Search Results

[John Henderson ]

(b Whitehaven, TN, April 8, 1931). American singer-songwriter, producer, publisher, and entrepreneur. He began playing bluegrass while in the military and after his discharge in 1952, played at radio stations in Wheeling, West Virginia, and Boston. While enrolled in Memphis State University (from 1954), he worked nights and weekends at the Eagle’s Nest club. After working briefly for Fernwood Records, he was hired by Sun Records, where he recorded Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, among others. He wrote hits for several of Sun’s artists, including Johnny Cash’s singles “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” and “Guess things happen that way” (both Sun, 1958).

Clement left Sun in 1960 to became a staff producer for RCA in Nashville. In 1963 he moved to Texas, started a publishing company, and produced Dickey Lee’s hit “Patches” (Smash, 1963). After returning to Nashville in 1965, he discovered and produced Charlie Pride and wrote songs for a variety of country artists, including Pride (“Just between you and me,” RCA Victor, ...

(b Hellerup, Copenhagen, Aug 11, 1919; d Aug 31, 2000). Danish music antiquarian, writer on music and publisher. He founded the publishing firm known by his name in 1953 when he purchased the Knud Larsen Musikforlag (founded 1906), and added to this an antiquarian business. He studied at the University of Copenhagen (1944–6) and the Royal Danish Conservatory (1948). From 1957 to 1977 he was in charge of the distribution of the publications of the Samfund til Udgivelse af Dansk Musik, active since 1871.

Fog is regarded as the most important Scandinavian music antiquarian. Through the distribution of the Samfund editions the firm represents much 19th- and 20th-century Danish music, including works by J.A.P. Schulz, Niels Gade, Carl Nielsen, Knudåge Riisager and Ib Nørholm. As a writer and musicologist he presented valuable contributions in the field of Danish music history. Fog was co-editor of the ...

[William J. ]

(b Alexandria, IN, March 28, 1936). American gospel songwriter, performer, producer, and publisher. He grew up on a small farm in Indiana and graduated from Anderson College with a major in English and a minor in music. He went on to receive a master’s degree in guidance and counseling and met his future wife and song-producing partner, Gloria Sickal, while both were teaching high school. Gaither started singing gospel music as a child and in 1956 formed the Bill Gaither Trio with his brother Danny and his sister Mary Ann. He started his own publishing company in 1959. He continued to perform and compose while a teacher at Alexandria High School and in 1961 formed the Gaither Music Company to publish his works. After their marriage in 1962, Gaither and his wife wrote their first major song, “He touched me,” which was a significant hit by 1963. He re-formed the Bill Gaither Trio with Gloria and Danny, and in ...

(George)

(b Folkestone, England, Aug 9, 1921; d New York, Jan 31, 2005). English music publisher, active in the United States. Educated at the Royal College of Organists, he joined the publishing firm of Boosey and Hawkes in 1937, and after wartime service eventually became managing director of the company’s affiliate in South Africa (...

(b Eichstätt, Feb 23, 1921). German antiquarian dealer, publisher and bibliographer. He founded his antiquarian business at Tutzing near Munich in 1949, issuing a number of catalogues each year. Several of these have become useful works of reference on individual composers, including Brahms, Mozart, Paganini and Schumann, while an innovative series devoted to individual publishers, including Schott, André and Universal Edition, has also been produced. By 1998 the firm had issued over 350 antiquarian catalogues, usually devoted to one of three specialist areas: important manuscripts and letters, first and early editions, and music literature. Through its prolific but scrupulously detailed catalogues, the firm established itself as one of the most important in postwar Europe.

In 1958 Schneider founded a publishing house which has produced some fine facsimiles such as Beethoven's Missa solemnis (Kyrie only) and Brahms's Clarinet Trio. A significant aspect of the firm's activity has been the publication of scholarly series such as the pioneering Musikbibliographische Arbeiten guides to the first editions of composers from Mozart to Messiaen. Other series include Orff-Dokumentation (8 vols.), a catalogue of music in the Hoboken Collection (...

[Ragsdale, Harold Ray ]

(b Clarkdale, GA, Jan 24, 1939). American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, music publisher, television star, and entrepreneur. Harold Ragsdale began his musical career with a high school band that played R&B songs by the Coasters, Drifters, and other R&B groups. In 1955 the family moved to Atlanta, where publisher Bill Lowery signed him as a songwriter and secured his first recording contract with Capitol Records; Capitol’s Head of A&R, Ken Nelson changed Ragsdale’s name to Ray Stevens. After attending Georgia State University, where he studied music, Stevens had his first success with his recording of “Jeremiah Peabody’s Poly Unsaturated Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills” (Mercury, 1961). In 1962 he moved to Nashville, supplementing his own recording career with work as a session musician, arranger, and background vocalist. He garnered a number-one pop hit and his first Grammy with his recording of “Everything is beautiful” (Barnaby, ...