TOM: So now, you're back in New York?
MORTY: Right. After the run-in down south, we moved back to New York. Now, I worked at Aldon full time. Before, I had been flying up on the weekends. After the original group broke up, we took over the records. Albert and I were talking about it in the office. Now it was just the two of us, so we were wondering who we would get to be the 'Third Sun'. I said, "We don't have to look any further, here's our third sun right here", meaning Don. He was a young, good looking guy, he was a musician. Don's face fell, he played piano, I should say he played at piano. He really wanted to be a songwriter, he didn't really have it, though. You know what his favorite song was ? Twinkle, twinkle, little star- honest to God, I'm not making that up ! A doo-wop group put 'twinkle, twinkle, little star to music- you know, those same 4 chords that every doo-wop group used- C, A minor, F, and G- so Don told all our writers to write another 'Little star'. I told him,"Don't ask for another 'Little star', ask them to write you another 'Stardust' or 'Deep purple'- and he would get angry and shout,"You mean write another 'Twilight time'! I would tell him, "Don, I didn't say that". So he was pissed off about that. Anyway, he was always writing songs himself, and playing them for us. Albert and I would make faces at each other behind his back as he was plaing them. I always tried to be encouraging to Don, suggesting he throw in a few extra chords, or work on the lyrics. Since he wanted another 'Little star', he would put these 'Mother goose nursery rhymes to music, you know, those same 4 chords...
One day, he was playing us his newest 'masterpiece', something about the cow jumping over the moon (At this point, Morty looks around the restaurant, leans forward, and whispers in a loud voice)- It sounded like a retarded man trying to sing a song. I burst out laughing, I couldn't help it, I laughed for 5 minutes, I laughed till my face was wet with tears. I apologised, but things were never the same between us after that, and Don didn't play me any more of his songs. So we needed a third sun, and I said,"Let's use Don". And things got a little weird. We explained that he would just be a face on the album cover, he wouldn't be involved with making the records, all he would get out of it was a Brooks brothers suit when we shot the album cover. And he was so thrilled to be on an album cover, he said,"Okay". You'll notice that he was only on a couple records. He started making suggestions,started to say,"Let's do this, let's do that" on the next record. So from there on, we just put a pretty girl on the cover.
One day, Don was getting interviewed by one of the trades. He said,"They call me the man with the golden ear". I said,"Who calls you that ? We don't call you that !" Don was furious. He kept telling the guy,"They call me the man with the golden ear !" So the article comes out- Don Kirshner, the man with the golden ear. He waves it in my face and says, "You see that ? That's what they call me!". He hung the nickname on himself!
A couple days later, I walk into his office to talk about something. You know those little signs on your desk- Don Kirshner, president, it used to say ? Now it says, Don Kirshner, and in little letters under it, it says,'the man with the golden ear'. I'm not making this up ! I look around the office,and he took the article and had it blown up- I mean, 3 by 4 feet- and framed, and it's hanging all over his office ! I couldn't believe it. I walked out and talked to Albert- Albert was much more easy going than I was, he just laughed and said, 'Ah Morty, let him have his fun". And I said,"Don't you see, he's going to become the butt of every joke in the industry! Everyone, and I mean everyone, is going to have a 'Don Kirshner joke'. And he said,"You're right, I never thought of it like that". So we went in the office, Albert explained to Don that this wasn't good for business, and a little immature, and oh, the look Don gave me! but it was for his own good. Don gave a lot of interviews, and he always went on and on about the great Don Kirshner. He never mentioned Albert. The three of us would make the musical decisions, and I didn't expect he would mention me, but the business was Aldon, Al and Don. And my brother had just as much to do with the company's success as Don did. And I had something to do with it. When it came time to publish a song or not, we would all discuss it. And I produced the demos, that was my forte' . Here's a song, we need a good demo in an hour. The most famous song you probably heard that I did the demo for was 'the Loco-motion'. I went out in the hall and got everyone I could grab to come in and do handclaps, because it was about a train, right ? So I wanted a thunderous sound. And the record sounded a lot like the demo.
