Archie Bleyer
Encyclopedia
Archie Bleyer was an American song arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...

, bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

, and record company executive.

Early life

He was born in the Corona
Corona, Queens
Corona is a densely-populated neighborhood in the former Township of Newtown in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States...

 section of the New York City borough of Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

. He began playing the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 when he was only seven years old. In 1927 he went to Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...

, intending to become an electrical engineer, but as a sophomore switched to a music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 major. Without graduating, he left to become an arranger. In the early 1930s, he wrote a number of songs that got recorded; all 'hot' novelty numbers, including "Mouthful O'Jam" and "Business In F".

In 1934 he started leading a band of his own at Earl Carroll
Earl Carroll Theatre
Earl Carroll Theatre was the name of two important theaters owned by Broadway impresario and showman Earl Carroll. One was located on Broadway in New York City and the other on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, California.-Broadway:...

's club in Hollywood, California. Bleyer's orchestra recorded for Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...

, and one of the vocalists who worked with this orchestra was Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

, who became better known as a songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 and co-founder of Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

.

The Godfrey Years

He became musical director for Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Morton Godfrey was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname, The Old Redhead...

 in 1946, serving in this role until 1953. Many close to Godfrey considered Bleyer's creativity and understanding of music to be pivotal to the success of Godfrey's radio and TV programs. And while Godfrey was known to be short-fused and controlling, he often deferred to Bleyer's judgment in the areas of presentation and production.

In 1952 he founded Cadence Records
Cadence Records
Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952...

, whose first artist was Godfrey alumnus Julius La Rosa
Julius La Rosa
Julius La Rosa is an American traditional popular music singer who has worked in both radio and television since the 1950s.-Early years and big break:...

. Along with several instrumental hit singles of his own, Bleyer went on to sign many other artists who had performed on Godfrey's programs (including The Chordettes
The Chordettes
The Chordettes were a female popular singing quartet, usually singing a cappella, and specializing in traditional popular music. The Chordettes were one of the longest lived vocal groups with beginnings in the mainstream pop and vocal harmonies of the 1940s and early 1950s...

, one of whose members, Janet Ertel, became his wife).

In the fall of 1953, Godfrey dismissed La Rosa on the air and later claimed the young singer "lacked humility," doing his own popularity considerable damage. That same day, Godfrey fired Bleyer, claiming he was offended when Bleyer recorded Chicago radio personality Don McNeill
Don McNeill (performer)
Don McNeill was an American radio personality, best known as the creator and host of The Breakfast Club, which ran for more than 30 years.-Early career:...

, host of Don McNeill's Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club (radio)
The Breakfast Club is a long-run morning variety show on NBC Blue Network/ABC radio originating in Chicago, Illinois. Hosted by Don McNeill, the radio program ran from June 23, 1933 through December 27, 1968. McNeil's 35½-year run as host remains the longest tenure for an M.C...

.The only trouble with this angle is the fact that Bleyer had McNeil record "Make American Proud Of You" (Cadence #1286)in 1956, not 1953 as is alleged here. This Godfrey-like show was based in Chicago and broadcast nationally, but its popularity was mainly in the Midwest and tailored to that audience. Always insecure, Godfrey felt McNeill, whose show had once been a competitor, was still in competition though Godfrey was the dominant personality of his generation. Godfrey later claimed when he confronted Bleyer and threatened to fire him from at least one of the three shows Godfrey hosted, the conductor shrugged and told him to do what he had to do.

Radio historian John Dunning has suggested, in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, that Bleyer's relationship with Janet Ertel was also a factor in Godfrey's decision to fire him; Godfrey tried to enforce a no-dating policy among his cast and fired several who dated each other. After leaving the show, Bleyer never made a public comment about his days with Godfrey. The public furor that surrounded LaRosa's firing and, to a lesser extent, Bleyer's, began the unraveling of Godfrey's seemingly unstoppable dominance of radio and TV as Bleyer's career was just beginning to blossom. The loss of Bleyer's expertise in staging and production matters, where he served as an informal mentor to Godfrey despite their age differences, was detrimental to Godfrey's programs.

