PAYOLA
Bobby Darin took his first hit song, "Splish Splash" to #3 in the nation, and it was a major boost for his career.
This was in the days of the "payola" scandals, where disc jockeys and others were secretly paid under the table to promote and play particular songs so that they would become hit records. Once a practice that was winked at, the traditional music establishment began a crusade against payola in an attempt to derail the newly popular rock and roll music, and it very nearly worked. Major figures who were caught up in the scandal included Alan Freed, one of the country's most prominent DJ's who played a major role in popularizing rock music (and is one of several who claimed to have coined the term "rock and roll"), and Dick Clark, though he was more cooperative in the investigations and was able to preserve his reputation (not to mention his job).
(April 2015/1)
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The band changed its name to Danny and the Juniors and. after performing as a last-minute substitute on American Bandstand, had a #1 hit for 7 weeks with "At the Hop" (beginning in January 1958, and breaking the record among vocal groups). In a classic example of so-called "payola", Artie Singer (who also has a writing credit for "At the Hop") had to sign over one-half of the publishing credits for the song to Dick Clark (Clark sold the rights to the song prior to the Congressional payola hearings in 1960). (August 2015) |