Paul Weiss wins Sony deal on back of relationship
Julia Berris in New York
Scoring the lead role for Sony Music on its acquisition of Bertelsmann’s 50 per stake in Sony BMG is a feather in the cap for Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.
The firm is known primarily for its stellar litigation expertise, but in this case it was Sony relationship partner James Schwab who secured Paul Weiss a place on the Japanese company’s list of preferred firms.
Paul Weiss is in good company. There is a select group of US firms and lawyers Sony Music turns to regularly, including the likes of Robert Sugerman at Weil Gotshal & Manges for IP matters, Mort Pierce at Dewey & LeBoeuf for M&A and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for IP and technology.
“The firm we choose to instruct comes down the type of transaction we’re doing,” says an inside source. “We’ve built up strong relationships with a group of firms that we will go to for a range of deals.”
Without a formal panel Sony Music has flexibility when selecting firms for a wide range of matters.
As the source puts it: “Sony has many different divisions and we use different firms for a number of different purposes. For example, Sony Pictures is a separate division and it uses its own set of law firms, which may differ to Sony Music’s. We don’t need to have a formal panel and having flexibility is very important to us.”
Schwab first worked with Sony in 1991 when Paul Weiss advised Time Warner on the deal establishing music club Columbia House as a joint venture (JV) between his client and Sony.
The lawyer and the firm clearly made a lasting impression. Schwab has since won scores of mandates advising the music group on high-profile deals, such as the Sony/ATV restructuring in 1995.
More recently Schwab led the firm advising on the original JV between Sony and Bertelsmann.
“We have a very good relationship with Sony that’s developed over the years,” says Schwab. “It says a lot about the firm when we’re instructed after advising on the other side of a deal.”
http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=134100&d=415&h=417&f=416
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Sony/ATV’s “Musical Notes” #25 - Food Songs
Aug 07, 2008
Sony/ATV’s “Musical Notes” #25
A fortnightly newsletter highlighting some of the many classic songs in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog.
From Alan Warner, Creative Consultant
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The wonders of COUNTRY SOUL
It seems only right that some of the outstanding country ballads have also been recorded by R&B artists. Indeed, when you hear one of those tearjerker love songs sung by a rich-toned soul singer such as Solomon Burke, you realize what a perfect marriage they make.
Below are nine examples of landmark country compositions which have been memorably styled by soul singers:
THE CHOKIN’ KIND (Harlan Howard)
by Joe Simon (Sound Stage 7: 1969) US #1 R&B, #13 Pop
“I gave you my heart/But you wanted my mind, oh yeah
Your love scared me to death, girl/Oh it’s The Chokin’ Kind”
Waylon Jennings had the country hit with this Harlan Howard ballad in 1967 and then deep soul singer Joe Simon cut his superb remake for Sound Stage 7, the sister label of Nashville-based Monument Records.
CRYIN’ TIME (Buck Owens)
by Ray Charles (ABC-Paramount/RCE: 1966) US #5 R&B, #6 Pop
“Oh it’s Cryin’ Time again, you’re gonna leave me
I can see that faraway look in your eyes
I can tell by the way you hold me darlin’
That it won’t be long before it’s cryin’ time”
Texas’s very own Buck Owens had recorded his tearjerker classic CRYIN’ TIME in ’65 at one of his Capitol sessions but the song really came to life when Ray Charles applied his achingly-haunting vocal with Lillian Ford providing the harmony backup.
MY ELUSIVE DREAMS (Curly Putman/Billy Sherrill)
by Moses & Joshua Dillard (Mala/Sony BMG: 1967)
“I know you’re tired of followin’/My Elusive Dreams and schemes
For they’re only fleeting things/My elusive dreams.”
Songwriter Curly Putman cut the initial record on MY ELUSIVE DREAMS on ABC and it was the teaming of David Houston & Tammy Wynette who first escorted this song into the country chart history books, reaching #1. But for complete contrast, look no further than this powerful cover by Moses & Joshua Dillard who pulsate the ballad right into Sam & Dave territory!
IF YOU’RE NOT BACK IN LOVE BY MONDAY
(Sonny Throckmorton/Glenn Martin)
by Millie Jackson (Spring/UK Ace: 1977) US #5 R&B
“Sleep a few more nights together
Say the things that you used to say
If You’re Not Back In Love By Monday
Then you just go your separate way”
Switching in 1977 from Capitol to MCA, the legendary Merle Haggard successfully cut this song under its original title IF WE’RE NOT BACK IN LOVE BY MONDAY. Slowing the tempo right down, the often raunchy and explicit Millie Jackson wrings every word and note out of this wonderfully bittersweet ballad.
FUNNY (HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY) (Willie Nelson)
by Joe Hinton (Back Beat/Universal: 1964) US #1 R&B
“It’s been so long now and it seems that it was only yesterday
Ain’t it Funny How Time Slips Away”
Willie Nelson’s longtime favorite love song initially charted in 1961 for country singer Billy Walker. Three years later, former gospel tenor Joe Hinton turned up the emotional fire in this song and building to a very emotive closing high note.
DON’T YOU EVER GET TIRED (OF HURTING ME) (Hank Cochran)
by Bettye Swann (Capitol/EMI: 1969)
“Loosen the chains that bind me, set me free
Don’t You Ever Get Tired Of Hurtin’ Me”
This ballad by the great Hank Cochran has enjoyed several lives chart-wise…Ray Price took it to #11 on the country charts first himself in ’66, then he and Willie Nelson turned it into a duet success in ’81 and if that wasn’t enough, another revival by Ronnie Milsap made it to #1 on the country listings in March ’89! But for my money (and for John Campanelli’s), you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Bettye Swann unleash her soulful Southern charm on its passionate lyric.
