The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 11, 1996, Page 6, Image 6
6
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so yo
Rhino Records has made its
fortune releasing the golden
oldies.
STEPHANE SONNENFBJP Features Editor
In the music world, the names
Atlantic, Sony, RCA, MCA, Arista,
Capitol and Warner Brothers seem
to dominate. So seeing the name
"Rhino Records" may have you scratching
your head and wondering when this
company actually made it into existence.
Well, scratch again, this time in
disbelief, because Rhino Records is no
novice at the game of record producing.
Actually, they've been in the business
since 1978. OK, so 1978 may seem meager
in the grand scheme of record companies,
but to Rhino Records, 1978 is a year to
remember ? and to compare by.
When the Los Angeles-based company
opened its doors in 1978, they had a few
onlirl wnlnnona of mo/^n fVinm o nrnfif
ouiiu icicaaco uiat uiauc tiiciii a piuxii
of $60,000 for that year, which at that
time and for a mere upstart of a company
was a true success. After patience and
the proverbial hard work, the company
made more than $70 million in 1995
from 250 audio/CD/cassette reissues,
anthologies, various artists' collections
and box sets, and at least 40 videos.
Walking in conjunction with Atlantic
Records, Rhino was ahle to take a business
once intent on marketing new artists to
one cashing in on the fad and need for
compilation materials. Today, the
company distributes a catalog touting
2,500 plus titles.
Rhino first began as a humble record
store a few steps away from UCLA's
Westwood campus run by Richard Foos,
who specialized in used records. After
meeting up with Harold Bronson, the
two expanded the store into a label,
producing such acts as local street man
Wild Man Fischer. The two record
producers won big bucks for their first
venture, but they managed their money
I TICKET
I must
scam
JOLLEC
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Richard Foos, loft, and Harold Bronsc
store into a multimillion-dollar label s|
well.
"We could have splurged on ourselves
but got far more joy out of putting profits
back into Rhino, nurturing it and
watching it grow," Bronson said in a
recent press release.
Rhino's owners also incorporated
their interest in vintage records into
QCk Come join u
FRIDAY NIGH
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The Gamecock
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Special to The Gamecocl
tn have transformed a used recorc
pecializing in music reissues.
their new business, seeing a profitable
market for the future in the history ol
music and other audio items.
In 1984, Rhino was one of the firsl
labels to digitally remaster reissues and
compilations for release on compact disc
Today, they are the purveyors of musi<
and audio culture as we know it.
s. Sign up for inte
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IT, APRIL 1!
IMMUt
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, April 10 &
i, April 11
Russell Hoi
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\pril lz.
I Thursday, April 11,1
ORDS
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Included in their vast collection <
impressive artists and works are a Blue
Master series, which is listed in th
Library of Congress, and The Bea
n li i. r j : c
uenerauuii sta, leaiurmg eveiyuue irui
the expected Jack Kerouac to such greal
as Lee Konitz, Allen Ginsberg, the Gerr
Mulligan Quartet, William S. Burrough
Rod McKuen, Tom Wits and Charli
Parker to name a few. Rhino Record
also has reissues of the Righteou
Brothers, The Best of the Natiom
Lampoon Radio Hour, Buddy Guy, Joh
Lee Hooker and Patsy Cline.
There are box sets featuring Micke
Rooney and Judy Garland, Bobby Daria
John Coltrane and Frank Zappa. Thei
are anthologies featuring Gospel, Chark
Mingus, The Bay City Rollers and Grer
Speeches from everyone from Sen. Joh
F. Kennedy to President John F. Kenned
The catalog is endless, lhe Khino recor
label is beginning to look like that a
well.
Rhino has also tumbled into reissuir
movies and documentaries. Their title
include the VH1 series "My Generation
an Ed Wood documentary, "An Evenin
with Placido Domingo," 50s goodies sue
as "the Brian that Wouldn't Die" an
regarded films such as the Merchai
Ivory produced "The Bostonians."
"It's like we're the Smithsonia
Institution for popular culture," Bronso
said. "We're archiving our favorite musi
TV Shows and films and doing it proper!
< the way we'd like to find it if we wer
I into a record or video store as consume]
ourselves."
? If Rhino records is like a branch <
f the Smithsonian Institute, they certain]
would get the award for best gift she
; ? provided they sold copies of the gooc
I they put so lovingly on display. To ord(
a copy of the Rhino Records catalog, ca
; (310) 474-4778 or write Rhino Recorc
at 10635 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angele
Calif. 90025-4900.
srviews in RH 333.