Cadence Records

While LaRosa was unable to sustain his early successes, later Cadence artists included Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...

 and the label's biggest act of all, The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...

 whose hits such as "Bye Bye Love" and "Wake Up Little Susie
Wake Up Little Susie
"Wake Up Little Susie" is a popular song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and published in 1957.The song is best known in a recording by The Everly Brothers, issued by Cadence Records as catalog number 1337...

" were produced by Bleyer in Nashville with country studio musicians led by Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

. Bleyer circa 1963 was also the step father-in-law of Phil Everly. He had his own instrumental recording hits on the Cadence label as well. Don Shirley
Don Shirley
Don Shirley is an American-Jamaican jazz pianist and composer.Shirley's prodigious piano skills were recognized early and Shirley began his career as a composer and virtuoso performer at a young age....

, who appeared on the label in 1955 with "Tonal Expressions". It became a Top 15 album in the spring of that year, reportedly selling more than 20,000 copies, a respectable debut for a jazz artist. Ironically, it was the only chart album Shirley was to enjoy, but his sales remained steady enough that he was with the label until it closed in 1964, cutting around a dozen long-play releases Don Shirley Discography.

Bleyer also had his limits to his tolerance for rock and roll. While he clearly, and correctly, viewed the Everlys as a commercially appealing, clean-cut act whose country-influenced harmonies could reach a vast following, he was not so tolerant of pioneer garage-rock guitarist Link Wray
Link Wray
Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....

. In 1957, Bleyer reluctantly agreed to release his no-frills, roaring instrumental "Rumble" on Cadence in part due to his daughter's fascination with the song. Wray had a contract with Cadence, but in 1958 after he submitted a newly recorded album of similarly raw material recorded in Nashville, Bleyer was convinced the instrumental music was morally and musically inappropriate and shelved the album and canceled Wray's contract. The material wouldn't see the light of day for decades until it was acquired by the British Rollercoaster label.

Cadence had another major hit in 1962 with comic Vaughn Meader
Vaughn Meader
Abbott Vaughn Meader was an American comedian and impersonator whose achievement of fame with The First Family album spoofing President John F...

's album The First Family
The First Family (album)
The First Family is a comedy album recorded on October 22, 1962, as a good-natured parody of President John F. Kennedy, both as Commander-in-Chief and as a member of a large, well-known political family...

, which featured Meader's comedic sketches and his peerless impersonations of President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

. The album was an enormous seller, as was a followup, until Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

Cadence always maintained a small roster of artists. Other Cadence hits included 14 chart hits by Johnny Tillotson
Johnny Tillotson
Johnny Tillotson is an American singer and songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored 9 top-ten hits on the pop, country and adult contemporary billboard charts including "Poetry In Motion" and the self-penned "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'"...

, 10 by The Chordettes
The Chordettes
The Chordettes were a female popular singing quartet, usually singing a cappella, and specializing in traditional popular music. The Chordettes were one of the longest lived vocal groups with beginnings in the mainstream pop and vocal harmonies of the 1940s and early 1950s...

, 4 by Lenny Welch
Lenny Welch
Lenny Welch , is an American MOR/pop singer.He was born in New York City on May 31, 1938 . He was raised in Asbury Park, New Jersey. His biggest hit, a cover version of the big band standard "Since I Fell for You," reached number 4 on U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1963...

, 2 by Don Shirley
Don Shirley
Don Shirley is an American-Jamaican jazz pianist and composer.Shirley's prodigious piano skills were recognized early and Shirley began his career as a composer and virtuoso performer at a young age....

.

In 1964, Bleyer, who was unable to accept the changing pop music market at the dawn of the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...

 era, sold the Cadence label and all its recordings (except for certain material—like the Link Wray album—he kept to himself) to Andy Williams who formed Barnaby Records
Barnaby Records
Barnaby Records was an American record company founded by singer Andy Williams in 1963 with his purchase of soon-to-be-liquidated Cadence Records....

 to manage the Cadence catalog.

He moved with his wife Janet to her hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
-Airport:Sheboygan is served by the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, which is located several miles from the city.-Roads:Interstate 43 is the primary north-south transportation route into Sheboygan, and forms the west boundary of the city. U.S...

 where he died of the effects of Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

in 1989.

Bleyer was a free-mason, member of St. Cecile Lodge No. 568, New York City.

External links

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