Albert had heart problems. He had had a couple heart attacks. He sat us down, me and Don, after every one, and said that after he goes, he wanted me to stay at Aldon. You see, Don was president, but Albert was Chairman of the board, meaning he had final say. And Don always said,"Of course !" And Albert wanted to put it in a contract, and Don would say,"We're family! We don't need a contract". And then, one day, in 1965 Albert had the big one and passed away. It wasn't an hour later when I got the phone call from Don. First, he said,"I'm sorry about your brother." I said,"Thanks" and started to say something about taking some time off from the company, and Don says,"You're fired!" And I was still in shock, I couldn't believe what I was hearing, so I said,"What?" And Don spoke very quickly, he went on,"It's out of respect for your brother, he was the Nevins in 'Nevins-Kirshner', I don't want anyone thinking that you're the Nevins in Nevins-Kirshner", and I kept telling him that I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and he kept saying that it was out of respect for my brother- I finally said,"We had a deal"- meaning Albert, Don, and myself- and Don shouted,"You're fired,Morty!" into the phone and hung up. Well, he knew that I was too sick about my brother passing away to fight him on this. And he always said,"We're family, we don't need a contract". So it wasn't in writing. And the bottom line was, if Don didn't want me there, then I didn't want to be there.
I'll tell you this. In this business, hell, in any business,in life, a man is only as good as his word. And Don lied right to my brother's face for years. He knew he was going to fire me the moment Albert died, and that's exactly what he did. It didn't hurt me that Don lied to me,it hurt me that Don lied to Albert all those years, because Don went on and on about how much he loved Albert, and he must have been lying about that, too.
We had just finished up the 'Country music shindig' album. At least RCA waited until my brother was in the ground before they fired me! They called me a month later, and told me they were dropping the Three Suns from RCA. And just for good measure, they were taking all our records out of print. I told them that there was still some gas in the tank, that our records always sold, let's put together a new greatest hits package- I mean, the songs were already recorded, it would cost them nothing. And they said no. So I asked them for a release, so I could re-record them for another label. And they laughed! But I got the release, meaning that now, I could re-record any of the songs for another label.
TOM: Which brings us to the Musicor album.
MORTY: Not just yet. That was a year later. I had been writing songs with Hal David. We had started writing together in the early 50's. The Three Suns did a movie, Two guys and a gal, and we had written some songs together for that. We kept up the partnership through the years. We had some success, but none like he had years later with what's-his-name.That's a joke! I want you to know I'm kidding here. I just saw Hal a couple weeks ago,right here,in Century City. He's a great guy, and I'm pleased to say he's doing very well. Well, we had some success,but like I say,nothing like later on. We placed some songs on albums, some b-sides on 45's. We wrote a Christmas song called 'I believe in Santa Claus' that I still think could be a hit if the right person recorded it.But I'll tell you the best song we ever wrote together- it was called 'Lighthouse in the sky'. As soon as we finished it, We knew it was special. I thought of Nat King Cole. I went way back with Nat, the'King Cole trio' used to play a lot of the same nightclubs that the Three Suns used to play. I called up Nat and said we had a song for him. We got together and played it for him. He said,"Mort, are you going to give me an exclusive on this?" meaning, don't play this song for anyone else. I said, "Of course! Nat, this is your song!". Would you like to hear it ?
TOM: Would I (At this point, Morty looks around the restaurant, pulls out a micro-cassette player, and hands me a set of headphones. I listen to Nat King Cole singing,'Lighthouse in the sky' with full orchestra. It is, indeed, magnificent).
MORTY: Nat recorded the song 3 times. He was never completely satisfied with his vocal. He told me that it was a number one hit, and he wanted it to be perfect. So he kept recording it. In the meantime, he went to his doctor, and they told him he had cancer. And the man passed away just 2 months later. And needless to say, everything else was put on hold.
