ROCKETOLOGY
(EXPLORATION OF THE ROOTS OF MUSIC)
JESSE STONE
November 16, 1901 - April 1, 1999
Classic recordings of songs he wrote in several styles could provide a multiple award-winning soundtrack for a comprehensive documentary of 20th Century America; but chances are you, the reader, never heard of Jesse Stone, let alone his pen name, Charles Calhoun. That's not your fault. Despite his musical legacy (recognized by a Pioneer Award from the R&B Foundation in 1992, and by a Blues Hall of Fame award from the Blues Foundation in 2001), since he is even now only almost famous, unless you are somehow involved in what is left of what was once the thriving business of music, you would have to make it your business to know that Jesse Stone's musical influence permeated all ten decades of the 1900s, and lives on in the hybrid branches of the various forms of American root music that Stone had a hand in creating.
Born in 1901, the Ragtime era, into a family of traveling minstrels whose home base was Atchison, Kansas, and whose far-flung performance range extended into Canada, Jesse Stone's natural understanding of entertainment was prodigious; at four years old he had already developed his own act in which he played violin, accompanied by his very first back-up group: a band of dancing dogs. In his teens he mastered several musical instruments, and his progression was so rapid that by his early 20s he already was a highly respected band-leader, composer, arranger, and pianist throughout the Southwest, especially in its musical epicenter, Kansas City, MO. Count Basie, in his autobiography, wrote that Jesse Stone had the reputation of being the best piano player in Kansas City when Basie first played there in 1920. The Kansas Music Hall of Fame just got around to inducting Jesse Stone this year, 2011, finally recognizing the man regarded by Count Basie as a peer way back when. In these early years, Stone's germinal capacity for composing songs with pandemic appeal was presented in Mama Don't Allow, a prototypical style-straddling standard, that has since been recorded by everyone from Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and Flatt & Scruggs, to Bukka White and JJ Cale. In 1927, Jesse Stone and His Blue Serenaders, a band that extensively toured the Southwest territories, recorded Starvation Blues and Boot to Boot for the Okeh label in St. Louis, which Jazz scholar Gunther Schuller, in his superb book, Early Jazz, proclaimed to be "extraordinary sides". In 1936, Duke Ellington, who recognized Stone's genius for Jazz, invited him to come to New York City, stay free of charge in Ellington's 7th Avenue mansion, and play the Cotton Club. Stone, who had inborn itchy feet and fingers, jumped at the chance.
So, during the 1930s and early 1940s Stone played the theatre and jazz club circuit in Manhattan with his band; and selflessly helped Louis Jourdan to begin as a bandleader, wrote his early arrangements, and even gave him Stone's own orchestra, renamed the Elk's Rendezvous Band. Years later, Jourdan had a hit with Cole Claw, written by Stone. The consummate entertainer, Stone went on to work at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where he drew on his minstrel roots in doing everything from producing shows, to writing arrangements and songs for the various musicians in many styles. He even wrote routines and jokes for the comedians. Stone also recorded Snaky Feeling for the Variety record label in 1937, and arranged at sessions for Jimmie Lunceford in 1939 and for Leonard and His Rockets in 1940. For two years starting in 1941, Stone acted as music director for the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, which became widely recognized as the best all-female Jazz orchestra in the world after it performed throughout post-war Europe. In 1942, Stone composed what became a Big-Band Jazz classic, Idaho, which was recorded by everyone from Benny Goodman, whose version went to the top of the charts, to Count Basie, Jimmy Dorsey, Alvino Rey, and Guy Lombardo, whose version sold three million copies. Stone's classic, Smack Dab In The Middle, became a signature song for Joe Williams, vocalist for Count Basie's band, and was later recorded by numerous artists ranging from Ray Charles to Ry Cooder.
In early 1945 Jesse and his friend Herb Abramson began working at National Records, which had such artists as Billy Eckstine and The Ravens under contract. In 1947, Abramson told Stone that he needed Stone to come with him to act as his music man at a new label he wanted to start, which in partnership with Ahmet Ertegun became Atlantic Records. When the Jazz that Atlantic produced in the late 40's did not sell well, Stone accompanied Abramson and Ertegun on a road trip down South to see what was popular in all kinds of "joints". Since Stone was the only musician of the trio on this southern sojourn, it naturally was he who figured out that the younger generation wanted music that was in the groove with their new dance moves, and that Atlantic's Jazz didn't have the right rhythm. So, Stone solved Atlantic's problem by designing a bass-pattern that shaped the characteristic early sound on records that began to be produced, and sold in increasing numbers, by the label.
Nick Tosches, who devoted the entire first chapter of Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll to Jesse Stone, did not exaggerate in stating: "Jesse's contributions to the immense success of Atlantic Records were inestimable." Throughout the 1950s, Jesse Stone wrote or co-wrote, arranged, and produced (often un-credited), many of Atlantic's biggest hits, including the Grammy Hall of Fame Award winner, Money Honey by Clyde McPhatter and the (original) Drifters; Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash by the Clovers; Soul on Fire by LaVern Baker; As Long As I'm Moving by Ruth Brown; Sh-Boom by the Chords (a doo-wop classic arranged by Stone for Atlantic's subsidiary imprint, Cat Records); Flip, Flop, and Fly by Big Joe Turner, and one of the most influential hits ever to come out of Atlantic Records, another Grammy Hall of Fame Award winner, Shake, Rattle and Roll, also by Big Joe Turner, which was released in April of 1954, sold over a million copies, and spent three weeks at # 1 on Billboard's R&B chart. Jesse Stone was deeply involved in this original recording of Shake, Rattle & Roll on February 15, 1954, and his is one of the trio of voices heard shouting the eponymous chorus, together with those of Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun. Since Stone had just thrown together the song, and since Turner could not read and had not had time to learn some of the lyrics, Stone resorted to singing the unlearned lyrics, during the recording, into Turner's ear through a makeshift paper megaphone. This improbable device actually worked almost perfectly; the "almost" being a tale in itself, to be told at another time. For now, just try to imagine the scene in that studio, and you may soon wonder why no enterprising script-writer has used such a stranger than fiction scene as source material for a film. This original recording of Shake, Rattle & Roll is ranked #126 on Rolling Stone magazine's list: The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.
