Ralph Peer
Encyclopedia
Ralph Sylvester Peer was an American talent scout, recording engineer and record producer
in the field of music
in the 1920s and 1930s. Peer pioneered remote recording
of music when in June 1923 he took remote recording equipment south to Atlanta, Georgia
to record regional music outside the recording studio in such places as hotel rooms, ballrooms, or empty warehouses.
, spent some years working for Columbia Records
, in Kansas City, Missouri
until 1920 when he was hired as recording director of General Phonograph's OKeh Records
label in New York. In the same year he supervised the recording of Mamie Smith
's "Crazy Blues", reputed to be the first blues
recording specifically aimed at the African-American market. In 1924 he supervised the first commercial recording session in New Orleans, Louisiana
, recording jazz
, blues, and gospel music
groups there.
He is also credited with what is often called the first country music
recording, Fiddlin' John Carson
's "Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane"/"That Old Hen Cackled and The Rooster's Goin' To Crow". In August 1927, while talent hunting in the southern states with Victor Records he recorded both Jimmie Rodgers
and the Carter Family
in the same session at a makeshift studio in Bristol, Tennessee
, known as the Bristol Sessions
. This momentous event could be described as the genesis of country music as we know it today. Rodgers, who later became known as the Father Of Country Music, cut "The Soldier's Sweetheart" and "Sleep, Baby, Sleep", while the Carters' first sides included "Single Girl, Married Girl".
In his autobiography, Nathaniel Shilkret
, Manager of the Victor's Foreign Department from about 1920 through 1926 and then Director of Light Music until 1933, notes that about a year after he hired Peer, Peer asked for a raised, which Shilkret approved. Shilkret comments on Peer's business acumen in making a very profitable trade for this raise: "[Victor executive] Walter Clark met Peer, who sold Clark an idea. No raise, but a royalty of one cent per record side that he would divide with the artist.... When I heard of this I was stunned. No one on the musical staff had been offered royalty for his arrangements or compositions, and here was a man collecting royalties with other men's compositions!"
Peer went on to publish and record other country and jazz artists and songs through his company Southern Music Publishing Company. Fats Waller
, Jelly Roll Morton
, Louis Armstrong
and Count Basie
were on Southern's roster. Then into popular music
with songs such as Hoagy Carmichael
and Stuart Gorrell
's "Georgia On My Mind".
The company became very successful and influential in the 1930s. It hit the big time through Peer's introducing Central America
n music to the world and in 1940 there came another watershed (???) when the dispute between the ASCAP and US radio stations led to the inauguration of the rival Broadcast Music Incorporated
(BMI). BMI supported music by blues, country and hillbilly
artists, and Peer, through his Peer-International company, soon contributed a major part of BMI's catalogue.
During and after World War II
Peer published songs such as "Deep In The Heart Of Texas " and "You Are My Sunshine
" (sung by Jimmie Davis
, covered by Bing Crosby
and many others), "Humpty Dumpty Heart" (Glenn Miller
), "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
" (Russ Morgan
), "The Three Caballeros
" ( Andrews Sisters), "Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There" (Deanna Durbin
), "I Should Care" and "The Coffee Song" (both Frank Sinatra
). In 1945, he published Jean Villard Gilles
and Bert Reisfeld
's composition "Les trois cloches
" ("The Three Bells"), which was recorded by The Browns
.
In the 1950s Peer published "Mockingbird Hill", a million seller for Patti Page
, "Sway
" ( Dean Martin
and Bobby Rydell
), and the novelty "I Know An Old Lady" (Burl Ives
). Then came rock 'n' roll
and Southern published hits by Buddy Holly
, Little Richard
, The Big Bopper
and The Platters
.
Starting in the late 1940s he took an avid interest in horticulture, growing, and becoming an expert on, camellia
s. He died in Hollywood in 1960. His widow, Monique Iversen Peer became the active president of the then called Peer-Southern Organisation. Their son, Ralph Peer, II joined the firm in the late 60s and became CEO in 1980. He died in Hollywood, California.
