After finding that the time had come to create new horizons, I joined up with Tash Howard. He was a real "character" but, also a very wise businessman.
After finding that the time had come to create new horizons, I joined up with Tash Howard. He was a real “character” but, also a very wise businessman.
I came to the office one day and was introduced to a young fellow playing a guitar sitting on an old style radiator. He was finger-picking as he carried on a full conversation! I was absolutely astounded as his musical ability was unlike any professional musician I had ever seen. How could he speak in full sentences and, at the same time, be playing complex folk patterns on the guitar?? It was just like something out of the “Twilight Zone”!
He was introduced to me, as “Jerry Landis”. Jerry, I discovered later, was the youngest A & R man who was ever hired for that position. Larry Uttal was the man in charge of his new label, “Amy Records” and made that decision based on Jerry’s talent and certainly not on his age.
(An A & R man’s job is to put artists together with right songs).
Larry Uttal, later teamed up with Bob Crewe, to give Bob his own label with Larry’s distribution network pressing up product and being in charge of paying royalties. This was a very trustworthy position, especially in those days when many record labels did not pay royalties to anyone, at all!
Jerry already had a hit with a song called, “Hey Little Girl in the Second Row”. The artists’ name was Tom & Jerry. Some years, later, I saw Jerry on The Tonight Show, starring Johnny Carson, when Jerry suddenly became, “Paul Simon” and somehow, spoke with a slight British accent and claimed he was born in England. (WHAT????)
Of course, I didn’t mistake old Jerry from Newark, New Jersey for this so-called British artist who looked and sounded exactly like Jerry Landis!! Jerry as Paul, later became half of, “Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel”!
By the way, there was a rumor going around (I really don’t know whether or not it was true, that the “59th Street Bridge Song”…. (“Feelin’ Groovy”) was really written by a down-and-out songwriter who sold his song to Simon for $200.00!. Again, I am just not sure if this was actually true!
Tash and I made some very crazy and silly records during our 3 to 4 year relationship. He wrote a song with which the singer (The Pastwami Mawted, was really, ME!) had a speech impediment.
It was called, “Wiwwian Weevy I Wuv You”. Tash brought the master to Len Levy at Metromedia Records.
Len bought the master and later said he bought it out of fear that if this silly song ever became a hit and Len passed on buying it, his wife, Lillian would KILL HIM!
The first Metromedia single was, “Wiwwian Wevy” by The Pastwami Mawted (#MM-101) Executive Producer, Len Levy, Produced by Tash Howard!
I only wish I could find a copy of that classic record!
Tash relied on some quite obscure labels and people who were less than honest. “Scepter” label was where Frank brought the record to many labels but in 1974 it was released by Scepter Records. Scepter was a label which most artists, publishers and songwriters in those days got a lesser than a “Real Count” of records sold! The favor which Tash did get out of Frank was the hit record, BT Express singing “DO IT ‘TIL YOU’RE SATISFIED”. Tash got to co-publish the song, which went to the #1 on the R & B charts and #2 on the Pop Charts.
Tash and Freddie Frank created Triple O Music, a publishing company who participated in the royalties of that record and album.
My days with Tash were fun for sure. I will never forget his fast brain and creative business deals. He will go down as one of the great characters of the 1960s and 1970’s. Titles such as, “Rosita Tomato”, “Screwy Mooey” and “Garbage Truck” will probably never be re-recorded again!
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