From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Nov 19, 2002  6:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Jerry Fuller
 
JERRY FULLER

Born Jerrell Lee Fuller, 19 November 1938, Fort Worth, Texas

Singer / songwriter / producer.
Jerry Fuller started his musical career as a singer, releasing five rather
undistinguished singles on Joe Leonard's Lin label in 1958-59. The last
one of these, "Mother Goose At The Bandstand"/"Lipstick And Rouge"
was the most interesting one and was released in the UK with a 3-year
delay on the mysterious Salvo label in 1962. In 1959 he moved to Los
Angeles, where he was signed to Challenge Records. For this label he
scored four minor hits between 1959 and 1961, the most successful
being a revival of "Tennessee Waltz" (# 63), which was released in the
UK on London American.
So far, so good. But it was after he'd already written some 80 songs for
Challenge's publishing wing, Four Star Music, that Fuller made a substantial
move into the big time. Ricky Nelson, whom Jerry had not met as of yet, got
a hold of "Travelin' Man", one of Fuller's songs. Fuller had actually written
"Travelin' Man" for Sam Cooke, but Sam's manager, J.W. Alexander, was
not impressed. When Ricky Nelson's bass player, Joe Osborne, happened
to hear it in Cooke's office, he quickly played it for Nelson, who recorded it
without Fuller's even knowing. It became the biggest hit of Ricky's career,
peaking at # 1. It also put Jerry Fuller on the music business map. He went
on to write no less than 23 of Ricky's recordings, including "It's Up To You",
"Young World", and "A Wonder Like You", all of which made the Top 10.

After two years in the army, Challenge/Four Star moved him to New York to
run their East coast operation. There, in Albany, N.Y., he discovered a group
called the Knickerbockers, with whom he recorded "Lies", a Top 20 hit in
1965. After eight years with Challenge/Four Star, Fuller took a staff producer's
job with Columbia Records in 1967. His first discovery was Gary Puckett and
The Union Gap, whom he found in a San Diego bowling alley lounge. The group
and Fuller were soon rolling plenty of strikes, including, "Woman, Woman,"
"Young Girl," "Lady Willpower," and "Over You," the latter three both written
and produced by Jerry. Fuller also scored hits with O.C. Smith (Little Green
Apples, Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp) and Mark Lindsay (Arizona) and did
production work with Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Billy Joe Royal and others.
When he left Columbia in 1970 to start his own company, Moonchild Productions,
Inc., and his own publishing concern, Fullness Music, the hits kept coming for
Fuller - many of which, like Al Wilson's, "Show & Tell'' (# 1 in January 1974),
Jerry wrote as well as produced.
Fuller has continued to thrive, both as a producer (Glen Campbell, Roger Miller,
Collin Raye) and as a songwriter, with hit recordings by Reba McEntire, Freddie
Hart, Ray Price, Tom Jones, and many others.

Official website: http://www.jerryfuller.com/
There's a CD of his early work as a singer : " Teenage Love" (Collectables
5729),
with 8 Lin and 6 Challenge recordings, but I cannot really recommend it.