Music

Arthur Crudup wrote the song that became Elvis’ first hit. He barely got paid

Published

4 months ago

July 16, 2024

IAM

FRANKTOWN, Va. (AP) — Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup helped invent rock ‘n’ roll.

His 1946 song “That’s All Right,” an off-the-cuff shrug to his beloved, became the first single Elvis Presley ever released. Rod Stewart sang it on a chart-topping album. Led Zeppelin played it live.

But nobody would know that in the event that they saw Crudup living out the remainder of his life on the eastern shore of Virginia, wearing overalls and leading a crew picking cucumbers, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.

Despite being called the “father of rock ‘n’ roll,” Crudup received meager songwriting royalties during his lifetime due to a record deal that funneled money to his original manager. Crudup died 50 years ago, forsaking certainly one of the grimmest accounts of artist exploitation in the twentieth century.

“Of course, material things don’t mean everything,” says Prechelle Crudup Shannon, her granddaughter. “But they took a lot more than just money. They left him with all the burdens of a poor black man. And they left him with a broken heart.”

Crudup has received flashes of recognition in recent times, including being briefly portrayed by Gary Clark Jr. in the 2022 biopic “Elvis” and being mentioned last 12 months by a California reparations task force examining the long history of discrimination against African Americans.

Friday marks the seventieth anniversary of Presley’s recording of “That’s All Right” — many historians consider July 5 a cultural milestone — and coincides with plans by the state of Virginia to erect a plaque on the highway honoring Crudup.

“Among others who covered Crudup were the Beatles, B.B. King and Elton John,” the plaque will say. “Rarely receiving royalties, Crudup supported his family as a laborer and farm hand.”

“A completely new thing”

Crudup was born in Forest, Mississippi, in 1905 and started singing the blues when he was about 10, he told Blues Unlimited magazine. He was working in a foundry by 14. It wasn’t until he was in his 30s that he began playing guitar. Self-taught, he played at parties and nightclubs in the Mississippi Delta.

In Chicago, in search of higher work, he played on the street and slept in a crate under the L subway station. One night on a street corner, Crudup met Lester Melrose, a white field agent for Bluebird Records.

“He put a dollar in my hand and asked me to play,” Crudup told High Fidelity magazine.

There are many arguments about who wrote the first rock ‘n’ roll song. But “That’s All Right,” which mixes elements of blues and country, makes a robust claim.

“It doesn’t sound like country, it doesn’t sound like blues, even though I hear them there,” says Joe Burns, a professor of communication and media studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. “It’s really something completely new.”

Crudup recorded about 80 songs for Bluebird between 1941 and 1956, including “That’s All Right”, “My Baby Left Me”, and “So Glad You’re Mine”. He didn’t own the rights to any of them.

His first manager had them.

“I wouldn’t record anyone unless they signed all the rights to them over to me,” Melrose once said, in response to Alan Lomax’s book Mister Jelly Roll.

Crudup spent years in Chicago, recording songs there and taking the bus south to jobs in Mississippi, certainly one of which was taking out trash for $28.44 every week.

“I had to take care of my family, pay my car payment, my gas bill, my light bill,” Crudup said. He gave up music in his early 50s to work on farms.

“A kind of hillbilly record”

In 1954, Presley was taking a break from a rehearsal session at Sun Studios when “a song I had heard years ago popped into my head,” writes Peter Guralnick in his book Last Train to Memphis.

Sam Phillips, the studio’s legendary founder, immediately recognized Crudup’s song. Phillips was amazed that the 19-year-old knew it and felt his version “came out fresh and lush.”

A radio station in Memphis, Tennessee, soon played Presley’s recording. The response was “immediate,” with phone calls and telegrams asking for it to be played again, Guralnick wrote.

“It was by far Elvis’ biggest hit on The Sun and it launched him on a path to fame that soon became almost unimaginable to him,” Guralnick told The Associated Press.

Although Crudup is usually omitted from accounts of Presley’s profession, the singer publicly credited himself as a songwriter.

“In Tupelo, Mississippi, I heard old Arthur Crudup banging on the box the way I do now,” Presley told The Charlotte Observer in 1956, “and I said to myself that if I ever got to a place where I could feel everything old Arthur felt, I would be a musician such as no one had ever seen.”

Crudup himself liked Presley’s interpretation.

“He made it kind of a hillbilly record,” Crudup later told the Los Angeles Times. “But I liked it. I thought it would be a hit. Some people like the blues, some people don’t. But the way he did it, everybody liked it.”

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In the early Nineteen Sixties, Crudup finally received a hefty royalty payment of $1,600. But Melrose refused handy over the copyright.

Many black musicians have signed copyright agreements or been forced to share them, says Southwestern Law School professor Kevin J. Greene.

