Truth in Music (phoney groups are everywhere)

The hardest thing for any person who writes, whether it be a column like this, a book, news story, or even radio commercials is to come up with an opening line. In the four decades I spent in radio I wrote literally hundreds of news stories and thousands of commercials; once I had the opening the rest was easy. Such is the case with today's article. I thought about an attention grabbing headline like: “legitimate performing artists bilked out of thousands of dollars,” or thousands of people swindled by fake performing acts.” .

Ok, now I bet I have your attention. Let me set the stage; several years ago I purchased a CD by “the Vogues.” a group I had interviewed twice back in the 1960's. I was excited to see a new CD as they were one of my favorite groups of the 1960's with such classic hits as: Five O'Clock World, Magic Town, Turn Around Look At Me, and My special Angel. When the CD arrived, I looked at the cover, those guys didn't look familiar. Granted it had been over 35 years, BUT! I played the CD, the sound was OK, but certainly was missing the great harmonies The Vogues were famous for. Lastly, I looked at the liner notes, and I did not recognize one single name, very strange. This all happened not long before my move to Payson, so I put it on the back burner hoping to some day satisfy my curiosity.

One day not long after I started The Class Reunion show, I was doing some research and got to thinking about the Vogues as I was going to be featuring a year that had a couple of their hits. Well anyway, I decided to do some digging. I searched the name Hugh Geyer, (first tenor) and found a reference to Chuck Blasko's (second tenor) web site. It was there I learned that Hugh had rejoined Chuck Blasko. Also I found references to Chuck Blasko, along with Jon “Bowzer” Bauman of Sha Na NA fame, appearing before a House Judiciary Intellectual Property Subcommittee. The basics of this involved the fact that Chuck was not allowed to perform as “The Vogues” since the copywrite name was now owned by Stan Erlich who had his own group. At the time none of the original Vogues were a part of that group, but since then Vogue's originals Hugh Geyer and Bill Burkette have joined the group. As I read the testimony I found that there was a large number of artists who were in the same position, I.e.that of being a founding member of the group and yet, because of sometimes shady dealings, these artists could not appear using that groups name.

At any given time there are numerous groups that use the name Drifters, Platters, the Coasters and many more. These groups are fakes and should not be supported. Not all the fault lies with these “pretend” groups; the general public sees the name, warm fuzzy memories appear and they go buy tickets without checking to see IF there are any original members in the group. Common sense would tell us that if the group had hits in the 1950's or 60's and we were teenagers that these people stand the chance of being well up in years, if they are even alive. Also the ticket price can be a dead give-a-way; original groups command a higher price for their tickets and deserve it. Knock off groups, maybe even the groups that own the copy write name go for less money and the tickets would be cheaper. Several states, unfortunately not Arizona, have laws in place that if the group does not contain at least one original member they must advertise that fact. One of the driving forces behind “Truth In Music” is the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in Sharon, Pa founded by Tony Butala founding member of The Lettermen. If you would like to read more about the efforts toward “Truth In Music” and the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame their website is www.vocalhalloffame.com . If you see a group from the vintage era of rock and roll scheduled to appear check them out BEFORE you buy tickets. Such sites as wikipedia.org will give you the history of the group, including the names of the founding members and then you can compare them with the current groups members.

I urge you to contact your representatives, I have on numerous occasions, and ask them to look at this legislation aimed to protect you.

Trivia: where did the Four Seasons get their name? The group. Was originally known as “The Four Lovers,” but didn't meet with much success, they decided a name change was in order. The name four Seasons was taken from a Bowling Alley Lounge in Paramus, N.J.