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Dreamin' on such a Winter's Day" |
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Mamas
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the Papas |
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Dreamin' on such a Winter's Day" |
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Mamas
and
the Papas |
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The Early Days:
by Artie Kornfeld in his own words!
"After polishing and Simonizing cars back in NY during the summer of 1956 I got a guitar. I learned a few simple chords from a friend of mine who was a folk singer and those chords were all you needed in those days to sing just about any song. I started out with 'Michael Row the Boat Ashore'. I got a Webcore tape recorder and put down the guitar track and then I'd sing the lyric over it. I'd actually do songs like 'La Bamba' and 'Oh, Donna', but not very well.
Good connections brought me at the age of 16 to GAC (a big agency for rock) that signed me to a contract and took me into Broadway Sound to do my first recording in a real studio. I couldn't believe it that when I showed up that Dion and the Belmonts were there to play the instruments and The Skyliners were there to sing background. There I was with no voice and singing off key, but I didn't care because I got to sing with Dion and the Skyliners, two acts who were idols to me!"
"I then went and got a management deal with a fellow named Jim Gribble who managed The Mello Kings, The Mystics, The Passions, Jay and the Americans, and Tom & Jerry (who were really Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle). Once, when one of the Mystics was missing and they were doing a show, I got to sing with them onstage. I can remember singing 'Hushabye' at the Alan Freed rock & roll show at the Brooklyn Paramont. These were the first real rock concerts!
When the first Jay who sang 'She Cried' for Jay and the Americans left the group, I got to audition for them. Jay Black got the job over me, became the lead singer and sang 'Come a Little Bit Closer' and all the other hits they had. I never even thought that years later I would be writing songs for Jay and the Americans!
Another good story of those same times... I started going to Adelphi College and transferred to American University. Financially my family was struggling so I worked 'the steam tables' in the university cafeteria while attending classes. There was this fellow student who I got to become friends with who would always be sitting in the same corner with her friends singing folk songs. Cass Elliot was her name, The Mamas and the Papas became her fame.
The Brill Building: Years spent learning & experiencing my craft from the major hitters in the pop music industry: Lou Adler, Charles Koppelman, Don Rubin and Don Kirschner of Screen Gems Music Publishing. It was in those hallowed halls writing rooms that I really learned "Who put the Bomp in the Bomp Sh Bomp" with Barry Mann, Carol King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Cynthia Weil and many others.
I think it was about 200 demos later in 1962 when I got to meet another of my idols, Jan Berry of Jan & Dean. He came to NY to perform in another Alan Freed Show and we met before his show at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn. They rented us a piano and we wrote together the follow up to 'My Boyfriend's Back' by the Angels called 'I Adore Him'. Not a particularly memorable song, but it hit #11 on Cashbox and Billboard. What it did was open doors for me with Jan and the new California sound."
© 2004 painting by Jim Warren"My collaboration with Jan Berry went as far as composing all but one song on the 'Little Old Lady from Pasadena' album as well as writing with Jan and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys the major hit 'Dead Man's Curve'. Jan & Brian were musical geniuses and had the formula down for making hit records... I think it was rubbing off slightly on me! This was also about the time that Steve Duboff crossed my path rather accidentally while at Screen Gems. We wound up getting together and writing many hits including 'The Pied Piper' and 'The Rain, The Park and Other Things'. I believe we must have had 65 hit songs on over 100 albums by major artists. You could say I was in good company by now!
So there I was, somewhat of a success, but still looking for the big wave. Charles (my mentor) had turned me on to a new group called 'The Lovin' Spoonful' that everybody else in town was turning down. "We're thinking of signing them" and he played me a demo of 'Do You Believe in Magic'. That very raw recording that he later released went to #1. All of us went to see the band at the Cafe Wha and we were just mesmerized by John Sebastian and his songs. Actually that night was rather a shocker as I found myself and my wife Linda sitting at the table next to Bob Dylan ...and next to him was Phil Spector!
We could go on here forever, but my early days ended in 1967 after writing & producing the Cowsills when Charles Koppelman & Don Rubin (who had a production deal with Capitol Records) introduced me to Capitol's President Alan Livingston. I was hired on the spot as the first Vice President and Director of Rock Music at any company. "Rock & Roll was here to Stay".
Author's note: My John Sebastian friendship has stood the test of time. On June 23, 2004 I sang 'Do You Believe in Magic' with him at NY Governor George Pataki's celebration of the new Woodstock Museum at a private party in the Governor's Mansion in Albany, N.Y. Melanie also sang for the Governor and honors were bestowed on Mike Lang and myself.
