Audio Autopsy, 1970-1986: A Little Bit of Pop--Paul Davis and the Promising Career That Simply Wouldn't...Until "Today"
Easy, melodic pop was the hallmark of the short, tuneful Davis canon. While getting that occasional rock hit, he made a sudden turn to Nashville where Marie Osmond proved he was a little bit country.
Clearly gifted, Paul Davis, instead of moving to Hollywood from his Meridian, Mississippi birthplace (where his father was a preacher), stayed true to his southern roots and took his evident songwriting talents to Memphis in 1968. He was 20.
The eventual 2010 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee left behind a glittering collection of beautifully-crafted songs—delivered with an effortless tenor—many of which became hits.
With all his natural talents, he could’ve been huge…he should be on our lips and have a dedicated Sirius/XM satellite radio station. So, why wasn’t he Billy Joel? Why didn’t he become Neil Diamond (who left Bang Records, Paul’s first label, a year before Davis signed)?
Interestingly (and certainly not by accident), the man who headed up the label (Columbia Records) who sprung Joel and Diamond into the stratosphere in the ‘70s, came to the rescue at one point: Clive Davis (no relation) signed Paul to his Arista Records for one last album in 1981, hoping to “airlift” the singer/songwriter from tiny label oblivion. True to Clive, three relative hits emerged, but…..(and, it was a big but)….
By that time, Paul Davis had grown disillusioned with the whole star-maker machinery grind, and wondered if there might be some other way to utilize his unique talents.
Side 1: Pop and Circumstance
After banging around with a couple of Meridian mid-’60s cover bands, Davis moved to Jackson, Mississippi in 1968, and landed a songwriting gig with the independent Malaco Records and their affiliated publisher.
The label was the early home of some major blues, Gospel and R&B acts, such as Bobby “Blue” Bland, Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, and Tyrone Davis.
Tapes of Paul Davis’s fully-produced demo work at Malaco have recently emerged, and the seeds of his eventual work are clearly evident, particularly in the gripping chord changes and pure pop sensibilities, including “Now and Forever More”:
…and, “I Know a Place”:
Paul got his first break in 1969, when he was signed by Ilene Berns to Bang Records as a recording artist. Ilene, 26 when she signed Paul, was basically running Bang, which was co-founded by her husband, Bert, who died of heart failure in ‘67.
Bert was the “B” in Bang, with fellow founders, Atlantic Records execs Ahmet Ertegun, Nesuhi Ertegun, and Gerald (Jerry) Wexler providing their initials for the label’s acronymic name. Each, especially the Ertegun brothers and Wexler, are as highly-regarded and established as ground-breaking record execs for Atlantic (and the WEA corporate monolith) as Clive was for Columbia and Arista.
The first couple years of Bang’s existence (1965-66), they were distributed by Atlantic, but had become independent by Davis’s signing. In 1979, Columbia Records had reared its corporate head (again) and purchased Bang Records!
A Little Bit of Paul Davis
Paul’s debut Bang album, A Little Bit of Paul Davis, was released in 1970, as was his first single (with Ilene Berns dutifully keeping the publishing in the family), a cover (produced by Davis) of The Jarmels’ 1961 hit, “A Little Bit of Soap” (#1 on the chronological Playlist above) written by her recently-deceased husband, Bert. Where the original made it to #12 on the charts nine years previous, Davis’s peaked at #52 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Paul’s second album, the self-titled Paul Davis (released in December 1973), featured just one single, the autobiographical, “Boogie Woogie Man.” It managed to make it to #68 on the chart. Judging by his lyrics, it seems Paul was slowly discovering the “game” and how it should be played:
Sample lyrics:
Get yourself a crew cut
Your hair’s too long
I hear it over and over
And over againEverybody's telling me
What I oughta beWhy can't everybody see
I just wanna be
A boogie woogie man
Do the best that I can
To make a living
By giving my songs
Yeah, a boogie woogie man.
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