While Turner's sensually suggestive original version was still hot on the charts, Bill Haley and the Comets recorded a bowdlerized cover of the song, calculated to not fall afoul of the bluenose censors intent on protecting what was then generally believed to be the relatively delicate sensibilities of the "white" or "pop" audience. This "inoffensive" version was unleashed on the general public on August 21, 1954. Amusingly, the artful line about the "one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood store" (that Stone credited to Atlantic session drummer Baby Lovitt) managed to slip past the clueless, would-be guardians of public virtue. Examination of the lyrics in retrospect from our own jaded era will raise few eyebrows, but rather will invoke nostalgia for the playful lyricism of a still somewhat suppressed age of innocence. In the event, expurgated such as it was, Haley's version of Shake, Rattle & Roll became his first million-selling record and worldwide hit, and was the first ever rock 'n' roll record to enter the British singles charts in December of 1954, going to # 7. Haley's version also went to # 7 on Billboard's Pop chart (later renamed the "Hot 100"), spending a total of twenty-seven weeks in the Top 40. Despite all that has been written about Haley, it is still not commonly known that Shake, Rattle & Roll was initially a much bigger hit for Haley than his earlier release, on May 20, 1954, of Rock Around the Clock, which peaked at # 23 on Billboard's Pop chart in the summer of 1954, and stayed on the charts for only one week. So, it was in large part the resounding success of his cover version of Shake, Rattle & Roll that gave Haley the exposure that helped to cause Rock Around the Clock to be placed on the soundtrack of the 50s hit film, Blackboard Jungle. The sensation generated by that film justified the re-release of Rock Around The Clock in 1955. The rest is Rock and Roll legend.
A Who's Who of the music industry, together with a laundry list of lesser-knowns, later covered Shake, Rattle andRoll. I cite here only the top two: Elvis Presley (who recorded five songs written or co-written by Stone) loved the song so much that he recorded it twice, and sang it live (in medley with Flip, Flop & Fly) in his first national television appearance, January 28, 1956, on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. The Beatles recorded it and provided the other musical bookend to Presley's performance, when on January 30, 1969, they performed Shake, Rattle & Roll live, on the rooftop at Apple Records, which turned out to be part of their last live performance, memorialized in the film, Let It Be.
In 1956 Jesse Stone, Hal Fein, and Charles Singleton started Roosevelt Music, a publishing company located in the Brill Building in Manhattan, that published songs of black songwriters, including some by Stone's friend, Otis Blackwell, that were recorded by Elvis Presley and others. Stone was also on friendly terms with Presley, who liked to hang out with Jesse, discuss music and songs, and eat pork-chop sandwiches.
Near the start of the 1960s Stone moved to California and tried to retire, but the Twist craze put his talent for music arrangement in demand, and by 1961 he was working at Frank Sinatra's new company, Reprise Records. He then was made an offer he could not refuse by, in Stone's words, "a bunch of gangsters" to run a record company in Chicago. They put him in a lavish office on the top floor of the Playboy building, and had him record Playboy bunnies. Stone sums up his memory of the resulting debacle in one terse sentence: "It was a mess". But the gangsters were giving him plenty of money, and they provided him the opportunity to record several piano concertos for RCA, that have never been released. Yes, Stone even composed classical music; and he listed Bach, Bartok and Stravinsky as his favorite classical composers.
From Chicago, Stone moved to Englewood, New Jersey, and from there back to New York City, where he was contacted by Evelyn McGee, who had been a featured vocalist in the International Sweethearts of Rhythm when Stone worked as music director for the band. They performed together as a duo; and they later got married and then moved to a suburb of Orlando, Florida in 1983, where Stone performed with his wife, and continued to write songs and produce music until his death in 1999.
In view of such a history, it is no wonder that no single style of music could confine Jesse Stone. An instinctive wanderer, territorially and stylistically, the restless lifestyle and proto-vaudevillian variety of the minstrel were imprinted into his DNA. He was the truly original rolling stone, born to run from one style of music to the next, contributing to the development of virtually every genre of music created in the 20th Century - from Jazz and Swing, through Country, Bluegrass and Rockabilly, to Blues, Doo-Wop, R&B and Soul, and culminating in Rock & Roll, where he left his greatest impression. Stone even wrote (with his friend, Big Al Sears) Right Now, Right Now, which became a theme song for Alan Freed, the DJ who is credited with giving Rock and Roll its name.
And despite such a history, it is still not your fault (as I said at the top) if you had not before now even heard of Jesse Stone. You, the reader, are blameless; because in the musical wasteland we suffer through today, the compositional accomplishments of Jesse Stone, together with the rare oasis of kindred root music, have been all but relegated to the relative obscurity of the side stage; while the major media outlets to the world at large serve as the main stage, rarely reserved for timeless talent, but always open to the latest prefab flash-in-the-pan of the here and now, trumped up to turn a quick profit, alternately selling the aural equivalent of cloying cotton-candy, and vulgar doggerel set in sampled tracks, to a public whose musical taste has been correspondingly corrupted.