Okay. So a couple months later, I went in to see the president of Capital Records. I asked him if he had heard the track. He had. He said he loved it. So I told him Nat loved the track too, and why didn't he think about releasing it as Nat's final single ? He said, "Oh, no, I can't do that". So I asked him why not, and he said,"Don't you see? It'll make me look bad! It will look like I'm trying to make money off a dead man! I can't do it!". So I asked him if he had listened to the words- 'Don't worry about me, when this life is over, I'm going to that great lighthouse in the sky'. So I said,"What a great message for his family and friends,I'm going to that great lighthouse in the sky". The words were really inspirational, Hal did such a great job on them-and the music wasn't bad, if I do say so myself. And the real point of the meeting was not to sell records, it was to let everyone hear Nat singing about the hereafter.Like I said,what a great message for his family and friends. And he looked me right in the eyes and said,"It might make me look bad!" And to this day, Capital has not released it.
TOM: When was this?
MORTY: This was 1965, right after Albert had died. And now, all the Three Suns records are out of print. So now I can re-record them with anyone else. I was walking down Broadway, in New York, and I ran into the president of Musicor. We started talking, and before you know it, I was up in his office talking about a 'Three Suns greatest hits' album. He thought it would be a good catalog item, and it was. Musicor did a great job of letting the rack jobbers know it was available, they did a great job of letting the stores know it was available, there were still radio stations that played our kind of music, and they took it to them. They gave me a very good budget to record it, and they sunk some money into promoting it. I produced it, I knew the arrangements like the back of my hand, and I think it sounded great.
TOM: Okay, so who were 'Vinnie' and 'Fred'?
MORTY: Vinnie Bell and Fred Mendelsohn, ladies and gentlemen ! Vinnie and Fred were no strangers to the Three Suns, they had both played on our records for years. They stepped right in and played most of the songs, I recall, on first takes. I seem to recall that Vinnie stepped in and did a short tour with Artie's Three Suns, you know what, I think so, but I'm not positive about that. So Musicor stood behind the album, they knew it was a good catalog item. They let everyone in the business know it was out, and what do you think ? It charted. Not top of the charts, mind you, they kept sales charts of the top 200 albums, and it charted in the lower regions for 5 to 6 weeks. Not bad, considering we had numerous 'Greatest hits' and 'Best of' packages out through the years. Musicor was elated- They were thinking strong catalog sales, they didn't expect it to actually jump on the charts. So now we're on the charts, what do you think RCA does ?
TOM: Did they try to sue you?
MORTY: Sons of bitches rush out a 'Best of the Three Suns' album to compete with the Musicor album! (laughter) I'm glad someone thinks this is funny ! Waiter, check !
TOM: Peg O' my heart all over again, huh?
MORTY: I'm telling you: We had 47 albums on RCA, and nearly as many presidents. And most of them were idiots.We did two albums, on major labels, under different names. Other record company presidents wanted us, and told us how much they wished we were on their labels. So we did a couple albums, under the table, so to speak, for other labels. I can't tell you what name we played under, because then they gotcha! The taxman shows up, and says,"You got payed for this, and with interest..." (Morty wouldn't tell me the name, even when I offered to turn off the tape recorder).
TOM: What are your favorite versions of 'Twilight time'?
MORTY: There are over 400 versions, and I'm going to name them all ! No, I can't, but you know what: I would like to say thanks to everyone who recorded it. I always liked the Three Suns version; I like the Platters version, of course; Jose Feliciano did a wonderful version of it; and you know my newest favorite: Willie Nelson just recorded it, and performed it on the Tonight Show a couple of weeks ago.
TOM: What are you working on currently?
