"Background for War"
Sirs:
CONGRATULATIONS ON "BACKGROUND FOR WAR" IN THE MAY I ISSUE OF TIME. IT IS MAGNIFICENTLY CONCEIVED, MAGNIFICENTLY PRESENTED AND MAGNIFICENTLY WRITTEN. IT MAKES ME ASHAMED OF BELONGING TO THE AGGREGATION OF HUMAN BEINGS NOW ALIVE. I WISH IT WERE POSSIBLE TO CRAM IT DOWN THE THROATS OF EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD DRAWING BREATH TODAY, AND MAKE THEM MEMORIZE IT UNTIL THEY COULD REPEAT IT BACKWARD.
CHARLES G. NORRIS Palo Alto, Calif.
Hold-Tight
Sirs:
In my copy of this week's TIME [April 24], Radio section, you record the NBC ban on performance of Hold-Tight because the lyrics approximate Harlem's slang for sexual perversion.
Inasmuch as I originally copyrighted the version as sung by the Andrews Sisters on the Decca record and later turned it over to Exclusive Music, I believe you may be interested in knowing of several of the numerous complications about the song. . . .
First of all, none of the words used in the song . . . were intended to have any particular meaning. Last October, Jerry Brandow and Larry Kent, two comedian-dancers, played a "lick" for me to which the words "Hold-tight, hold-tight, hold-tight, hold-tight —want some seafood mama ! Shrimpers and rice, they're very nice" went. The two boys explained that they had heard the words and music either in a New York or Philadelphia night club where a colored band was playing. . . . We made a recording of the words and music to that point in a Broadway automaton shop for which we paid 25¢. Nothing further was done about the song until last November when the Andrews Sisters, whom I manage . . . were in Philadelphia playing a theatre engagement. . . . The Andrews, Kent, Brandow, Vic Shoen (their arranger) and myself fooled around with the song. In "foo to Nagasaki," Pattie rolled the words to sound like "foo-aya-racka-sacki." Arranger Vic Shoen changed the tempo and melody of the song much differently. Pattie suggested "don't get icky with the 1-2-3" for the verse. Kent created "life is just so fine on the solid side of the line." Pattie, Kent, Shoen and myself worked out the lines "I like my tasty butterfish, when I come home from work at night, I get my favorite dish—fish!" The "fish" break, worked out by Shoen, is one of the most important punches to the song. . . .
Soon after, the song reached its stride, and with it came complaints from Si Oliver, arranger for Jimmy Lunceford, who claimed it came from his arrangement of Dear Old Southland, from Gene Krupa who said he made it up in one of his earlier Brunswick records, from Count Basic who has used the lick in numerous of his arrangements. Jerry Kreuger, a 52nd Street singer, said she has used the line "Don't get icky with the 1-2-3" in New York since last summer after hearing it in the Catskills.
As a result of the ban on the song, new lyrics were written, with the new writers now being cut in on the royalties. With the song a hit—and because so many people were connected with its composition —the various people are billed "writer of Hold-Tight" in the numerous places they work. . . .
Lou LEVY New York City
Albania's Oil
Sirs:
Tsk! Tsk!