Harvey Rachlin - Song and System: The Making of American Pop Music

Song and System

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rachlin, Harvey, author.

Title: Song and system : the making of American pop music / Harvey Rachlin.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Growing in tandem with each other, pop music and the business of creating and distributing it have become a relationship that defines modern cultural history. This book not only charts the music that we all know and love but also reveals our active participation in its development throughout generations.Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019038978 (print) | LCCN 2019038979 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538112120 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538112137 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Popular musicUnited StatesHistory and criticism. | Sound recording industryUnited StatesHistory.

Classification: LCC ML3477 .R35 2020 (print) | LCC ML3477 (ebook) | DDC 781.640973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038978

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038979

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

For Alysa

First and foremost, I would like to thank Natalie Mandziuk, the music book acquisitions editor at Rowman & Littlefield. I came to her with an idea that in retrospect was somewhat vague, and she diligently and expertly shaped it into something more concrete. Her excellent critiques and editorial guidance made this book far better than what I delivered to her, and so I am very grateful to her and cannot lavish enough praise on her. Natalie is truly an editors editor.

I would also like to lavish praise on assistant editor Michael Tan for his great work in helping shepherd this work toward publication and to express my utmost appreciation to production editor Lara Hahn and everyone else at Rowman & Littlefield who was involved in the process of helping transform my manuscript into the book you are now holding. In book publishing, there are many unheralded people behind the scenes, and I am happy to enthusiastically salute those who were involved with this book.

I am grateful to my daughter-in-law Rebecca Rachlin, who provided perspicacious insights into the music of the 1980s and beyond that helped shape my chapter on A New Age of Pop Stars. Her keen knowledge of the modern pop era was of great advantage to the chapter.

I have run the music business program at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, for many years and owe a great debt to many people I have interacted with there over the years, ranging from faculty to administration to students. I will attempt to list some people, but undoubtedly there will be many whose names I have omitted, and to those I apologize. I owe a great debt to Jerry Kerlin, who is the present chair of the Music Department. Dr. Kerlin is one of the finest music educators I have ever known, and his great teaching talents and administrative capabilities are matched only by his geniality and kind-heartedness. Former Music Department chair Tony LaMagra hired me many years ago, and to him I will always be grateful. Other Music Department faculty I would like to thank (with apologies for not heaping praise on each) are Geoffrey Kidde, Mel Comberiati, Mark Cherry, Olivier Fluchaire, Beverly Meyer, James Lorusso, Diane Guernsey, Ronald Cappon, and Jeongeun Yom, as well as our invaluable Music Department coordinator, Kathryn DiBernardo, and retired professors Mary Ann Joyce and Francis Brancaleone. I appreciate the wonderful assistance I received from the Manhattanville College Library staff, and in particular I would like to thank Jeff Rosedale and Susan Majdak. Also at the college I am grateful to the president, Dr. Michael E. Geisler; the interim provost, Dr. Louise H. Feroe; and the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Christine Dehne.

For more than two decades I have learned much from students who have sat in my classroom at Manhattanville, and among them I would like to thank Richard Sica, Colleen Calabro Dahlstrom, Kerry Kaleja, Jamar Chess, Raina Mullen, Violet Foulk, Kimberly Spataro, Bobby Gasparakis, Terelina Cruz, Nicole Meyers, Thomas Solari, Julianna Ross, Richard Schertzer, Mariana Trodella, John Calicchia, Jarrett Dellaquilla, Jaime Ortega, Dan Hosannah, Tori Macchi, Quincy Primus, Francis Cardona, Isabella Passaretta, Natalia Veras, Kelsey Lora, and Serena Smacchia. For those I have left out, I offer my sincere apologies. I would also like to acknowledge musicologist Judith Finell, who accepted many of my students as interns and helped set them off into wonderful careers in the music business, and Stefanie May, the marketing director of the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, who has taken many of my students as interns and trained them well in all sorts of areas related to concert management.

I would like to thank my longtime friend Michael Kerker, who runs the Musical Theatre Department at ASCAP, for all the kindnesses he has bestowed on me over the years. Among his many generosities was helping me put together a Charles Strouse Day at Manhattanville College, getting stars associated with Strouses musicals such as Bye Bye Birdie and Annie to come pay tribute to and perform with the renowned Broadway composer (original Annie star Andrea McArdle singing the Edith Bunker part and Strouse singing the Archie Bunker part on Strouses theme song Those Were the Days from All in the Family was precious, hilarious, and unforgettable). Michael is a legend at ASCAP and has worked with many of the greatest composers in musical theater history from Jerry Herman to Stephen Sondheim.

Many years ago when I aspired to write about music, two publishers saw potential in me, I suppose, and published my articles. To them I shall always be grateful. They are Syde Berman, publisher of The Songwriters Review, and James D. Liddane, publisher of Songwriter, a division of Songwriters International Association. I would also like to thank Mike Lawson, the editor of School Band & Orchestra and Choral Director, who has given me the opportunity to write for these magazines, which have also broadened my horizons with respect to pop songs. Mike is a super-talented editor who is as nice as he is talented.

Others who offered valuable input include Jeff Jastrow, Jeff Burke, Jesse Berensci, Richard W. Lewis, Jaime Babbitt, and Bonnie Schachter Barchichat. Id like to especially single out Jean Bennett, who helped launch the iconic group The Platters with Buck Ram, and who has been a dear friend and inspiration through the years. A prime force in the 1950s of making the Platters the super-sensation they were, and fighting hard for the group to enjoy the same civil rights as any white act, she is a true legend in the music business. She has affectionately been referred to as The Grandmother of Rock and Roll.