“A huge part of what we’re talking about in terms of exploitation is still covered by copyright law,” says Greene, who testified before the California Copyright Commission.

In 1971, Downbeat magazine estimated that Crudup probably must have earned greater than $250,000 — almost $2 million today — for the songs “That’s All Right” and “My Baby Left Me,” recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The American Guild of Authors and Composers even tried to gather royalties on Crudup’s behalf. However, then-executive director John Carter told High Fidelity in 1972 that Crudup received “a maximum of $2,500” from the guild’s efforts.

Fun in the packaging hall

In his mid-50s, Crudup settled in Franktown, Virginia. His granddaughter says he was devastated by the experience. But he didn’t despair.

“My father stressed that Crudup was a man of extremely strong principles,” Shannon says of Crudup, who embodied the “old country values” of exertions and raising a family.

Etna Nottingham Walker, whose family owned the Virginia farm where Crudup worked, says that “if you didn’t know he was Arthur Crudup and that he was a musician, you wouldn’t pay any attention to him.”

Butch Nottingham, Walker’s cousin, also worked on the farm. During breaks, he says, Crudup would sometimes pull out his guitar and sing in the packing shed, where cucumbers were being washed and waxed.

Crudup eventually returned to music during the blues revival of the Nineteen Sixties. Record producers from two labels, Fire and Delmark, found him. He released latest albums, played festivals and shared stages with BB King, Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt.

But Crudup still lived on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a narrow peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Shannon remembers her silver-haired grandfather holding her as a toddler on their Franktown porch, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

“He had these really, really long limbs,” Shannon recalls. “He just looked like a giant to me.”

Tim Prettyman worked at a drugstore where Crudup often bought insulin, coffee, and Camel cigarettes. Once, Crudup arrived in a suit with a guitar case, heading to catch a bus to New York and a plane to England.

“He said, ‘I’m going to play music for the Queen,’ and he winked at me and smiled,” Prettyman recalls.

“It wasn’t supposed to be”

Towards the end of his life, Crudup was near receiving a $60,000 settlement, which can be price greater than $400,000 today.

Melrose was dead. A deal was made with Hill & Range, the company that had acquired Crudup’s publishing rights.

However, when Crudup and his 4 children arrived in New York, they learned the deal had been voided, in response to the book “Between Midnight and Day” by Crudup’s last manager, Dick Waterman.

They were told that settling would cost the company more cash than the potential lawsuit would herald. And a lawsuit meant “taking down an old white widow who lives in Florida,” Waterman wrote. “We wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“It just wasn’t meant to be,” Crudup told Waterman. “Naked I came into this world, and naked I shall leave it.”

Indeed, the settlement didn’t come until after Crudup’s death in 1974. Chappell Music refused to purchase Hill & Range until the Crudup case was resolved. The first check was for just over $248,000, Waterman wrote, and Crudup’s estate received about $3 million over the following many years.

Warner Chappell Music declined to comment because the events took place so way back.

Jeanette Crudup, the widow of Crudup’s son Jonas, says the amounts paid to the musician’s children are nothing in comparison with what he must have received during his lifetime.

“They were left with crumbs,” he says.

Crudup stays relatively unknown, even on the East Coast, says Billy Sturgis, an area resident who produced an album by Crudup’s sons. Sturgis hopes the plaque will help. But, he says, Crudup belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, together with Presley and plenty of others who sang Crudup’s songs.

Crudup’s granddaughter agrees.

“It would be something if this story was unique,” Shannon says. “But it’s not. We know this has happened to black artists throughout history, but specifically at this time.”

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

Music

Beyoncé will perform at halftime of an NFL game during the holiday game day

Published

4 days ago

November 18, 2024

IAM

Beyoncé Super Bowl, Beyoncé halftime performance, beyonce nfl christmas halftime show, beyonce nfl christmas, beyonce nfl netflix, Beyoncé netflix, beyonce nfl performance theGrio.com

Beyoncé has yet one more trick up her sleeve for the holiday season. This week, the star announced that he will perform in his hometown of Houston at an NFL game on Christmas Day. During the Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens game, Beyoncé will appear at halftime, where she will reportedly perform songs from her country-themed album “Cowboy Carter.”

Beyoncé is already aware of high-energy NFL halftime shows, having showcased her talents in two Super Bowl appearances. As the headliner of Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans in 2013, she reunited with fellow Destiny’s Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for a performance that became the second most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history. At Super Bowl XV in 2016, the megastar joined headliners Coldplay together with special guest Bruno Mars, where she performed her hit “Formation,” which garnered 115.5 million views.

