Posted by Fred Clemens on September 05, 2008 at 18:27:07:
Back a coupla months ago, I was going crazy trying to do the math on a certain Sanford Clark record. I think I finally have a difference, quotient, and product figured out now.
To sum it all up as briefly as I can (warning: this can go on forever!)...
Sanford Clark admittedly recorded a song shown as penned by Naomi Ford called "The Fool". Initially released on the Clay Ramsey owned M.C.I. label in the spring of 1956, it fared not too well and Clark went on to pursue other ventures.
Be it known now that "Naomi Ford" was a name used by DJ, Record Producer, and Label Owner (VIV), Lee Hazelwood (oh, did I mention he was also a Songwriter?). Naomi Ford was actually an abbreviated variation of his wife's maiden name (Naomi Shackleford). This would come in handy when Hazelwood would re-issue the Clark record on M.C.I. and soon afterwards on the Dot label.
In the meantime, a group called the Gallahads had picked up on the song and released their own version on the Jubilee label. Curiously, though, their version named Hazelwood as a writer along with Ford. This contradicts the Clark Dot issue and even the sheet music for the song, which only named Naomi Ford as the writer. The M.C.I. issue at the time was also exclusive to Ford as the writer. So how did the Gallahads know of Hazelwood's involvement in the song?
The evidence can be seen above. This apparently would be the original issue of the M.C.I. release, where Naomi Ford and Lee Hazelwood both get credit. One striking feature that led to this conclusion, and indirectly, was an "RE1" etching in the dead wax following the side number. I began to question about copies existing without it, and soon this one surfaced.
As I have talked about the "RE1" issue before, I won't go on (and on) about it. But now with the names and everything in place, I think the puzzle is complate and I can move on to other quests and adventures in the world of record collecting.
Here's a short version of how I think it went down:
Al Casey brought Sanford Clark to Lee Hazelwood's attention, where Clark recorded Hazelwood's "The Fool" and released it on Clay Ramsey's M.C.I. label featuring Al Casey on guitar re-creating a familiar Howlin' Wolf guitar lick from "Smokestack Lightning" released on Chess Records not too long before. "The Fool" would have gotten released on Hazelwood's own VIV label, but his funds for financing the venture were low. So he took it up four miles north from his home in Phoenix, Arizona to the Ramsey studio and had it issued on the Ramsey owned M.C.I. label.
It basically flopped. But not before the record was picked up by the Gallahads where they released it on Jubilee Records about a month later. Not to lose everthing to Jubilee, Hazelwood re-issued the Clark M.C.I. recording, but this time without his name on the label. This way he could play and push the Clark version without compromising his position as a DJ.
The Clark version eventually won out Nationally, especially after Dot Records picked it up for distribution.
For Hazelwood, it was a win-win situation. Anyone buying either the Gallahads version or the Sanford Clark version, he would still get paid.
Or that's the way I see it...