My second job, when I was 20 years old (about 1959), was at Tops Records. I was thrilled. I got to design record album covers (remember those?). Here's one of my creations that I found in a used record store. I also notice that it's for sale on Amazon. It's not exactly a masterpiece! I used the old childrens technique of painting the background in bright colors and then coloring over it all in black crayon and scratching the design into the crayon.
I remember when they were trying to think of a name for the album someone suggested "The Majestic Organ" and all the men in the office laughed. I didn't get it until much later. (When I was a little more adult.)
Tops was a strange little record company that not only produced the records but actually made them right there in the same place as our office. We were upstairs and the hot wax was poured downstairs. I wonder if it was toxic?
It was the first record company to sell to drug stores and others that weren't just record stores. They had some famous artists who were a little out of fashion at the time, like Lena Horne for instance.
They also had some famous artists who were under contract to some other company and so used a pseudonym. I guess you would call it a cut- rate company. I didn't care, though because I got to design record covers.
One of my bosses was a well-known jazz saxophonist named Dave Pell. He was the A&R director- (artists and repertoire). He chose the music and the performers. He was a really nice guy who took me out for my first legal drink when I turned 21.
So just who is Kenneth Lane at the Magic Organ? I looked him up on Wikipedia:
Kermit "Ken" Lane (December 20, 1912 – November 23, 1996) was an
American musician from
Brooklyn,
New York. He was best known to audiences as
Dean Martin's pianist on
The Dean Martin Show in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but was already well known in the film community before that.
With
Irving Taylor, Lane co-wrote "
Everybody Loves Somebody" in 1947.
Frank Sinatra recorded it first, followed by
Dinah Washington and
Peggy Lee before Martin recorded it in 1964 and took it to #1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 list in August of that year. It would be Lane's biggest hit as a composer. He also arranged the music for
Tars and Spars,
Monsieur Beaucaire,
California,
Ladies' Man,
Champagne For Two,
Smooth Sailing, and
Paris In The Spring in 1946 and 1947.
Lane composed the music for
Lucy Gets Lucky, a 1975 made-for-TV movie starring
Lucille Ball.
Lane's daughter is rock singer
Robin Lane of "Robin Lane and the Chartbusters."
Ken Lane also has a son, his name is (Christopher Kit Lane).
Lane died of
emphysema in
Lake Tahoe,
California.
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