But it doesn't always go that smoothly!
Some hit records have had rather 'roundabout' backgrounds:
1. In the mid 1950s, Paul Anka from Ottawa, at age 15, had embarked on a music career, but had not achieved many record sales. He was ambitious enough that he didn't give up.
He went to New York, and when he hooked up with producer/ bandleader Don Costa at RCA, his career changed dramatically.
In May, 1957, he recorded ‘Diana,’ which bounded up the charts and ended up selling more than 10 million copies.
2. Connie Francis was another young singer in the mid 50s, whose career seemed to be stuck in neutral. Her manager/father kept pestering her to record a certain song, adamant that the song would be an rock'n roll smash hit. She was not enthusiastic about the song.
During an October, 1957, recording session (which was meant to be her last since she had had no hits), she finished early, and used the leftover studio time to record the song as a goodwill gesture to her father.
The song, ‘Who’s Sorry Now,’ rose to number four on the Billboard cup hot 100 in early 1958, reports Wikipedia, with some help from Dick Clark on his TV program, ‘American Bandstand.
It is still her signature song, more than half a century later!
3. Bobby Vinton, had been signed by CBS (Epic) Records in 1960 as a bandleader.
He worked hard and did great performances/.
Two years and two failed LPs later, Epic was ready to drop him, but he pointed out that his contract called for him to record and release two more songs.
While he was listening to rejected demo records, he found a recording that stopped him cold, with lyrics by Al Byron, and music (written in three minutes!) by Paul Evans.
He persuaded Epic let him record the song with strings and a chorus, using 15 minutes of leftover studio time (sound familiar?) in only two takes.
A couple of weeks later, ‘Roses Are Red (My Love)’ reached No. 1, and saved Vinton from being fired from Epic Records.
‘Billboard’ ranked the record as the No. 4 song of 1962.
4. In 1961, songwriters Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard were pitching the demo of a new song in Nashville, Tennessee, which was rapidly setting the standard for country music.
Well-established artists, such as Brenda Lee, and Roy Drusky (both of whom would have done great versions) had already turned it down.
A young singer, Patsy Cline, happened to overhear Drusky’s argument with Bradley in the hallway and, according to Wikipedia, asked if she could record it instead.
Bradley then accepted her offer.
However, she almost didn’t record it because of a series of ‘misgivings’ about suitable singing style and back up singers, and Howard finally had to coax her to do it.
’I Fall to Pieces’ became arguably the first pure Country single to cross over to the Pop charts. It established Patsy Cline's sophisticated vocal style.
5. How did a secretary from Cleveland, Ohio, get to record a song linked to the hit disaster movie, ‘Poseidon Adventure’ in 1973?
During the spring of 1972, according to Songfacts, Russ Regan (head of 20th Century Records at the time) began looking for someone to record the song ‘The Morning After,’ for the singles market.
He originally offered it to Barbra Streisand, but she turned it down in favour of other projects.
He then remembered hearing (months before) a demo tape from a secretary who was a part-time folk singer (and who had never made a record before): Maureen McGovern.
Regan liked her voice so much, that he immediately hired her, sight unseen, to record the song.
He financed the recording with his own money and contracted her to his company.
’The Morning After’ was produced in Cleveland, Ohio, at Agency Recording Studios, and became a global hit.
The song won the Oscar for Best Song, 1972.
I can remember listening to a stirring performance by the Choir of the Halifax School for the Blind, early in my teaching career!
The course of making a hit record does not go smoothly!
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