Crafting the next big thing

Back in the 1960s, music publishing rights were handled separately in each country.  A band might be signed to one record label in the U. K., and be released on a different record label in the U. S. Or maybe they didn’t have a contract overseas at all. And even if they did, just because you put out a single in one country, it didn’t guarantee that that song would also be released anywhere else.

So in those early days of making it up as you went along in the music business, some shrewd producers would keep their ears on the music charts in other countries.  If a song was a hit on the other side of the Atlantic, record your own version with one of the artists on your record label and make it a hit in your own country.

Remember the band Paper Lace?  They had the hit “The Night Chicago Died”?  Their first big hit was in the U. K. where they were from.  It was a song called “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero.”  But before Paper Lace could work out the details of getting it released as a single the U. S., an American band named Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods beat them to the punch.

It was just some shrewd business maneuvering in an industry that eats those that hesitate.  And manager Stig Anderson was not someone who hesitated.  He made regular visits to New York City to listen to the radio for the most promising songs in the Top 40.  When something caught his ear, he would transcribe and translate the lyrics on the flight home so that it could be recorded and available on the record store shelves in just a few days.

But Stig had a new scheme he was working on.  It involved a four-piece vocal group (two men and two women) that wrote their own music rather than relying on somebody else’s.