<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>Thanks to all who went out of their way to help.</DIV>
<DIV>Believe it or not I really appreciate the response.</DIV>
<DIV>My query was tongue in cheek.</DIV>
<DIV>--------------</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Paragraph 4 should have given me away.</DIV>
<DIV>"I think whom ever edited or typeset this song was STANDING
when </DIV>
<DIV>he should have been sitting down!"</DIV>
<DIV>a reference to the topic I was "changing"</DIV>
<DIV>----------------------</DIV>
<DIV>It was truly a criticism of the monster called "Hal Leonard."</DIV>
<DIV>From January 1949 through August 1955 I worked in the Brill
Building. </DIV></DIV>
<DIV>That's 1619 Broadway, if my memory is right. I knew just about every</DIV>
<DIV>publisher going. There were some in Radio City and many in what we</DIV>
<DIV>called the "Irving Berlin" building, 1650 Broadway.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>To make a long story longer;</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In the year 1993 or there about's I called "Famous Music", the
publishing</DIV>
<DIV>company belonging to Paramount Pictures. The voice on the other end</DIV>
<DIV>answered the phone with "Good Afternoon, Hal Leonard."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What!, oh well, I took a shot and asked for a person I knew. He was
still</DIV>
<DIV>working there and we reminisced for a while. I asked for a copy of a</DIV>
<DIV>Four Freshman tune that have never been published. They had a</DIV>
<DIV>hand written lead sheet. My buddy was very generous and</DIV>
<DIV>faxed the tune to me. I in turn created a real Piano / vocal score </DIV>
<DIV>with Finale and mailed it to him, with a "Famous Music" copyright
notice.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I took it upon myself to call about 50 other publishers, mostly small
companies</DIV>
<DIV>who had small catalogs, primarily jazz. Holy Mackerel, every company I
called</DIV>
<DIV>responded with "Hello, Hal Leonard". They bought up the entire industry,
well</DIV>
<DIV>almost all. Frank Loesser "Frank Music" managed to hang on.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>My current anger was created by a book called "Nostalgia Songs", given
to</DIV>
<DIV>me by a friend a few years ago. I didn't crack it open until last
month.</DIV>
<DIV>The songs are all Public Domain but have a Hal Leonard copyright.</DIV>
<DIV>It is easy enough, for me, to know which tunes are Hal Leonard
sheets,</DIV>
<DIV>and which sheets are from the original sheet music.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Limehouse" was a H.L. piano sheet. Many obvious mistakes. </DIV>
<DIV>I am enjoying the book for two reasons. Many of the tunes are</DIV>
<DIV>not found in any fake book (I have 30 different) so I am putting</DIV>
<DIV>them on line. I am also getting a great "feel" for Americana at</DIV>
<DIV>the turn of the century. 1900 - 1930.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There are tunes by George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Jerome kern</DIV>
<DIV>George Gershwin, and others that are great fun to analyze, </DIV>
<DIV>learn the lyrics and play.Many are suprising and have quite a bit of
humor.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"I Have Bells On My Fingers" - I never knew that was about an</DIV>
<DIV>Irishman cast away on an African Island.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"If I Knock The "L" Out Of Kelly". sounds like a fight. Not so,</DIV>
<DIV>it is more wonderful Irish humor.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Having lived through "Women's Lib", "Gay Lib." "Black Lib.",</DIV>
<DIV>the tunes in this book are helping me to hear "Irish Lib" which</DIV>
<DIV>I never even heard about. George M. Cohan obviously was</DIV>
<DIV>determined to gain respect for his heritage! "Harrigan, That's Me!"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The book is fun except for the pitiful arrangements created by the</DIV>
<DIV>Hal Leonard staff. And they have the Chutzpa (nerve) to copyright</DIV>
<DIV>songs like "The Banana Boat Song" - calypso folk tune,</DIV>
<DIV>"Casey Jones" - American Folk Tune and destroy standards with</DIV>
<DIV>really bad sheets.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Just for the record: My last editing "job" was at M.T.I., the company
</DIV>
<DIV>formed by Frank Loesser, Don Walker and somebody else, I forgot who.</DIV>
<DIV>,,, senior moment (Music Theater International)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I had to edit the London score of "Les Miserables" down to size, both
in</DIV>
<DIV>time and number of instruments, for high school and local theater
groups.</DIV>
<DIV>One of the logistic problems: cut x number of measures but keep the </DIV>
<DIV>measure numbers the same as the original score.</DIV>
<DIV>I know this is not trad but music publishing effects all of us,
standing</DIV>
<DIV>or sitting.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>'nuff said,<BR>Al<BR>Please visit me at<BR><A
href="http://alevy.com">http://alevy.com</A></DIV></BODY></HTML>