From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Jul 27, 2003  2:07 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Bob Thiele
 
BOB THIELE (By Tony Wilkinson)

Born 27 July 1922, Brooklyn, New York City

Died 30 January 1996, New York City

Strictly speaking Bob Thiele was not so much an artist but more a talent
spotter, songwriter and producer. Whilst his great love in music was jazz, one
of his justifiable claims for rock 'n' roll immortality was that he was in part
responsible for the commercial success of Buddy Holly and The Crickets.

Born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn in the roaring twenties, he became attracted
to the glamour of the entertainment industry when in 1935, his father took him
along on a business trip to Los Angles and he became acquainted with the
Hollywood life style. However back in New York, he got to hear the music of
bandleader Hal Kemp and pianist Art Hodes and for his thirteenth or fourteenth
birthday, he got a phonograph player. Gradually he became obsessed with music,
especially jazz and swing. He began to visit various New York nightspots and
earned the friendship of many musicians based or visiting the city. He learned
to play the clarinet and formed a 14-piece band that played at schools and
beach clubs but did not earn many return engagements. He also obtained an
unpaid fifteen-minute weekly radio show in 1936 on WWRL during which he played
his selection of jazz records. This eventually developed into an hourly show,
five nights a week, on station WBYN and thereafter on WHN.

In 1939, he and his friend Dan Priest launched the magazine 'Jazz', the first
to specialise in that field of music. As a consequence, he frequently visited
Harlem and heard the music of Chick Web, Andy Kirk, Charlie Parker, Dizzy
Gillespie, Jimmie Lunceford and many others. When World War 2 broke out, he
joined up and was assigned to the Manhattan Beach Coast Guard barracks in
Brooklyn. He was billeted with the musicians of the Coast Guards band whose
members included Lew Brown (arranger/conductor for Jerry Lewis) and Shelly
Manne. However, before he enlisted, he had set up his own Signature Record
label when he was sixteen or seventeen and amongst the artists he recorded were
the Chicago Rhythm Kings, Yank Lawson, Pee Wee Russell. Eddie Condon and James
P Johnson. When the war ended, Signature Records went public and set up its own
pressing plant. The label expanded into the pop field and signed up Alan Dale
who had hits for the label in 1947 with such 'memorable' tunes as 'Kate (Have I
Come Too Early Or Too Late)'. However, the old malady of distributors not
paying for records eventually caused the demise of the record label. He went on
to form other independent labels such as Hanover-Signature with Steve Allen and
which recorded Jack Kerouac reading poetry backed by the likes of Al Cohn and
Zoot Sims.

Thiele's next move (1952) was to join (US) Decca Records where he took over the
running of the subsidiary Coral label from Milt Gabler. Bob then produced a
series of hits for the label for the best part of the next decade with the
likes of the McGuire Sisters, Debbie Reynolds, the aforementioned Alan Dale,
Buddy Hackett and Teresa Brewer who eventually became Mrs. Thiele. 

The rock 'n' roll era was hitting big and Murray Deutch of Southern Music
played him some recordings by Buddy Holly and The Crickets that had been
received from Norman Petty. Deutch had hawked the demos around all the majors
such as Columbia, Decca and RCA and leading independents such as Atlantic where
seemingly Jerry Wexler reacted negatively. According to Thiele, he recognized
the potential of the recordings from the outset and wanted to purchase the
masters for $2,500 but did not have enough budget at the time. Bob eventually
persuaded the powers to be at Decca to buy and release 'That'll Be The Day' on
its race music subsidiary Brunswick Records. The rest is record history and the
disc became a monster hit. According to Thiele, it was his idea to have Holly
record as a solo name on Coral and as the Crickets on Brunswick. Thiele states
that he co-wrote 'Mailman Bring Me No More Blues' for Holly under the alias of
Stanley Clayton for Holly plus he recorded/produced 'That's My Desire' and
'Rave On' in the Bell Sound Studios in Manhattan without Petty being present.
He also got to know Sonny Curtis who sang the song 'Sugartime' to him during a
visit to Norman Petty's house. Thiele arranged for the McGuire Sisters to
record this in New York with Neil Hefti arranging. The original cuts were made
with a sixteen-piece big band but as the session went on, Thiele states that he
stripped down the accompaniment until he was left with just a rhythm section,
which resulted in the second number one, hit for the act.