Still, although with few exceptions the airwaves, internet, and TV are presently congested with uninspired pop pap and irredeemably debased, southern-fried rap crap, there are some encouraging signs, including some winners of this year's Grammy Awards, that a musical renaissance is at last, at least, in embryo. And since Jesse Stone was seminal in the birth of Rock & Roll, and put his distinctive imprint on practically all styles of music developed during the last century, it is ironically right that he should be fully honored in the gestation period and birth of the coming musical era that finds inspiration in the better elements of those classic styles. Just last year, 2010, in fruition of a campaign the present writer launched years ago with the help of Atlantic Records X-exec., Jerry Wexler, both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame finally conferred long-overdue HOF status on Jesse Stone.
In the piece written about Jesse in the commemorative booklet for the R&RHOF 25th Annual Induction Ceremony, Tony Fletcher states: "Stone's first great commercial successes came during the big band era of the 1940s ... But it was at Atlantic Records, which he joined in 1947, alongside its cofounder Herb Abramson, where he truly flourished, as a house writer, arranger, and producer (and the only black man on the payroll)." And the Songwriters HOF acknowledges on its website that Stone's "association with Atlantic Records led to some of the most celebrated early rock & roll and R&B recordings".
It can be seen as a form of transcendental compensation that the belated recognition bestowed on Jesse Stone by the Rock & Roll and Songwriters establishments should correspond with the current stream and coming flood of meaningful, vibrant popular music being nurtured into existence by a multitude of independent labels that have sprung from the void left by the demise of the once-dominant major labels, including Atlantic Records. The history of Atlantic Records serves to illustrate what happened to all the major labels (despite obvious differences). Few remember that in the 1950s Atlantic Records was an indie label; and as music journalist Nelson George stated in his book, The Death of Rhythm & Blues: "At Atlantic, the man to remember during the 1950s was Jesse Stone".
But it is Jerry Wexler's stirring tribute, written on the occasion of Jesse Stone's 95th Birthday in 1996, and later published in Billboard on November 10, 2001, that tells the whole truth of just how vital and instrumental Stone was to the survival and development of Atlantic Records during those critical early years: "Dear Jesse: You are a very special man, and it is fitting indeed that you are being honored. Your career began in the early years of the century when America's popular music, jazz in particular, was in its rudimentary, formative stages, and you ... left your indelible mark on this great part of our culture ... and you were just hitting your stride. From your vast experience with jazz, blues, country - in fact, every facet of American root music - you became one of the architects of the new urban music of black folk, the music that came to be known as rhythm and blues. You wrote the tunes and the arrangements, you assembled the players, you ran the rehearsals, and you conducted in the studio. And it was your own continuing evolution that helped pave the way for the next great cultural wave - rock'n'roll. ... From the first day that I came to the studio to be present (I dare not say produce) as part of the team of Ahmet, Tom Dowd, and yourself at LaVern Baker's first session for Atlantic, I watched you, I listened, and, I hope, I learned. It wouldn't be overstating the case to say that you taught me everything I know about our craft; yes, everything I know, and a small fraction of what you have always known. With deep affection and admiration, Jerry Wexler". It is beyond argument that Jerry Wexler was in a position to know what actually happened at Atlantic Records in the early days, and witnessed the central part that Jesse Stone had in it all; and pioneering recording engineer and noted producer, Tom Dowd, who avidly accepted my invitation to address the guests at Jesse Stone's (posthumous) 100th birthday celebration in Orlando in 2001, verified Wexler's account in every particular, and read to the guests Wexler's tribute letter, just as he had to those in attendance, including Jesse Stone himself, and Ahmet Ertegun, at Jesse's 95th Birthday Party in Orlando, both of which events Wexler was too ill to attend.
That Jesse Stone's pivotal role in the early years of Atlantic Records has been verified by unimpeachable witnesses, who were undeniably at the core of Atlantic's operations in those early days, exposes as egregious historical revisionism all purportedly accurate accounts in which Stone has been nearly written out of the early history of Atlantic. Take, for one especially Orwellian example, the cover story done for the 50th Anniversary of Atlantic Records by Billboard magazine in its January 17, 1998 edition. In article after article, testimonial after testimonial, that collectively constitute about half of the entire issue, Ahmet Ertegun is by far the center of attention (as he deserves to be). Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and other central figures from the early days at Atlantic are pictured and all given their due - all except Jesse Stone. There is no photo of Jesse Stone, and he is mentioned only three times, two of which, read together, insultingly imply that he was but one of a number of fungible musical functionaries whose collectively sparse songwriting compelled Ahmet Ertegun, of necessity, to master the songwriting craft himself, in order to assure Atlantic's early survival. In reality, Ahmet knew very well that there was nobody else at Atlantic, including Ertegun himself, in possession of Stone's formidable array of musical talents, certainly and especially including songwriting; and Billboard damn well should have known it too. The other mention of Stone in this piece (of misinformation) does acknowledge, in passing, that Jesse did musical arrangements for Ray Charles. However, there is no mention that Stone also helped Ray Charles develop his own style, and wrote three songs recorded by Charles: Losing Hand, It Should Have Been Me, and Smack Dab In The Middle. Nor did Billboard see fit to mention that Stone also discovered and signed The Cookies (for whom Stone wrote Don't Let Go, later recorded by Roy Hamilton, Isaac Hayes, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Jerry Garcia Band, and others). This information is material to any discussion of Ray Charles at Atlantic Records, especially since two members of The Cookies later formed the original nucleus of Ray's female backup vocal group, The Raelettes.