The star’s upcoming performance, produced by Parkwood Entertainment and Jesse Collins Entertainment, will be her first live performance of songs from her Grammy-nominated album “Cowboy Carter.” While there aren’t many details about the show, the streaming platform says fans can expect special guests to look alongside the award-winning artist.

In May, Netflix announced a landmark cope with the NFL, providing streaming rights to the sports league’s games on Christmas Day. Similarly, in 2019, the streaming platform signed a $60 million cope with Beyoncé, through which the two entertainment giants partnered to provide three projects.

Beyoncé shared the news about her upcoming NFL gig Instagramfeaturing a brief clip of him catching a football while standing on top of a automotive covered in red roses, equipped with horns. The show will be available to Netflix’s 283 million subscribers worldwide.

Beyoncé has signed a three-project deal with Netflix for a reported $60 million

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

Music

NWA, Janet Jackson and George Clinton receive Songwriters Hall of Fame nominations

Published

1 week ago

November 12, 2024

IAM

Janet Jackson, Songwriters Hall of Fame nomination, theGrio.com

NEW YORK (AP) – Eminem, Boy George, George Clinton, Sheryl Wrona, Janet Jackson, Doobie Brothers, NWA and Alanis Morissette are among the many nominees within the competition’s 2025 category Songwriters Hall of Fame, an eclectic group of rap, rock, hip-hop and pop pioneers.

Bryan Adams joins them with such radio hits as “Summer of ’69” and “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” and Mike Love of the Beach Boys, who hopes to get in 25 years after band founder Brian Wilson. David Gates, co-leader of the pop group Bread, can be applying for admission.

Each yr, each performers and non-performers are invited to the Hall, and this yr’s category of the latter includes Walter Afanasieff, who helped Mariah Carey together with his hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You”; Mike Chapman, co-writer of Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield”; and Narada Michael Walden, architect of Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know” and Aretha Franklin’s “Freeway of Love.”

Eligible voting members have until December 22 to solid ballots to pick three nominees within the lyricist category and three within the performance songwriter category. The Associated Press obtained an early copy of the list.

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Several acts have one other probability to make an entry, including Clinton, whose Parliament-Funkadelic collective made a big impact with hits like “Atomic Dog” and “Give Up the Funk,” and The Doobie Brothers — Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons and Michael McDonald — with classics like “Listen to the Music” and “Long Train Runnin.” Steve Winwood, whose hits include “Higher Love” and “Roll With It”, also participated within the voting earlier.

Hip-hop this yr is represented by Eminem – whose hits include “Lose Yourself” and “Stan” – and NWA members Dr. Dre, Eazy E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella. Hip-hop stars similar to Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Missy Elliot are already within the Hall. Tommy James, with hits like “Mony Mony,” “Crimson and Clover” and “I Think We’re Alone Now,” also earned a nod.

If Jackson, whose 1989 album “Rhythm Nation” was a breakthrough, gets into the Hall, it’ll be greater than 20 years after her late brother Michael. Canadian songwriter Morissette, whose influential song “Jagged Little Pill” won Grammy, Tony, Junos and MTV awards, would also join the ladies of rock within the Hall. (Glen Ballard, who helped produce and write the album, is already present.)

Like Crow, the “All I Wanna Do” and “Everyday Is a Winding Road” singer-songwriter is experiencing a renaissance after being introduced to the band Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023. Boy George raises the flag for ’80s New Wave with Culture Club’s hits “Karma Chameleon” and “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me.”

Other nominees within the unperformed category include Franne Golde, co-writer of Selena’s “Dreaming of You”; Tom Douglas, who wrote country hits for Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert; Ashley Gorley, fresh off her co-written hit “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone and Morgan Wallen; and Roger Nichols, who co-wrote The Carpenters’ “We Only Just Begun.”

They join Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, who contributed to Brandy and Monica’s hit “The Boy Is Mine”; Sonny Curtis, former member of The Crickets, who wrote and performed the theme song to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, “Love is All Around”, and British composer Tony Macaulay, who wrote “Build Me Up Buttercup”.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame was established in 1969 to honor creators of popular music. A songwriter with a big catalog of songs is eligible for induction 20 years after the song’s first business release.

Some already in attendance include Carole King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Brian Wilson, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Lionel Richie, Bill Withers, Neil Diamond and Phil Collins. Last yr we saw REM, Steely Dan, Dean Pitchford, Hillary Lindsey and Timbaland introduced.

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

Music

Beyoncé leads 2025 Grammy nominations, becoming the most nominated artist in the show’s history

Published

2 weeks ago

November 8, 2024

IAM

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NEW YORK (AP) — Welcome to Beyonce country. When it involves Grammy Award 2025 nominations, “Cowboy Carter” rules the nation. She leads the rankings with 11 nominations, bringing her profession total to 99. This makes her the most nominated artist in Grammy history.