Another act that Thiele was responsible for signing was Jackie Wilson when he
was offered Billy Ward And The Dominos but states that he was only interested
in signing Wilson. Bob produced 'Lonely Teardrops' at the Pythian Temple with a
sixteen-piece band. Other acts that came under the Thiele banner were Pearl
Bailey, Erroll Garner and Gato Barbieri. Of course, he had his failures such as
Marvin Hamlisch who Thiele told not to consider a career in the music business.
This is before Hamlisch wrote the scores for movies of the ilk of 'The Way We
Were', 'The Sting' and 'A Chorus Line'. Another example was that he told Jann
Wenner that his idea of a monthly rock 'n' roll culture magazine was the
silliest idea. The magazine in question was 'Rolling Stone'.

Another act that Thiele produced was Alan Freed with whom he became friends. In
his book 'What A Wonderful Life', Thiele writes about visiting the Freed Home
at Stamford, Connecticut and when asked about the upkeep of the estate, Freed
is quoted as saying that one record company does the lawns whilst another cuts
the shrubs and a third cleans the pool.

Eventually, Thiele left Coral and joined Dot Records and persuaded Lawrence
Welk to make a similar move. Debbie Reynolds and Steve Allen also followed.
After a dispute over the previously mentioned Jack Kerouac album that label
owner Randy Wood declared to be a 'pornographic outrage', Thiele was asked to
leave the company. From here it was onto a stint at Roulette and interestingly
Bob speaks highly of Morris Levy. Here he produced an album by Louis Armstrong
with Duke Ellington, which today is regarded as a classic in its field. Then it
was onto ABC Paramount where he took over the running of the Impulse
subsidiary, a jazz label originally founded by Creed Taylor. Here he made
several albums with John Coltrane. In total, Thiele produced around 200 LPs for
the label. He also produced 'pop' recordings by such as Frankie Laine, Judy
Garland and Della Reese and was responsible for the launching of Bluesway
Records. Blues greats BB King, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Eddie Cleanhead
Vinson and Joe Turner were amongst the signings. The biggest international hit
produced by Thiele whilst at ABC Paramount has to be 'What A Wonderful World'
by Louis Armstrong that was recorded despite the protestations and actions of
label boss Larry Newton. From the story told by Thiele, it was a minor wonder
that the record was even cut and then released. 

After leaving ABC Paramount, Thiele founded Flying Dutchman Records and
thereafter the Doctor Jazz label that was subsequently transformed into Red
Baron. The first mentioned was primarily a vehicle for his wife Teresa Brewer.
Bob kept active in the music business until his death in January 1996. A
colourful character that I suspect is missed. 


Bob Thiele's Ten Favourite Self-Produced Albums:

1.. Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington (Roulette) 

2.. John Coltrane 'A Love Supreme' (Impulse) 

3.. Coleman Hawkins & Lester Young 'Classic Tenors' (Signature) 

4.. Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (Impulse) 

5.. John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman (Impulse) 

6.. Duke Ellington & Teresa Brewer 'It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got
That Swing' (Columbia) 

7.. David Murray 'Saxmen' (Red Baron) 

8.. Louis Armstrong 'What A wonderful World' (MCA) 

9.. Jackie Wilson (Brunswick) 

10.. The Bob Thiele Collective 'Lion Hearted' (Red Baron) 

Suggested Reading:

'What A Wonderful World - A Lifetime Of Recordings' by Bob Thiele as told to
Bob Golden. Published by Oxford University Press (New York) in 1995.