Remembering music business executive, and comic entertainer Lew Bedell who was born on this date March 21, 1919 in El Pa…
Remembering music business executive, and comic entertainer Lew Bedell who was born on this date March 21, 1919 in El Paso, TX. During World War II, he worked in an aircraft factory, but in 1946 he teamed up with college friend Doug Mattson to form a comedy duo. Bedell and Mattson appeared together in clubs in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, New York City and elsewhere, performing an act that involved them miming and clowning around on stage to current pop hits and com…edy records such as those by Spike Jones. By 1955 Bedell had started work for a music publisher, Meadowlark Music. That year he set up a new record label, Era, with his uncle Max Newman and cousin Herb Newman, and became its comptroller. The company soon appointed Buddy Bregman as musical director, and he in turn brought singer Gogi Grant to the label. Grant’s successes with songs like “Suddenly There’s a Valley” and “The Wayward Wind”, co-written by Herb Newman, established the Era label. In June 1958, he and Herb Newman set up a new label with record distributor George Jay, for releasing new rock and roll material, and named it Doré after Bedell’s young son. The label’s first hit was “To Know Him Is To Love Him” by The Teddy Bears, written by and featuring the young Phil Spector. Bedell and Newman decided to end their partnership in 1959, with Newman retaining control of Era and Bedell running the Doré label. The Doré label had several major pop and novelty hits over the next few years, including “Baby Talk” by Jan & Dean. In 1961, Bedell suggested to session leader Ernie Freeman that he and fellow musicians – including drummer Earl Palmer, guitarist René Hall, bassist Red Callender and marimba player Julius Wechter – record a version of a Maxwell House advertising jingle. The record, “Percolator (Twist)”, was credited to Billy Joe & the Checkmates and rose to no.10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1962. From the mid-1960s, the Doré label issued pop and R&B records. It also produced comedy albums, including Bedell’s own 1967 album “Oh Mighty Game of Golf!!”. He continued to run Doré Records until shortly before his death, July 6, 2000. #lewbedell #dorerecords
Published at Sun, 21 Mar 2021 20:23:56 GMT