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Lottery I
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Evay schookhild in America knows
tVip Hnlcpv Pnlcpv Ynn nut, vmir ric+it
)f foot in, you put your right foot out,
ss you put your right foot in... well, you
e know what ifs all about.
tt What you might not know is who
n wrote the song. Larry LaPrise, aka
ts The Hokey Pokey Man, died last week
y at age 83 in Boise, Idaho, after a career
s that brought him no fame, modest
g fortune, and a job with the Postal
[s Service.
That's rierht. Someone actually
j wrote "The Hokey Pokey."
n For many baby boomers and their
children, the Hokey Pokey is simply
part of the national legacy, right up
there with Mother Goose and Twister.
^ "I just assumed it had been around
forever," said a shocked Leyah Strauss
of New York. Even before LaPrise's
death, Strauss, a jeweler, had been
n planning to stage a mass Hokey PokeyV
i \t tr i i i i vi
' in at some in ew r one lanomarK nice
Grand Central station.
IS The Hokey Pokey, it turns out,
isn't so old after all.
? LaPrise, a Detroit native whose
full name was Roland Lawrence
1 LaPrise, concocted the song along with
S two fellow musicians in the late 1940s
h for the apres ski crowd at a nightclub
d in Sun Valley, Idaho. The group, the
Ram Trio, recorded the song in 1949.
"The Hokey Pokey'is like a square
n dance, really," LaPrise said in 1992.
n "You turn around. You shake it all
c, about. Everyone is in a circle, and it
y, gets them all involved."
it In 1953, bandleader Ray Anthony
rs bought the rights and recorded "The
Hokey Pokey" on the B-side of another
3f novelty record, "The Bunny Hop."
|y "Everybody was doing the 'Bunny
,p Hop' before long, which meant that
Is everybody was doing 'The Hokey
;r Pokey," observed LaPrise's daughter,
jl Linda Ruby.
|s There followed a steady succession
s of recordings: Jack Johnson and the
Hickory Dickory Singers, Warren
Covington with the Tommy Dorsey
Orchestra, Cliffie Stone, Jerry Maries,
Chubby Checker, Annette iWicello,
the Champs.... In no time, the Hokey
Pokey was everywhere.
Schoolyards. Brownie troop
meetings. Bar mitzvahs. Weddings.
lit htipt/Mww&at
Givin' yoi
Electro
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ey Pokey'
ies at 83
By the early 1990s, it had even
turned up on a heavy metal album by
the band Haunted Garage, alongside
such classics as Tarty in the
Graveyard" and Torture Dungeon."
A loci fVio T-Tolr-of r PolroTr fiimn/1 nnt
nifli?, uic x luatj x v/ntjr tuiuw wuito
be the high water mark ofLaPrise's
musical career ? in fact, maybe the
only water mark.
"He wrote several other songs,
probably none of which you've ever
heard," his daughter said. They
included "Sitz Mark Samba" ? "You
know, the sitz marie is the hole left in
the snow after you've gotten up from
falling down skiing "
Ruby said she wasn't positive how
much Rav Anthonv paid for the song
in 1953, "but I know my father always
said they cut a fat hog, $500."
After the Ram Trio disbanded in
the 1960s, LaPrise, by then a father
of six, went to work for the post office
in Ketchum. At about the same time,
country star Roy Acuff s publishing
company bought the rights to the
Hokey Pokey.
"Roy Acuff had seen a lot of his
material copied so he was very
conscious about songwriters getting
the credit," Ruby said. "It wasn't until
after dad had his family raised that
he started getting royalty checks,
which was a nice bonus for him."
LaPrise later retired with his wife,
Donna, to Wendell, where their
daughter is a schoolteacher. He died
i _ X rni J A 1 *11
last inursaay alter a long uiiiess.
Everybody has their own
explanation for the Hokey Pokey's
infectious popularity.
The beauty of this one is there is
no age barrier," said Steve Geyer, a
DJ at parties in the Boston area. "You
get them from 3 years to 93 years.
Everybody gets involved with this
one."
Jane Shattuc, a professor of mass
communication at Emerson College,
put it this way: "There are two ways
to understand the Hokey Pokey. You
can see it as a childish game, typical
of Americans' fascination with being
inane, or kind of a refusal of adulthood.
"But you can also see it as a
celebration of taking pleasure in
childhood irreverence. To paraphrase
the song, I think that's what it's all
about."
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