MORTY: I'm still writing. I just wrote one called 'Ragamuffin', it's a rag, you know, like Scott Joplin ? I seem to write a lot of ragtime tunes, maybe it takes me back to my childhood. I'm working on some country tunes. I wrote one called,'I'll never get married again'. I don't perform, but I do 'drop in' from time to time. I was at the Bonadventure hotel, in downtown L.A., a couple of weeks ago. I asked the manager if he had ever heard of a band called the Three Suns. Of course he had ! We talked for a little while, and I asked him if he minded if I played the piano for a little while. The other guy was going on break, so he told him,"Take you time, Morty's going to play". So I played for about an hour. I have a keyboard at home that I play on, if I have an idea in the middle of the night, I can put the headphones on and bang away, and I'm not waking up the neighborhood. You couldn't do that in the old days. But you get a different feel, a different vibe, if you're playing in a different setting,in front of people. So once in a while, I'll hijack the piano in a hotel or nightclub, just to get a different feel.
TOM: I've brought some records, and I'd like to get your opinion on them.
HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE
MORTY: There's no record in here!
TOM: You want to lug around 50 pounds of records?
MORTY: Good point! Okay, this one was really early on. This was just the three of us, no overdubs. This is what we sounded like on stage back then. And if I recall, we did the whole album in one three hour session. And it was almost always the first take, because we knew the material inside out.
SLUMBER TIME
MORTY: We phoned this one in! We were still pretty new at RCA, and this one was the president's idea. He wanted an album that would put people to sleep- it put the record buying public to sleep! And by the time it came out, we had a new record company president. And that was the last time we took advice from RCA.
THE HAPPY-GO-LUCKY SOUND OF THE THREE SUNS
MORTY: This was Camden, RCA's budget label. They would put together a compilation, and sell it for half the price.And you'd get half the royalties. The idea was, you buy a cheap album, you like the artist,and you'll buy another album at the regular price.
TOM: I wanted to ask you about the song,'Perdido'.
MORTY: 'Perdido' was an old ballroom number. The original was much slower.Remember I told you that Albert took his record player and played them at different speeds ? When he told us how fast this one went, we couldn't believe it. This was Albert's first big production, if I recall. It says here, he was one of the guitarists. No, he wasn't-he produce the session, and I know he arranged the guitars- I can't recall if he arranged the whole thing, but I do remember he arranged the guitars.And when we were getting the sound, he was fiddling with the amplifiers-you know the lead guitar, he cranked it up till it was on overdrive, you know, fuzz guitar? And me and Artie are saying,"What are you doing, can't you hear what that sounds like?". He conducted the session. And we thought it was too fast, we thought the guitar was crazy, and you know what-when it was done, and heard the playback, it sounded great! Fuzz guitar wouldn't become a big deal for another 10 or 12 years. For it's time, 'Perdido' is an early rock'n'roll record.And I'll eat my hat if that isn't the first fuzz guitar on a record !
HAVING A BALL WITH THE THREE SUNS
MORTY: This was a medley album. We did a couple of these, and they sold very well. Once we did one of these, RCA wanted us to do medley albums from there on out! Other artists started doing them, too. I think that customers saw 40 album titles and thought it was a good bargain.
COCTAIL TIME (on Crown Records).
MORTY: Oh, this is one of the knock-offs. We would go out on tour, and people would bring up records for us to sign.They started showing up with these albums that were not on RCA. And we said,"What the hell is this ?" Here's the deal: RCA had the right to license our tracks to other companies. RCA would get $300, we were supposed to get half of that. On top of that, the other company was supposed to keep track of the royalties, and we were supposed to get half of that. And not once, I mean not once, did they ever say,"Here's Cocktail time on Crown records, and here's your money". So when people brought up these records, we would tell them that they didn't send us one, could we trade you? Because we had boxes of records to give to club owners, dj's- We would trade them three RCA albums for one knock-off. And then we would have to take it into RCA and say,"Where's our money?".
MONTGOMERY WARDS PRESENTS THE THREE SUNS
MORTY: This record I've never seen before in my life! I swear to God, we're still finding them! And I never got paid for this, I would remember 'Montgomery Wards' on a royalty statement.