Jesse Stone had a subscription to Billboard, and this mortal sin of omission was committed to paper and published while Stone was still very much alive. He read it, and bitterly resented what he viewed as an intentional slight, in which Ahmet Ertegun, representing Atlantic Records, played what Ertegun reportedly later claimed was an entirely innocent if unwitting part, laying the entire blame on Billboard. That being as it may, Atlantic owed, at a minimum, an unpaid debt of gratitude to Stone for his invaluable assistance in assuring its survival in the hardscrabble early years of its existence. But swollen as it was with the hubris of fame and fortune, Atlantic lost its chance to publicly acknowledge this considerable debt at this important point in its history. With that in mind, note well that this public slap in the face appeared in print in 1998, at the peak of profitability for Atlantic Records and the music business in general, shortly before the steady decade-long fall in the fortunes of the major record labels that has generally been attributed to illegal downloads of music. But some might see this as a case of condign punishment. Pride comes before the fall, etc. On this point, it should be noted that The Rhythm & Blues Foundation was started with a $1.5 million "donation" by Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records, in response to a claim by Ruth Brown, in which she alleged that Atlantic Records failed to pay adequate royalties to its black Rhythm & Blues artists, and through her lawyer, Howard Begle, enlisted the support of members of the U.S. Congress and the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association, among others. And Atlantic had a better reputation than most major labels in this regard, so one can only imagine how bad those other labels were.
Moreover, in fairness, it must also be remembered that Ahmet Ertegun did state early in Atlantic's history that "Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock-'n'-roll sound than anyone else"; and in a press statement on Stone's death, he expressed high regard: "Jesse Stone was one of the essential characters that helped shape the Atlantic Records sound and, in so doing, brought Rhythm & Blues some of its most glorious moments ... Jesse wasn't only an important part of Atlantic's heritage and a musical pioneer, but a wonderful friend. He will be greatly missed." And Atlantic Records, through Ahmet Ertegun, also deserves credit for establishing the Jesse Stone Scholarship for minority pianists at Berklee College of Music in Boston. This being the case, one can only wonder aloud why, now that Ahmet Ertegun is gone but his words and deeds certainly not forgotten, there is not a single mention of Jesse Stone to be found on the entire Atlantic Records website. It would seem that Ahmet Ertegun recognized the omission of Jesse Stone's important contributions to Atlantic Records and took some corrective steps; but now what is left of Atlantic has shamefully degenerated to an all-time low in its disgracefully inconsiderate treatment of such an "essential character", as Jesse Stone surely was to Atlantic Records.
In any event, Atlantic Records since the fall of its fortunes, in common with all the other major labels, is a shadow of what it was in the glory days; and there are numerous independent labels armed with new business models already filling the resulting breach. There is a well-worn theory that history can be traced through a series of cyclical patterns; and what happened in the case in point can best be viewed that way: The music cycle begun in the 1950s by Atlantic Records and other labels led to initial success with Rhythm & Blues aka "Soul". Then, starting in the 1960s Atlantic moved headlong into Rock and Roll, and in the process sold its soul, so to speak, by dropping most of the old R&B artists from its roster (and letting Jesse Stone go), before making a fortune by becoming a major label through its purchase by a large corporation. The cycle begun in the 1950s was completed near the end of the last century, whereupon the music industry (with a few notable exceptions) slid into a dark age of decline for an entire decade. The whole music industry, and popular music itself, is now in the process of creative transformation. Indeed, one of the most notable exceptions to the general decline of the music industry starting near the end of the last century is Americana Music, facilitated by the laudable creation of the Americana Music Association ("AMA") in 1999 (the year Jesse Stone died), which through the following dark decade was instrumental in nurturing artists who are going back to the roots of American music for inspiration in the insipient renaissance.
And, revealingly, the best evidence that Jesse Stone's perversely unheralded musical influence nonetheless continues unabated into this century, is the inclusion of his Like a Baby on the highly acclaimed album, The Party Ain't Over, by Wanda Jackson. In fact, of all the songs on the album, Like a Baby is the one specially selected by Wanda Jackson as the song she had always wanted to record. The album was produced and recorded last year, 2010, by Jack White in his Third Man Studio in Nashville, and was released early this year. Wanda Jackson toured in the '50 with Elvis Presley, who convinced Jackson to cross over from Country music to Rock and Rockabilly. She took her very special friend's advice, and is credited with being the first woman to record a Rock song, Let's Have a Party, a '50 hit. Presley anointed Jackson "The Queen of Rock" and proclaimed her to be "The First Lady of Rockabilly"; and who can argue with The King? Jackson has kept on rock 'n rollin' right up to the present, collecting a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame award in 2009; and Jack White had the honor of presenting her with the AMA's 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award, in the Performance category. Thus, Jesse Stone's song, Like A Baby, has quite a long and royal pedigree, having been recorded in the '50 by The King, Presley, and by his Queen, Jackson, in 2010. That the "King of Soul", James Brown, also recorded the song in the '60 is yet further proof that Jesse Stone's protean songwriting talents could never be confined to any particular musical realm. Indeed, what Arthur Conley sang about James Brown in the '60 hit, Sweet Soul Music, should be said about Stone in recognition of his staggering versatility as a songwriter of the root music being born again in the musical reinventions of the finest songwriters today: "He's The King Of Them All Y'all". So, reader, now that you know what you know, from now on it will be entirely your fault - an off-with-your-head offence - if you somehow forget about the stream of musical inspiration that continues to flow from the songs of Jesse Stone.
