As culled from our BLOG on July 24th, 2018
Back in the early 1960's few people knew that Chuck Barris was also a song-writer. One of those songs he wrote was "Palisades Park" named after the amusement park in New Jersey. Click the RED link and hear Chuck talk about how it came to be...and some savvy advice for struggling anybody[s].
Palisades Park was one of those Time-Stamp tunes back then - it was summertime. And it was in full bloom when you heard it. Freddy (Boom-Boom) Cannon (who passed away 7/17/26) sang the toe tappin' finger snappin' tune.
Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr., was better known by his stage name Freddy Cannon. He was an American rock and roll singer. His biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", and "Palisades Park". Wikipedia
Chuck Barris is known for creating and producing The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. It may also be of interest to point out that in the original West Side Story film, a Palisades Amusement
Park poster is featured
prominently throughout the movie on a brick wall they
shot scenes against.Moreover, George
Clooney made his directorial debut with: 'Confessions of a Dangerous
Mind' - Based on a story about Chuck Barris, who died March 2018. We're seemingly going in full 6-degrees here.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a 2002 biographical/spy comedy film depicting the life of a popular game show host and producer of The Gong Show, Chuck Barris. He claimed to have also been an assassin for the CIA (NOT actually the case). The film was George Clooney's directorial debut and was written by Charlie Kaufman, and starred Sam Rockwell, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, and Clooney.The film opens with...you guessed it, the sound track A Palisade State of Mind.
Tune-In next month (or below) where we feature another 'Industry Influencer' while shedding some larger-than-life light on the song: "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini"
August 20th, 2018 BLOG {Industry Influencer}:
Here's something little known about the songwriter Paul Vance, who co-wrote the 1960 pop hit “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini”. Which, btw, appeared in "Love Actually" and by IMDb's count 30 other movies and commercials.
Paul was stunned to learn that another person was claiming authorship of the song. But, only after the impersonator had died did he and the world get wind of it.
Paul was stunned to learn that another person was claiming authorship of the song. But, only after the impersonator had died did he and the world get wind of it.
It was the result of a not so Teenie Winnie story the Associated Press ran about the death of Paul
Vance on Sept. 6, 2006, citing his
wife as its primary source.
The actual obituary, was for Paul Van Valkenburgh, a native of New Milford, Conn. It was
reported that Mr. Van Valkenburgh wrote the song under the name Paul
Vance.
The 'real' Mr.
Vance, who was 76 at the time and had moved from Long Island to Coral
Springs,
Fla., said he was “kind of shook up” over reports of his demise. Mr.
Vance also wrote the song "Catch a Falling Star" that was made famous by
Perry Como.
Itsy Bitsy... co-written by Lee Pockriss, was recorded by the teenage
heartthrob Brian Hyland and rose to No. 1 on the Billboard chart in
1960. It has survived as a novelty single and was rerecorded by the
eclectic rock act Devo for the soundtrack to the film “Revenge of the
Nerds II.”
John
Castaldo, chief financial officer of the Music Sales Corporation, the
publisher representing Mr. Vance, said there was no question that the
living Paul Vance was the co-writer of the tune, and added that his
company had been collecting royalties for Mr. Vance since at least the
late 1980’s.
Mr.
Vance said he was particularly concerned that
companies outside the United States who license his songs would be
confused by the reports and would not make payments. “Believe me, if
they think you’re dead, they ain’t going to send the money,” he said.
As it was explained to us first hand by Paul himself, he's made an enormous sum every year from the royalty usage of - IBTWYPB. When we met him, it was under entirely incongruous circumstances to the music business when he just so happened to divulge who he was and that he was responsible for writing or co-writing various hit tunes. It struck us as a bit unbelievable.
Here's Paul talking about his early days (in a Utube video) as a junk yard owner (get-the-picture) and at the same time...a songwriter of: Itsy Bitsy & Catch a Falling Star. The 'real' down-to-earth character of Paul shines thru like a glimmering light on a Rainy Day...albeit a bitzy rough around the edges!
As it was explained to us first hand by Paul himself, he's made an enormous sum every year from the royalty usage of - IBTWYPB. When we met him, it was under entirely incongruous circumstances to the music business when he just so happened to divulge who he was and that he was responsible for writing or co-writing various hit tunes. It struck us as a bit unbelievable.
Here's Paul talking about his early days (in a Utube video) as a junk yard owner (get-the-picture) and at the same time...a songwriter of: Itsy Bitsy & Catch a Falling Star. The 'real' down-to-earth character of Paul shines thru like a glimmering light on a Rainy Day...albeit a bitzy rough around the edges!
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