JUST OUT OF REACH (OF MY TWO EMPTY ARMS) (Virgil ‘Pappy’ Stewart)
by Solomon Burke (Atlantic/WMG: 1961) US #7 R&B
“Too far away from you and all your charms
Just Out Of Reach of My Two Empty Arms”
JUST OUT OF REACH was first released on Gilt Edge in 1951 by an early country group known as The Stewart Family led by the song’s author. Faron Young covered it for Capitol a year later and Patsy Cline recorded it in 1958 but when producer Jerry Wexler chose it for a Solomon Burke session in December 1960, the soul pioneer’s rich-textured voice memorably drove the song up the R&B charts, giving him his debut hit.
SET ME FREE (Curly Putman)
by Esther Phillips (Atlantic/WMG: 1970) US #39 R&B
“If you think you’ve had enough
If you think our life’s been rough
Why not take your love line off of me
And Set Me Free”
This sad story, told in the third person, was introduced by songwriter Curly Putman and then popularized by ‘The Silver Fox’ himself, Charlie Rich, in 1968. Yet when blues songstress Esther Phillips came face to face with the song a couple of years later, it took on new meaning as she injected her inimitable, aching approach to the lyric and when she delivers the spoken-word passages, you believe she’s talking to only you.
THEN YOU CAN TELL ME GOODBYE (John D. Loudermilk)
by Solomon Burke (Atlantic/WMG: 1968)
“Kiss me each morning for a million years
Hold me each evening by your side
Tell me you love me for a million years
Then if it don’t work out/Then if it don’t work out
Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye”
Here’s a song you may know as a pop hit from 1967 when Gene Hughes led his group The Casinos into the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100, but it was authored by country singer/songwriter and became a #1 hit in Nashville in ’68 for the late Eddy Arnold. Listen how the song perfectly fits the perfectly-controlled vocal as Solomon turns it into an intimate message to his lady, ending with a spoken passage on the fade.
Playing the above versions of these songs points out the crossover potential potential of classic country tunes, not only for possible re-recordings but also for sync uses. For instance, Joe Hinton’s record of
FUNNY (HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY) was featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 action thriller “The Long Kiss Goodnight” starring Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson.
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Cover Of The Week!
NIGHT LIFE (Nelson/Breeland/Buskirk)
by Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis
on their Blue Note album “Two Men With The Blues”
NIGHT LIFE was one of Willie Nelson’s earliest compositions --- he’s recorded it on a slew of various recordings often as duets with fellow artists but this version is the most haunting with Wynton Marsalis’s wailing trumpet providing just the right setting in which to turn a country classic ballad into a veritable blues!
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FOOD SONGS –
Served up from our back catalog...
and perfect for your next commercial!
A group of songs, the lyrics of which might just melt in your mouth! As you can see, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller’s songs were often ‘on the menu’ so to speak…their
D.W. WASHBURN (with which The Monkees charted in 1968) even promised that “A hot bowl of soup is waitin’”. Give the Sony waitress your orders from the following…
APPLE COBBLER (Smith/Mosley)
By LL Cool J
BACON FRYING IN THE KITCHEN (Nicholson/Overstreet/Cannon)
By Lance Miller
BREAD AND BUTTER (Parks/Turnbow)
By The Newbeats
CHICKEN CRAZY (Tex)
By Joe Tex
CHINESE CAFÉ (Mitchell)
By Joni Mitchell
COOL BEANS (Ehrenfeld/Baker/Bushkin/Bentjen)
By Agnes Gooch
DIGSY’S DINNER (Gallagher)
By Oasis
DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT (Phillips/Beathard)
By Tim McGraw
D.W. WASHBURN (Leiber/Stoller)
By The Monkees
HONGRY (Leiber/Stoller)
By The Coasters
HOT DOG (Leiber/Stoller)
By Elvis Presley
HOT POTATOES (Davies)
By The Kinks
I WANT CANDY (Berns/Feldman/Goldstein/Gottehrer)
By The Strangeloves
By Bow Wow Wow
ICE CREAM (McLachlan)
By Sarah McLachlan
JAMBALAYA (ON THE BAYOU) (Williams)
By Hank Williams
MAXIMUM CONSUMPTION (Davies)
By The Kinks
MICE EAT CHEESE (Brock)
By Modest Mouse
POPSICLE (Cason/Russell)
By Jan & Dean
ROLY POLY (Rose)
By Jim Reeves
By Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ (Leiber/Stoller)
By The Robins
SOUP FOR ONE (Rodgers/Edwards)
By Chic
SUGAR SUGAR (Barry/Kim)
By The Archies
By Wilson Pickett
SUSHI GIRL (Waybill/Anderson/Cotton/Prince/Steen/Spoon/Welnick)
By The Tubes
THAT’S AMORE (Warren/Brooks)
By Dean Martin
WATERMELON CRAWL (Brock/Turner)
By Tracy Byrd
P.S: You might also remember that the high priest of parody, Weird Al Yankovic, re-worked Robert Hazard’s
GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN as
GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE LUNCH!
The above list is merely a selection...various other songs with containing ‘food’ references are available in the Sony/ATV catalog.
Now let’s see if we get this right…”Hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken-salad sandwich and you haven’t broken any rules”!
Click Here for Associated Playlist
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US chart positions courtesy of Joel Whitburn & Billboard Magazine
http://www.sonyatv.com/index.php/articles/412
Mentionings............