In sum, the Tipping Point of all this inspiration is imminent; and in honor of the consummate musical innovator, Jesse Stone, Rocket Records will do its part to keep his spirit alive in the coming widespread musical renaissance.
Written by: Daniel R. Fallon, Esq. - Executive V.P. / General Counsel of Rocket Records, Inc.
Born in 1901, the Ragtime era, into a family of traveling minstrels whose home base was Atchison, Kansas, and whose far-flung performance range extended into Canada, Jesse Stone's natural understanding of entertainment was prodigious; at four years old he had already developed his own act in which he played violin, accompanied by his very first back-up group: a band of dancing dogs. In his teens he mastered several musical instruments, and his progression was so rapid that by his early 20s he already was a highly respected band-leader, composer, arranger, and pianist throughout the Southwest, especially in its musical epicenter, Kansas City, MO. Count Basie, in his autobiography, wrote that Jesse Stone had the reputation of being the best piano player in Kansas City when Basie first played there in 1920. The Kansas Music Hall of Fame just got around to inducting Jesse Stone this year, 2011, finally recognizing the man regarded by Count Basie as a peer way back when. In these early years, Stone's germinal capacity for composing songs with pandemic appeal was presented in Mama Don't Allow, a prototypical style-straddling standard, that has since been recorded by everyone from Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and Flatt & Scruggs, to Bukka White and JJ Cale. In 1927, Jesse Stone and His Blue Serenaders, a band that extensively toured the Southwest territories, recorded Starvation Blues and Boot to Boot for the Okeh label in St. Louis, which Jazz scholar Gunther Schuller, in his superb book, Early Jazz, proclaimed to be "extraordinary sides". In 1936, Duke Ellington, who recognized Stone's genius for Jazz, invited him to come to New York City, stay free of charge in Ellington's 7th Avenue mansion, and play the Cotton Club. Stone, who had inborn itchy feet and fingers, jumped at the chance.
So, during the 1930s and early 1940s Stone played the theatre and jazz club circuit in Manhattan with his band; and selflessly helped Louis Jourdan to begin as a bandleader, wrote his early arrangements, and even gave him Stone's own orchestra, renamed the Elk's Rendezvous Band. Years later, Jourdan had a hit with Cole Claw, written by Stone. The consummate entertainer, Stone went on to work at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where he drew on his minstrel roots in doing everything from producing shows, to writing arrangements and songs for the various musicians in many styles. He even wrote routines and jokes for the comedians. Stone also recorded Snaky Feeling for the Variety record label in 1937, and arranged at sessions for Jimmie Lunceford in 1939 and for Leonard and His Rockets in 1940. For two years starting in 1941, Stone acted as music director for the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, which became widely recognized as the best all-female Jazz orchestra in the world after it performed throughout post-war Europe. In 1942, Stone composed what became a Big-Band Jazz classic, Idaho, which was recorded by everyone from Benny Goodman, whose version went to the top of the charts, to Count Basie, Jimmy Dorsey, Alvino Rey, and Guy Lombardo, whose version sold three million copies. Stone's classic, Smack Dab In The Middle, became a signature song for Joe Williams, vocalist for Count Basie's band, and was later recorded by numerous artists ranging from Ray Charles to Ry Cooder.
In early 1945 Jesse and his friend Herb Abramson began working at National Records, which had such artists as Billy Eckstine and The Ravens under contract. In 1947, Abramson told Stone that he needed Stone to come with him to act as his music man at a new label he wanted to start, which in partnership with Ahmet Ertegun became Atlantic Records. When the Jazz that Atlantic produced in the late 40's did not sell well, Stone accompanied Abramson and Ertegun on a road trip down South to see what was popular in all kinds of "joints". Since Stone was the only musician of the trio on this southern sojourn, it naturally was he who figured out that the younger generation wanted music that was in the groove with their new dance moves, and that Atlantic's Jazz didn't have the right rhythm. So, Stone solved Atlantic's problem by designing a bass-pattern that shaped the characteristic early sound on records that began to be produced, and sold in increasing numbers, by the label.
Nick Tosches, who devoted the entire first chapter of Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll to Jesse Stone, did not exaggerate in stating: "Jesse's contributions to the immense success of Atlantic Records were inestimable." Throughout the 1950s, Jesse Stone wrote or co-wrote, arranged, and produced (often un-credited), many of Atlantic's biggest hits, including the Grammy Hall of Fame Award winner, Money Honey by Clyde McPhatter and the (original) Drifters; Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash by the Clovers; Soul on Fire by LaVern Baker; As Long As I'm Moving by Ruth Brown; Sh-Boom by the Chords (a doo-wop classic arranged by Stone for Atlantic's subsidiary imprint, Cat Records); Flip, Flop, and Fly by Big Joe Turner, and one of the most influential hits ever to come out of Atlantic Records, another Grammy Hall of Fame Award winner, Shake, Rattle and Roll, also by Big Joe Turner, which was released in April of 1954, sold over a million copies, and spent three weeks at # 1 on Billboard's R&B chart. Jesse Stone was deeply involved in this original recording of Shake, Rattle & Roll on February 15, 1954, and his is one of the trio of voices heard shouting the eponymous chorus, together with those of Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun. Since Stone had just thrown together the song, and since Turner could not read and had not had time to learn some of the lyrics, Stone resorted to singing the unlearned lyrics, during the recording, into Turner's ear through a makeshift paper megaphone. This improbable device actually worked almost perfectly; the "almost" being a tale in itself, to be told at another time. For now, just try to imagine the scene in that studio, and you may soon wonder why no enterprising script-writer has used such a stranger than fiction scene as source material for a film. This original recording of Shake, Rattle & Roll is ranked #126 on Rolling Stone magazine's list: The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.
