From: "Dik de Heer" 
Date: Fri Jun 10, 2005  1:32 am 
Subject: This Is My Story : George Motola  

GEORGE MOTOLA

Born 15 November 1919, California
Died 15 February 1991, Connecticut

Producer, songwriter.

George Motola (often misspelled as Mottola) started his business
career as a used car dealer, but soon found out that music was his
real interest. By the mid-1950s he was working as a producer at
Modern Records in Los Angeles, where he supervised acts like Jesse
Belvin, Young Jessie, Jimmy Beasley and many others. His most
famous composition is "Goodnight My Love", which was originally
recorded by Jesse Belvin in 1956 (# 7 R&B). Subsequent versions
by the McGuire Sisters (1957), Ray Peterson (1959), The Fleetwoods
(1963), Ben E. King (1966) and Paul Anka (1969) all made the Billboard
Top 100. The writing credit goes to George Motola and John Marascalco.
When I had a conversation with Gaynel Hodge last year, he claimed to
have written the song with Jesse Belvin, who sold it to Motola and
Marascalco behind his back. I take this with a grain of salt. The official
version seems to be that Motola had written "Goodnight My Love" as
early as 1946, but had never been able to finish it. Belvin provided the
lines for the bridge that completed the song, but asked for $ 400
instead of co-autorship credit. Motola didn't have the money, but John
Marascalco did, paid Belvin and thus became listed as co-writer.

Motola was instrumental in the creation of The Shields, a group he
formed with the sole purpose to cover "You Cheated" by the Slades for
his own Tender label. The group included Frankie Ervin (lead singer),
Jesse Belvin and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Sold to Randy Wood's Dot
label, "You Cheated" became a # 12 pop hit. However, the other side,
"That's the Way It's Gonna Be", co-written by Motola, is far more
interesting. For the story of the Shields see:

http://home.att.net/~marvart/Ervin/ervin.html

In 1960, Motola produced one of the wildest rock 'n' roll recordings
ever made, the utterly berserk "Rockin' This Joint Tonight" by Kid
Thomas (real name Tommy Louis). Motola himself was too busy to
do anything with the record, but he pointed the Kid in the direction
of one Brat Atwood, who promptly took one-half writer's credit and
issued it on his TRC label. Just as Thomas was all set to do some
television appearances and start promoting the record, Atwood got
into some unspecified problems and the label folded.

Motola was a prolific songwriter, with 120 entries in the BMI database.
Among his compositions is "Shattered Dreams", recorded by the
Johnny Burnette Trio, and he co-wrote "Here Comes Henry" for Young
Jessie (with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller), both sides of the Ernie
Fields 1958 single "Annie's Rock"/"Strollin' After School"(Jamie 1102)
and "Lou Be Doo" far Sanford Clark. Most of his co-writing was done
together with his wife, Ricky Page, their best known composition being
"Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie" (Eddie Cochran and others). Ricky Page
was a recording star in her own right, with releases on Liberty, Dot,
Zephyr and Rendezvous. Last year, her 1957 recording of "Wee Willie"
(Liberty 55094, co-written by George Motola and Hal Winn) was included
on the CD "Liberty Rock & Roll" ; Eddie Cochran may be playing guitar
on this track, according to Tapio.

The vocal group The Georgettes, which included Ricky Page, may have
been named after George Motola. Their record "Love Like A Fool"/ "Oh
Tonight" (Ebb 125, both sides Motola-Page compositions) got a release
in the UK on London HL 8548. Ricky Page was also involved in several
other groups (sometimes with other female members of her musical
family) : The Bermudas (who recorded for Era), Joanne & the Triangles,
The Majorettes and Beverly and the Motorscooters. Motola and Page
also ran Troy Records, the original 1964 outlet for "He's My Boyfriend"
by Becky and the Lollipops, yet another name used by the Page clan.

Motola died in 1991. Page still seems to be active in the music business.

Dik