early as 1943. Then the recording of Louis Prima from June 1944 should follow. The next version should be that of Jeri Sullivan, which was made in Hollywood in 1945, but was not published. During the two-year trial, Lord Invader was often in New York, and so there is a live recording from the town hall in New York City on December 21, 1946, directed by Alan Lomax. In May 1945, Champion Jack Dupree brought out a variant of this mixed drink under the title Rum Cola Blues (Joe Davis Records # 5100).
Web links
- UCLA & Columbia Law School, Copyright Infringement Project with both court judgments on the title Rum and Coca Cola ( Memento of February 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), English
Individual evidence
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, 39.
- ↑ John Sforza, Swing It! The Andrews Sisters Story , 2004, p. 228.
- ↑ John Sforza, Swing It! The Andrews Sisters Story , 2004, p. 75.
- ↑ u. a. "Both, mother and doda (daughter) working for the Yankee dollar, oh beat it, man, beat it" (Both mother and daughter work for the Yankee's dollar, knock it out, man, don't do it! ) and also "Young girls say, they treat 'em nice, make Trinidad like paradise." (The young girls say they (the GIs) treat them nicely, make Trinidad a paradise )
- ↑ John Sforza, Swing It! The Andrews Sisters Story , 2004, p. 76.
- ^ Variety, February 14, 1945, p. 43.
- ↑ Variety, December 25, 1946, p. 35
- ↑ John Sforza, Swing It! The Andrews Sisters Story , 2004, p. 186.
- ^ Rum And Coke In Two Legal Actions , Billboard Magazine, Nov. 2, 1946, p. 15.
- ^ Courts Find Rum and Coca-Cola Was Plagiarized , Metropolitan News-Enterprise, April 13, 2006, p. 11.