While Turner's sensually suggestive original version was still hot on the charts, Bill Haley and the Comets recorded a bowdlerized cover of the song, calculated to not fall afoul of the bluenose censors intent on protecting what was then generally believed to be the relatively delicate sensibilities of the "white" or "pop" audience. This "inoffensive" version was unleashed on the general public on August 21, 1954. Amusingly, the artful line about the "one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood store" (that Stone credited to Atlantic session drummer Baby Lovitt) managed to slip past the clueless, would-be guardians of public virtue. Examination of the lyrics in retrospect from our own jaded era will raise few eyebrows, but rather will invoke nostalgia for the playful lyricism of a still somewhat suppressed age of innocence. In the event, expurgated such as it was, Haley's version of Shake, Rattle & Roll became his first million-selling record and worldwide hit, and was the first ever rock 'n' roll record to enter the British singles charts in December of 1954, going to # 7. Haley's version also went to # 7 on Billboard's Pop chart (later renamed the "Hot 100"), spending a total of twenty-seven weeks in the Top 40. Despite all that has been written about Haley, it is still not commonly known that Shake, Rattle & Roll was initially a much bigger hit for Haley than his earlier release, on May 20, 1954, of Rock Around the Clock, which peaked at # 23 on Billboard's Pop chart in the summer of 1954, and stayed on the charts for only one week. So, it was in large part the resounding success of his cover version of Shake, Rattle & Roll that gave Haley the exposure that helped to cause Rock Around the Clock to be placed on the soundtrack of the 50s hit film, Blackboard Jungle. The sensation generated by that film justified the re-release of Rock Around The Clock in 1955. The rest is Rock and Roll legend.
A Who's Who of the music industry, together with a laundry list of lesser-knowns, later covered Shake, Rattle andRoll. I cite here only the top two: Elvis Presley (who recorded five songs written or co-written by Stone) loved the song so much that he recorded it twice, and sang it live (in medley with Flip, Flop & Fly) in his first national television appearance, January 28, 1956, on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. The Beatles recorded it and provided the other musical bookend to Presley's performance, when on January 30, 1969, they performed Shake, Rattle & Roll live, on the rooftop at Apple Records, which turned out to be part of their last live performance, memorialized in the film, Let It Be.
In 1956 Jesse Stone, Hal Fein, and Charles Singleton started Roosevelt Music, a publishing company located in the Brill Building in Manhattan, that published songs of black songwriters, including some by Stone's friend, Otis Blackwell, that were recorded by Elvis Presley and others. Stone was also on friendly terms with Presley, who liked to hang out with Jesse, discuss music and songs, and eat pork-chop sandwiches.
Near the start of the 1960s Stone moved to California and tried to retire, but the Twist craze put his talent for music arrangement in demand, and by 1961 he was working at Frank Sinatra's new company, Reprise Records. He then was made an offer he could not refuse by, in Stone's words, "a bunch of gangsters" to run a record company in Chicago. They put him in a lavish office on the top floor of the Playboy building, and had him record Playboy bunnies. Stone sums up his memory of the resulting debacle in one terse sentence: "It was a mess". But the gangsters were giving him plenty of money, and they provided him the opportunity to record several piano concertos for RCA, that have never been released. Yes, Stone even composed classical music; and he listed Bach, Bartok and Stravinsky as his favorite classical composers.
From Chicago, Stone moved to Englewood, New Jersey, and from there back to New York City, where he was contacted by Evelyn McGee, who had been a featured vocalist in the International Sweethearts of Rhythm when Stone worked as music director for the band. They performed together as a duo; and they later got married and then moved to a suburb of Orlando, Florida in 1983, where Stone performed with his wife, and continued to write songs and produce music until his death in 1999.
In view of such a history, it is no wonder that no single style of music could confine Jesse Stone. An instinctive wanderer, territorially and stylistically, the restless lifestyle and proto-vaudevillian variety of the minstrel were imprinted into his DNA. He was the truly original rolling stone, born to run from one style of music to the next, contributing to the development of virtually every genre of music created in the 20th Century - from Jazz and Swing, through Country, Bluegrass and Rockabilly, to Blues, Doo-Wop, R&B and Soul, and culminating in Rock & Roll, where he left his greatest impression. Stone even wrote (with his friend, Big Al Sears) Right Now, Right Now, which became a theme song for Alan Freed, the DJ who is credited with giving Rock and Roll its name.
And despite such a history, it is still not your fault (as I said at the top) if you had not before now even heard of Jesse Stone. You, the reader, are blameless; because in the musical wasteland we suffer through today, the compositional accomplishments of Jesse Stone, together with the rare oasis of kindred root music, have been all but relegated to the relative obscurity of the side stage; while the major media outlets to the world at large serve as the main stage, rarely reserved for timeless talent, but always open to the latest prefab flash-in-the-pan of the here and now, trumped up to turn a quick profit, alternately selling the aural equivalent of cloying cotton-candy, and vulgar doggerel set in sampled tracks, to a public whose musical taste has been correspondingly corrupted.