“Cowboy Carter” is up for album and country album of the yr, and “Texas Hold ‘Em” is nominated for record, song and country song of the yr. She also received nominations in multiple genres, including pop, country, Americana and melodic rap.

This is her first time receiving nominations in the country and the Americana category.

If Beyoncé wins album of the yr, she’s going to turn out to be the first black woman in the twenty first century. Lauryn Hill last won in 1999 for “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” joining Natalie Cole and Whitney Houston as the only black women to win a significant Grammy award.

Post Malone also received his first-ever nominations in the country categories this yr, releasing his debut country album “F-1 trillion”in August. The song is nominated for Best Country Album, and “I Had Some Help,” a collaboration with Morgan Wallen, is nominated for Country Song and Country Duo/Group Performance. This is Wallen’s first-ever Grammy nomination.

Malone is just behind Beyoncé with seven nominations, together with Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Charli XCX, who earned her first nominations as a solo artist.

Lamar the ubiquitous diss track released during his feud with Drake, “Not Like Us” is nominated in the categories of album and song of the yr, rap song, music video and best rap performance. In the latter category, he had two simultaneous entries, which is a primary for his profession: Future & Metro Boomin featuring Lamar. “Like That” is nominated for best rap performance and best rap song.

This is his third time receiving two simultaneous nominations for best rap song.

Taylor Swift and first-time nominee Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan each can boast six nominations.

Last yr, female artists dominated essential categories. This yr the situation continues, but the essential trend appears to be species diversity. In the album of the yr category, together with “Cowboy Carter” were latest age André 3000, alt-jazz “New Blue Sun” and “Djesse Vol.” multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier. 4.” Rising pop stars Carpenter and Roan round out the album with “Short n’ Sweet” and “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” respectively, in addition to Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft” and “Hit Me Hard” and Soft” by Eilish. and Charlie XCX ready for the rave “BROTHER”.

Eilish is the only artist whose first three albums have been nominated for Album of the Year.

Last yr Fast won Album of the Year for “Midnights”, breaking the record for most wins in this category (4). This yr, she becomes the first woman in history to earn seven nominations in this category.

“The breadth and diversity of genres represented in the overall field feels new and truly exciting,” says Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Jr. a developing electoral body for his success. “We were very conscious about our membership and tried to balance it. So not just gender or people of color, different races, but also genre equality and trying to make sure all types of music from different regions and locations are represented in every way possible.”

Only recordings commercially released in the U.S. between September 16, 2023 and August 30, 2024 were eligible for nomination. The final round of Grammy voting to find out the winners will happen from December 12 to January 3.

In the best latest artist category, Carpenter and Roan will go head-to-head, alongside Benson Boone, Doechia, Khruangbin, RAYE, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims.

Beyoncé was joined in the song of the yr category by Eilish for “Birds of a Feather,” Swift and Post Malone for “Fortnight,” “Good Luck, Babe!” Roan, “Please Please Please” by Carpenter, “Not Like” by Lamar Us,” “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey.

Shaboozey she can also be a first-time nominee. His “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is the biggest song of the yr, spending more weeks at primary on the Billboard Hot 100 than some other – it is so popular that a remix of the song can also be up for a remix recording.

Additionally, Shaboozey is nominated in the Melodic Rap Performance category for his feature on Beyoncé’s “SPAGHETTIA.” The song also features Linda Martell, the country’s first black musician to realize business success and likewise earned the 83-year-old artist her first Grammy nomination.

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In the Record of the Year category, “Texas Hold ‘Em” will compete with Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight,” Eilish’s “Birds of a Father,” Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” and “Good Luck, Babe!” Roan, Carpenter’s “Espresso.” “, “360” by Charli XCX and the last latest Beatles song, powered by artificial intelligence “Now and Then”.

“We strive to keep up with how music creators and our community use technology. In this case, the AI corrected that record and allowed him to qualify in the categories in which he qualified,” Mason Jr. explains.

So what’s missing? Like last yr, there is a big dearth of Latin music – fastest growing streaming genre in the United States – overall and without representation in major categories. There are only 4 entries in the Best Música Mexicana Album category, although it is usually one in every of them the fastest growing species.

There doesn’t appear to be any K-pop either. There aren’t any nominations for BTS members who released solo material this yr: RM’s “Right Place, Wrong Person” J-Hope’s “Hope on the Street” Vol. 1” and “Muse” by Jimin. As a boy band, BTS has received five nominations in their profession.

“I definitely see room for improvement in many genres and we continue to invite people to be a part of the academy” – Mason Jr. says. “Without proper representation, we will not get the right results. When I say “appropriate”, I mean reflective and representative of what’s going on in music today. So the work continues.”

The 2025 Grammy Awards will air on February 2 survive CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com