STUDIO SESSION FOR HAROLD JENKINS (CONWAY TWITTY)
AT THE MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE FOR SUN RECORDS 1956
SUN RECORDING STUDIO
706 UNION AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 16, 1956 / POSSIBLY OTHER DATES
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - SAM C. PHILLIPS
"CRAZY DREAMS"
Composer: - Ben Oakland-Herb Magidson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - (B) Take 2 - Not Originally Issued (2:41)
Recorded: - November 16, 1956
Released: - 1997
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 16112-1-2 mono
CONWAY TWITTY - THE ROCK AND ROLL YEARS 1956 - 1964
Harold Jenkins completed his US Army service in March 1956. He heard Elvis on the radio and decided he wanted to do that too. So he assembled a band called The Rockhousers, named for a song Jenkins had written and that he recorded Mid-1956 and Roy Orbison later recorded for Sun.
Ben Oakland (September 24, 1907 – August 26, 1979) was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist, most active from the 1920s through the 1940s. He composed mainly for Broadway and vaudeville, though he also worked on several Hollywood scores including for the film My Little Chickadee.
Oakland often composed music only, collaborating with lyricists including Oscar Hammerstein II, Bob Russell, Milton Drake, L. Wolfe Gilbert, and Artie Shaw. Notable compositions include "Java Jive", "I'll Take Romance", and "I'm A Hundred Percent For You".
The two songs that Oakland wrote with Oscar Hammerstein II are "I'll Take Romance" and "A Mist Over the Moon." The latter, which was written for a 1938 picture called The Lady Objects won Hammerstein and Oakland an Oscar nomination. The former, which was written for a 1937 film starring Grace Moore, won no awards but is frequently performed. June Christy sang it, to an arrangement by Pete Rugolo, on the 1954 album Something Cool. Another popular version at that time was sung by Eydie Gorme on her LP Sincerely Yours, to an arrangement by Sid Feller.
He collaborated with Artie Shaw and Milton Drake on the love song "If It's You" introduced by Tony Martin in the 1941 Marx Brothers' picture The Big Store.
"If I Love Again," which has a lyric by Jack Murray, was performed by Anita O'Day on the 1960 album Incomparable! and by Barbra Streisand in the 1975 film Funny Lady. It was written for the 1933 musical, Hold Your Horses. The Songwriter's Hall of Fame lists Oakland on their notable (non-inducted) songwriters list, for contributions to the American popular song.
Herbert A. Magidson was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway revues. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934.
Magidson was born onJ anuary 7, 1906 and raised in Braddock, Pennsylvania. He had an early interest in the art of magic and was a member of the Pittsburgh Association of Magicians in his youth. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and then worked briefly for a music publisher in New York City. Magidson then moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, California in 1929 while under contract to Warner Bros. to write music for films. In 1934, he won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song along with Con Conrad for his lyrics to "The Continental", used in The Gay Divorcee (1934) starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Magidson also co-wrote the lyrics to the 1937 Allie Wrubel song "Gone with the Wind" (no connection to the novel of the same name nor used in the 1939 film).
Magidson received Oscar nominations for the songs, "Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There" from the film ''Hers To Hold'' (1943), and "I'll Buy That Dream" from the film ''Sing Your Way Home'' (1945). He first wrote lyrics for The Show of Shows (1929), and many more films, including: No, No, Nanette (1930), Gift of Gab (1934), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Here's to Romance (1935), George White's 1935 Scandals (1935), King Solomon of Broadway (1935), Miss Pacific Fleet (1935), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Hats Off (1936), I'd Give My Life (1936), Radio City Revels (1938), and Sing Your Way Home (1945). Magidson had his last hits in 1951, including the song "Happiness".
Magidson collaborated with many songwriters, including Con Conrad, Allie Wrubel, Carl Sigman, Sam H. Stept, and Sammy Fain. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.
He died on January 2, 1986 at the UCLA Medical Hospital in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 79, five days before his 80th birthday, survived by his wife, Elsie.
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Harold Jenkins - Vocal and Guitar
Jimmy Ray Paulman - Guitar
Bill Harris - Bass
Billy Weir - Drums
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
8:14
2:12
2:26
3:25