Still, although with few exceptions the airwaves, internet, and TV are presently congested with uninspired pop pap and irredeemably debased, southern-fried rap crap, there are some encouraging signs, including some winners of this year's Grammy Awards, that a musical renaissance is at last, at least, in embryo. And since Jesse Stone was seminal in the birth of Rock & Roll, and put his distinctive imprint on practically all styles of music developed during the last century, it is ironically right that he should be fully honored in the gestation period and birth of the coming musical era that finds inspiration in the better elements of those classic styles. Just last year, 2010, in fruition of a campaign the present writer launched years ago with the help of Atlantic Records X-exec., Jerry Wexler, both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame finally conferred long-overdue HOF status on Jesse Stone.
In the piece written about Jesse in the commemorative booklet for the R&RHOF 25th Annual Induction Ceremony, Tony Fletcher states: "Stone's first great commercial successes came during the big band era of the 1940s ... But it was at Atlantic Records, which he joined in 1947, alongside its cofounder Herb Abramson, where he truly flourished, as a house writer, arranger, and producer (and the only black man on the payroll)." And the Songwriters HOF acknowledges on its website that Stone's "association with Atlantic Records led to some of the most celebrated early rock & roll and R&B recordings".
It can be seen as a form of transcendental compensation that the belated recognition bestowed on Jesse Stone by the Rock & Roll and Songwriters establishments should correspond with the current stream and coming flood of meaningful, vibrant popular music being nurtured into existence by a multitude of independent labels that have sprung from the void left by the demise of the once-dominant major labels, including Atlantic Records. The history of Atlantic Records serves to illustrate what happened to all the major labels (despite obvious differences). Few remember that in the 1950s Atlantic Records was an indie label; and as music journalist Nelson George stated in his book, The Death of Rhythm & Blues: "At Atlantic, the man to remember during the 1950s was Jesse Stone".
But it is Jerry Wexler's stirring tribute, written on the occasion of Jesse Stone's 95th Birthday in 1996, and later published in Billboard on November 10, 2001, that tells the whole truth of just how vital and instrumental Stone was to the survival and development of Atlantic Records during those critical early years: "Dear Jesse: You are a very special man, and it is fitting indeed that you are being honored. Your career began in the early years of the century when America's popular music, jazz in particular, was in its rudimentary, formative stages, and you ... left your indelible mark on this great part of our culture ... and you were just hitting your stride. From your vast experience with jazz, blues, country - in fact, every facet of American root music - you became one of the architects of the new urban music of black folk, the music that came to be known as rhythm and blues. You wrote the tunes and the arrangements, you assembled the players, you ran the rehearsals, and you conducted in the studio. And it was your own continuing evolution that helped pave the way for the next great cultural wave - rock'n'roll. ... From the first day that I came to the studio to be present (I dare not say produce) as part of the team of Ahmet, Tom Dowd, and yourself at LaVern Baker's first session for Atlantic, I watched you, I listened, and, I hope, I learned. It wouldn't be overstating the case to say that you taught me everything I know about our craft; yes, everything I know, and a small fraction of what you have always known. With deep affection and admiration, Jerry Wexler". It is beyond argument that Jerry Wexler was in a position to know what actually happened at Atlantic Records in the early days, and witnessed the central part that Jesse Stone had in it all; and pioneering recording engineer and noted producer, Tom Dowd, who avidly accepted my invitation to address the guests at Jesse Stone's (posthumous) 100th birthday celebration in Orlando in 2001, verified Wexler's account in every particular, and read to the guests Wexler's tribute letter, just as he had to those in attendance, including Jesse Stone himself, and Ahmet Ertegun, at Jesse's 95th Birthday Party in Orlando, both of which events Wexler was too ill to attend.
That Jesse Stone's pivotal role in the early years of Atlantic Records has been verified by unimpeachable witnesses, who were undeniably at the core of Atlantic's operations in those early days, exposes as egregious historical revisionism all purportedly accurate accounts in which Stone has been nearly written out of the early history of Atlantic. Take, for one especially Orwellian example, the cover story done for the 50th Anniversary of Atlantic Records by Billboard magazine in its January 17, 1998 edition. In article after article, testimonial after testimonial, that collectively constitute about half of the entire issue, Ahmet Ertegun is by far the center of attention (as he deserves to be). Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and other central figures from the early days at Atlantic are pictured and all given their due - all except Jesse Stone. There is no photo of Jesse Stone, and he is mentioned only three times, two of which, read together, insultingly imply that he was but one of a number of fungible musical functionaries whose collectively sparse songwriting compelled Ahmet Ertegun, of necessity, to master the songwriting craft himself, in order to assure Atlantic's early survival. In reality, Ahmet knew very well that there was nobody else at Atlantic, including Ertegun himself, in possession of Stone's formidable array of musical talents, certainly and especially including songwriting; and Billboard damn well should have known it too. The other mention of Stone in this piece (of misinformation) does acknowledge, in passing, that Jesse did musical arrangements for Ray Charles. However, there is no mention that Stone also helped Ray Charles develop his own style, and wrote three songs recorded by Charles: Losing Hand, It Should Have Been Me, and Smack Dab In The Middle. Nor did Billboard see fit to mention that Stone also discovered and signed The Cookies (for whom Stone wrote Don't Let Go, later recorded by Roy Hamilton, Isaac Hayes, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Jerry Garcia Band, and others). This information is material to any discussion of Ray Charles at Atlantic Records, especially since two members of The Cookies later formed the original nucleus of Ray's female backup vocal group, The Raelettes.
