![]() No one could have foreseen that the people who grew up with the music would refuse to relinquish it, and the songs would be repeatedly recycled into movie soundtracks and albums, cover versions, oldies compilations, and television commercials. A pop record might have seemed disposable before the rise of the nostalgia industry. Owning the rights to 1950’s rock and roll songs meant more in the 1980s than it did when they were hits. It was also not uncommon for an agent, producer, or record label head to name himself co-writer of a group’s songs, thereby entitling him to half of the author’s publishing royalties. Recording costs and commissions for everyone from managers to choreographers could siphon off much of a group’s earnings. ![]() ![]() Like the jazz and blues artists before them, the rock and rollers of the 1950s and 1960s were often ripe for rip-offs, and royalties were underestimated or simply never paid. ![]() “They wanted to impress their friends in school by being on the radio." “Kids didn’t know about royalties” said Bob Hyde of Murray Hill Records. Her published account of the trial and the three women contesting to be named Frankie’s legal wife and heir was titled The Three Wives: The Legacy Of Love.īack in the 1950s, when a star-struck group like the Teenagers finally got to audition for the head of a record company, such matters as copyright barely figured in the conversation. The resulting trial was fascinating look into Frankie Lymon’s post-stardom personal life, and it was covered in great detail by Washington Post reporter Paula Span. She attempted to recover all the royalties from the date of the record’s release because she alleged that neither Levy nor his predecessor as co-writer, George Goldner who discovered and recorded the Teenagers, was actually a songwriter. Her complaint charged fraud, misappropriation and copyright infringement, among other offenses. District Court in New York against Morris Levy, his record label, and his publishing company. In 1984, as the original copyright term of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” was expiring, Emira Eagle Lymon brought suit in the U.S. Most record buyers did not become aware of this latest change until the Happenings recorded a cover version of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" in 1967 with Levy's name listed on the label. It was modified to just Lymon and Goldner on subsquent recordings for the next decade before Goldner's name was replaced by Levy's. Back in 1956, the hit song had first been credited to Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago, and George Goldner - head of Gee Records. Levy was the head of Roulette Records, the independent label that bought out the Gee label which originally released the record. The names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy were now listed as the songwriters. It was the hit that made him and the Teenagers famous back in 1956, and the one song that he recorded that remained both popular and valuable over the years.ĭuring 1965, the copyright for “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” was changed. He left no fortune, but his name was listed as one of the songwriters of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love”. When Frankie Lymon died from a heroin overdose in 1968, he was broke and trying again for a comeback that he never achieved.
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