MGM Records

You got that? Confusing.

Anyhow, Dan Penn recorded his version of I'm Your Puppet in 1965 on MGM Records.

But it wasn't until it was re- rerecorded by James and Bobby Purify in 1966 that it hit number six.

Let's hear that Dan Penn original now.

Right now, this next track, written for the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Sammy didn't like the track at first, but was reluctantly swayed by an MGM Records boss to record it.

It became his only Billboard Hot 100 number one.

With 10 of your votes during the week, it's Sammy Davis Jr. at 38.

With Capitol Records now the Beatles' official US label, and the rights to the previous singles held by VJ and Swan Records, other major American labels looked for any possible way they could find to cash in on this new phenomenon.

MGM was the first American label in 1964 to license half the available German recordings.

They released two singles, My Bonnie Backed with the Saints and Why Backed with Cry for a Shadow.

They then put together an album called The Beatles with Tony Sheridan that included those four tracks, the non-Beatles version of Swanee River, and then padded out the rest of the album with random songs performed by a group called the Titans.

Actually, these were tracks repurposed from the 1961 album Let's Do the Twist for Adults by MGM producer Danny Davis and the Titans, his group of session musicians centered around guitarist and arranger Billy Muir.

MGM had taken the more commercial four recordings from the Polydor lot, but that left four more recordings on the table, especially the only one with a Beatle lead vocal.

Atlantic Records snatched up the remaining songs and did exactly the same thing MGM had done.

They released two singles, Ain't She Sweet, backed with Nobody's Child, and Sweet Georgia Brown, backed with Take Out Some Insurance on Me Baby, and then made an album out of them.

We couldn't buy music, and it was expensive, you know? So I would go to...

There was a guy down the street who worked for MGM Records who would have garage sales and sell these sample records.

And so I would go buy any record I could find that had, like, a logo that looked cool.

Anything that looked familiar, I would go buy.

The

Left Bank was also on MGM.

Anyway, so Lightning Strikes by Lou Christie was initially rejected by MGM with the label president tossing the master tape into the trash.

After Lou Christie moved to California to promote it himself, MGM relented and released the song in October of 1965.

It became number one in Canada and the U.S. in February, number three in New Zealand, and then number 11 in the U.K.,

and those are all the stats I have.

Set number three, Billy Worth.

There's Good and Everybody on MGM.

Then we hear from another member of the Tubb family.

It was Justin Tubb, You Nearly Lose Your Mind on Decca.

In 1973, Roy Orbison released Milestones.

This was his final studio release for MGM Records, basically known as the Contractual Obligation album.

And it had his takes on contemporary pop and rock hits.

It did not chart on the Billboard Albums chart.

Hank soon dropped out of school to devote all his time to music.

After recording Never Again and Honky Tonking with Sterling Records, he signed a contract with MGM.

In 1948, he released Moving On Over, which became a hit, and he joined the Louisiana Hayride radio program.

One year later, he released a cover of Lovesick Blues, which became his first big hit.

When Charlie enlisted in the Army in the early 1940s, Ira continued to play with local acts until his brother came home.

After that, they moved to Knoxville where they played the radio circuit and changed their last name of Loudermilk to their stage name of Lauvin.

In 1951, the brothers signed a contract with MGM Records and recorded 12 songs, all of which were only moderate hits.

After the MGM contract expired, the two headed to Memphis where they played concert and radio shows.

i only met him one time and he had alzheimer's by then and we had about five minutes together in his office in century city but not like you did but you also i don't want to skip over your music mogul side of you um for those of you who have heard you light up my life in somewhere in an elevator or somewhere uh that is mike kerb mike walk us through well first of all You got started in the early years.

You were at MGM Records, I believe.

But walk us through the music side of your life.

Well, I was born in Savannah, Georgia.

um but

anyway

that's that was my life and you went from mgm records was early on right well i started the company um

under the name but i tried to get the name curb i couldn't get it because there was a label called Cub, C-U-B.