From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Sun Aug 3, 2003 1:42 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Claude Demetrius CLAUDE DEMETRIUS Born 3 August 1917, Bath, Maine Died 1 May 1988, New York City, New York Claude Demetrius (or DeMetrius) was a black songwriter, who started out in the music business in the 1940's, writing songs for such artists as Louis Jordan, Jimmy Witherspoon, Louis Armstrong and B.B. King. Probably his best-known composition from this era is "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" (1946), co-written with Fleecie Moore. Louis Jordan told Arnold Shaw (about "Caldonia"): "Fleecie Moore's name is on it, but she didn't have anything to do with it. That was my wife at the time, and we put it in her name. She didn't know nothin' about no music at all. Her name is on this song and that song, and she's still getting money." (In: "Honkers and Shouters", page 71.) But Demetrius' best-known compositions of course are those for Elvis Presley: Mean Woman Blues, Hard Headed Woman, I Was The One (with three co-writers) and Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me (with Aaron Schroeder). Strangely, countless websites allege that he also wrote "Dixieland Rock", with Fred Wise. He didn't. "Dixieland Rock" (from the film "King Creole") was written by Rachel Frank and Aaron Schroeder. Another white artist who recorded a Demetrius song is Rick Nelson ("Every Time I Think About You", on Decca). While doing Internet research on Demetrius, it struck me how often his name is misspelled as "Demetruis". A Google search for "Claude Demetruis" results in 436 hits, one for "Claude Demetrius" in only 251. I began to doubt when I saw that even the ASCAP website, which in general is known for its thoroughness, enters him under Demetruis. (52 of his compositions are registered with ASCAP, none with BMI.) However, what really settled it for me was the Social Security Death Index (an indispensable source for my birthday research), which has filed our man under Demetrius and has only one entry for "Demetruis" in the entire USA.