FEVER AND SMOKE
MORTY: The Three Suns go to hell! Honest to God, that's what we wanted to call it.We had been through the payola smear a couple years earlier. Albert and I had been talking about it, and about how our record sales had suffered for it. We got together with Charles to discuss the new album.You see, people would say,"Oh, I heard 'Fever and smoke'- tell Charles I love his new album!".But it wasn't like that. Don't get me wrong, give our arrangers all the credit in the world-but they wouldn't just hand us the new album. We would sit down and talk about what songs we were going to record, what instruments we would use,what kind of feel we were going after. So we sat down with Charles, and we were talking about the Three Suns going to hell after the payola smear. And Charles said,"What if you went to hell, and the house band was the Three Suns? What would it sound like?" I thought he was kidding! but twenty minutes later, him and Albert were throwing ideas back and forth at each other so fast I couldn't get a word in.So we were involved in putting the record together. We wanted to call it,'The Three Suns go to hell'.And the word 'hell' would be blocked out by little flames, so you could just barely tell what it said. And the cover would be a cave, lit up by red lights, with a cave painting of three musicians on the wall of the cave.And RCA had a coronary! Of course, they didn't go for it- they wouldn't even let us call it 'Fire and smoke'.They wouldn't let us put little devil horns on the girl on the cover.
A DING DONG DANDY CHRISTMAS
MORTY: We phoned this one in, too. Remember I just told you we were very involved with the record? This one was the exception.We met with Charles and Marty,and they said,"Do you want to do another boring Christmas record, or do you want to do something really wild and different?" Of course we wanted to do something wild. But when people buy a Christmas record, they really want a Christmas record.This one, we heard back from the distributors-people were returning it to the stores and saying,"I thought this was a christmas record". And it went out of print pretty quickly, because it was trouble!
SWINGING ON A STAR
MORTY: We met King Curtis at a jam session, Albert was really hot on him. That's where I met Quincy Jones, at a jam session.Albert would go to jam sessions and meet all these musicians, and he wanted to do an album with King Curtis. So we were going to put him on the cover with us, and RCA went through the roof! Because he was black. Hell, Don didn't play a note on the freakin' thing and he was on the cover! So we crossed swords with RCA yet again, Albert was really pissed off about this one. And RCA said they could refuse to release it, which they could, under our contract-they didn't have to release anything.So finally Albert said,"Put his picture on the back cover". They said they would get back to us,and finally they said,"Okay".And King Curtis had a great photo of himself in a tux, holding his saxophone,right? The cover comes out, and instead of the photo, they had a little cartoon drawing of 4 spacemen, and one had dots on his face-that was supposed to be him! Now we hit the roof- and Mr. Curtis just laughed about it, he was happy the record was out, and he figured something like this would happen. You see, it wasn't just this album cover, or the Toscanini record, or 'Peg o'my heart'- it was all this and more.It was RCA Victor, we always called them RCA Loser.
MOVIN' AND GROOVIN'
MORTY: Hands down, one of our best albums. Who did that young man think this was ?
TOM: Wall of Voodoo.(I was playing this album in my record store.The song,'Caravan' was on.As I was talking to Morty, a young man came up and asked if this was the new 'Wall of Voodoo' album! Morty was pleased, to say the least). We wanted to get far out with this album, Albert produced it, and introduced alot of instruments on it. And we were very happy with it, that was one of our best.
ON A MAGIC CARPET
MORTY: I was listening to this one last night. Don't get me wrong, I don't sit around listening to Three suns records all day, but I knew we were doing the interview today, and I played certain songs to spark my memory.And this album, I put it on and played it all the way through. It evokes a certain mood, you really feel like you're flying around the world on a magic carpet with the Three Suns. And for once, I even loved the cover. The cover looked great. This one is my favorite, and it might be the best work we ever did.
TOM: Morty, I think that just about does it. Is there anything that we didn't cover that you would like to tell our readers?
MORTY: Tell them what a great time we had. Oh, we had so much fun!
|