Jesse Stone had a subscription to Billboard, and this mortal sin of omission was committed to paper and published while Stone was still very much alive. He read it, and bitterly resented what he viewed as an intentional slight, in which Ahmet Ertegun, representing Atlantic Records, played what Ertegun reportedly later claimed was an entirely innocent if unwitting part, laying the entire blame on Billboard. That being as it may, Atlantic owed, at a minimum, an unpaid debt of gratitude to Stone for his invaluable assistance in assuring its survival in the hardscrabble early years of its existence. But swollen as it was with the hubris of fame and fortune, Atlantic lost its chance to publicly acknowledge this considerable debt at this important point in its history. With that in mind, note well that this public slap in the face appeared in print in 1998, at the peak of profitability for Atlantic Records and the music business in general, shortly before the steady decade-long fall in the fortunes of the major record labels that has generally been attributed to illegal downloads of music. But some might see this as a case of condign punishment. Pride comes before the fall, etc. On this point, it should be noted that The Rhythm & Blues Foundation was started with a $1.5 million "donation" by Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records, in response to a claim by Ruth Brown, in which she alleged that Atlantic Records failed to pay adequate royalties to its black Rhythm & Blues artists, and through her lawyer, Howard Begle, enlisted the support of members of the U.S. Congress and the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association, among others. And Atlantic had a better reputation than most major labels in this regard, so one can only imagine how bad those other labels were.
Moreover, in fairness, it must also be remembered that Ahmet Ertegun did state early in Atlantic's history that "Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock-'n'-roll sound than anyone else"; and in a press statement on Stone's death, he expressed high regard: "Jesse Stone was one of the essential characters that helped shape the Atlantic Records sound and, in so doing, brought Rhythm & Blues some of its most glorious moments ... Jesse wasn't only an important part of Atlantic's heritage and a musical pioneer, but a wonderful friend. He will be greatly missed." And Atlantic Records, through Ahmet Ertegun, also deserves credit for establishing the Jesse Stone Scholarship for minority pianists at Berklee College of Music in Boston. This being the case, one can only wonder aloud why, now that Ahmet Ertegun is gone but his words and deeds certainly not forgotten, there is not a single mention of Jesse Stone to be found on the entire Atlantic Records website. It would seem that Ahmet Ertegun recognized the omission of Jesse Stone's important contributions to Atlantic Records and took some corrective steps; but now what is left of Atlantic has shamefully degenerated to an all-time low in its disgracefully inconsiderate treatment of such an "essential character", as Jesse Stone surely was to Atlantic Records.
In any event, Atlantic Records since the fall of its fortunes, in common with all the other major labels, is a shadow of what it was in the glory days; and there are numerous independent labels armed with new business models already filling the resulting breach. There is a well-worn theory that history can be traced through a series of cyclical patterns; and what happened in the case in point can best be viewed that way: The music cycle begun in the 1950s by Atlantic Records and other labels led to initial success with Rhythm & Blues aka "Soul". Then, starting in the 1960s Atlantic moved headlong into Rock and Roll, and in the process sold its soul, so to speak, by dropping most of the old R&B artists from its roster (and letting Jesse Stone go), before making a fortune by becoming a major label through its purchase by a large corporation. The cycle begun in the 1950s was completed near the end of the last century, whereupon the music industry (with a few notable exceptions) slid into a dark age of decline for an entire decade. The whole music industry, and popular music itself, is now in the process of creative transformation. Indeed, one of the most notable exceptions to the general decline of the music industry starting near the end of the last century is Americana Music, facilitated by the laudable creation of the Americana Music Association ("AMA") in 1999 (the year Jesse Stone died), which through the following dark decade was instrumental in nurturing artists who are going back to the roots of American music for inspiration in the insipient renaissance.
And, revealingly, the best evidence that Jesse Stone's perversely unheralded musical influence nonetheless continues unabated into this century, is the inclusion of his Like a Baby on the highly acclaimed album, The Party Ain't Over, by Wanda Jackson. In fact, of all the songs on the album, Like a Baby is the one specially selected by Wanda Jackson as the song she had always wanted to record. The album was produced and recorded last year, 2010, by Jack White in his Third Man Studio in Nashville, and was released early this year. Wanda Jackson toured in the '50 with Elvis Presley, who convinced Jackson to cross over from Country music to Rock and Rockabilly. She took her very special friend's advice, and is credited with being the first woman to record a Rock song, Let's Have a Party, a '50 hit. Presley anointed Jackson "The Queen of Rock" and proclaimed her to be "The First Lady of Rockabilly"; and who can argue with The King? Jackson has kept on rock 'n rollin' right up to the present, collecting a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame award in 2009; and Jack White had the honor of presenting her with the AMA's 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award, in the Performance category. Thus, Jesse Stone's song, Like A Baby, has quite a long and royal pedigree, having been recorded in the '50 by The King, Presley, and by his Queen, Jackson, in 2010. That the "King of Soul", James Brown, also recorded the song in the '60 is yet further proof that Jesse Stone's protean songwriting talents could never be confined to any particular musical realm. Indeed, what Arthur Conley sang about James Brown in the '60 hit, Sweet Soul Music, should be said about Stone in recognition of his staggering versatility as a songwriter of the root music being born again in the musical reinventions of the finest songwriters today: "He's The King Of Them All Y'all". So, reader, now that you know what you know, from now on it will be entirely your fault - an off-with-your-head offence - if you somehow forget about the stream of musical inspiration that continues to flow from the songs of Jesse Stone.
In sum, the Tipping Point of all this inspiration is imminent; and in honor of the consummate musical innovator, Jesse Stone, Rocket Records will do its part to keep his spirit alive in the coming widespread musical renaissance.
Written by: Daniel R. Fallon, Esq. - Executive V.P. / General Counsel of Rocket Records, Inc.
