Morris Levy
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Morris Levy (August 27,1927 – May 21,1990) was an American music industry executive, who is best known as the owner of the record label Roulette Records. He was born Moishe Levy in The Bronx, New York City, New York, and generally known as Morrie Levy to insiders in the industry.
After leaving the Navy he became the proprietor of numerous night clubs in New York at the dawn of the bebop movement in the late 1940's -- the most famous of which was Birdland, which Levy allegedly took over from Joseph "Joe the Wop" Catalano in 1949.
During this time Levy learned the value of owning the publishing rights of a piece of music - as each time a song he owned was performed or played he was entitled to royalties. As a result he founded his first publishing company, Patricia Music, and commissioned George Shearing to write a signature piece for the club - the now-famous "Lullaby of Birdland".
He founded Roulette Records in 1956, where he began his alleged practice of claiming authorship on many early songs of the rock-and-roll era that he did not have a hand in composing. A notable case is the song "Why Do Fools Fall In Love", originally recorded by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, which is presumed to have been wholly written by lead singer Frankie Lymon. Other questionable 1960s Levy compositions included Lee Dorsey's "Ya-Ya," Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop," and The Rivieras' "California Sun."
Levy quickly became one of the wealthiest executives in the record business, and handled distribution on many major labels in addition to his own companies. His empire included several record-pressing and tape-duplicating plants, printing presses, and other ventures, some of which authorities suspected may have been used for making pirated records or "back-door" copies of legitimate albums, distributed outside normal channels. His reputation for being a tough negotiator was legendary; the Hollies 1966 hit song "Stop! Stop! Stop!" recounts a meeting the group had with Levy to leave Imperial Records for Roulette -- a move they decided not to make, after a nightmarish meeting with him at a New Jersey nightclub.
In the mid-1970s Levy filed a much-publicised lawsuit against John Lennon for appropriating a line from the Chuck Berry song, "You Can't Catch Me" (for which Levy owned the publishing rights) in The Beatles' song "Come Together." Lennon ultimately settled with Levy by agreeing to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue during the sessions for his 1975 LP Rock & Roll, co-produced with Phil Spector. This album was marred by Levy's impatience for Lennon to record the songs, culminating in Levy releasing an unauthorized collection, Roots, which Lennon was eventually able to pull off the market.
Levy sold Roulette Records and his publishing rights for an estimated $55 million. Although investigations into his affairs began in the early 1950s, it was not until 1986 that law officials caught up with Levy. He was tried and convicted on charges of extortion but died in Ghent, New York before serving any time in prison.