Peer was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
in the field of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
in the 1920s and 1930s. Peer pioneered remote recording
Remote recording
Remote recording, also known as location recording, is the act of making a high-quality complex audio recording of a live concert performance, or any other location recording that uses multitrack recording techniques outside of a recording studio. The multitrack recording is then carefully mixed,...
of music when in June 1923 he took remote recording equipment south to Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
to record regional music outside the recording studio in such places as hotel rooms, ballrooms, or empty warehouses.
Career
Peer, born in Independence, MissouriIndependence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
, spent some years working for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
until 1920 when he was hired as recording director of General Phonograph's OKeh Records
Okeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
label in New York. In the same year he supervised the recording of Mamie Smith
Mamie Smith
-External links:* African American Registry* with photos* with .ram files of her early recordings* NPR special on the selection on "Crazy Blues" to the 2005...
's "Crazy Blues", reputed to be the first blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
recording specifically aimed at the African-American market. In 1924 he supervised the first commercial recording session in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, recording jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues, and gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
groups there.
He is also credited with what is often called the first country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
recording, Fiddlin' John Carson
Fiddlin' John Carson
Fiddlin' John Carson was an American old time fiddler and an early-recorded country musician.-Early life:...
's "Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane"/"That Old Hen Cackled and The Rooster's Goin' To Crow". In August 1927, while talent hunting in the southern states with Victor Records he recorded both Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
and the Carter Family
Carter Family
The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. They were the first vocal group to become country...
in the same session at a makeshift studio in Bristol, Tennessee
Bristol, Tennessee
Bristol is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The boundaries of both cities run parallel to each other along State...
, known as the Bristol Sessions
Bristol sessions
The Bristol sessions are considered the "Big Bang" of modern country music. They were held in 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee by Victor Talking Machine Company company producer Ralph Peer. They marked the commercial debuts of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family....
. This momentous event could be described as the genesis of country music as we know it today. Rodgers, who later became known as the Father Of Country Music, cut "The Soldier's Sweetheart" and "Sleep, Baby, Sleep", while the Carters' first sides included "Single Girl, Married Girl".
In his autobiography, Nathaniel Shilkret
Nathaniel Shilkret
Nathaniel Shilkret was an American composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, business executive, and music director born in New York City, New York to an Austrian immigrant family.-Early career:...
, Manager of the Victor's Foreign Department from about 1920 through 1926 and then Director of Light Music until 1933, notes that about a year after he hired Peer, Peer asked for a raised, which Shilkret approved. Shilkret comments on Peer's business acumen in making a very profitable trade for this raise: "[Victor executive] Walter Clark met Peer, who sold Clark an idea. No raise, but a royalty of one cent per record side that he would divide with the artist.... When I heard of this I was stunned. No one on the musical staff had been offered royalty for his arrangements or compositions, and here was a man collecting royalties with other men's compositions!"
Peer went on to publish and record other country and jazz artists and songs through his company Southern Music Publishing Company. Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
, Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
and Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
were on Southern's roster. Then into popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
with songs such as Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael
Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
and Stuart Gorrell
Stuart Gorrell
Stuart Graham Steven Gorrell is best known for writing the lyrics for the song Georgia on My Mind.Gorrell attended Indiana University; there he became friends with fellow student Hoagy Carmichael...
's "Georgia On My Mind".
The company became very successful and influential in the 1930s. It hit the big time through Peer's introducing Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
n music to the world and in 1940 there came another watershed (???) when the dispute between the ASCAP and US radio stations led to the inauguration of the rival Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
(BMI). BMI supported music by blues, country and hillbilly
Hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...
artists, and Peer, through his Peer-International company, soon contributed a major part of BMI's catalogue.
During and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Peer published songs such as "Deep In The Heart Of Texas " and "You Are My Sunshine
You Are My Sunshine
"You Are My Sunshine" is a popular song first recorded in 1939. It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana as a result of its association with former state governor and country music singer Jimmie Davis. The song is copyright 1940 Peer International Corporation, words and music by...
" (sung by Jimmie Davis
Jimmie Davis
James Houston Davis , better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana...
, covered by Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
and many others), "Humpty Dumpty Heart" (Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
), "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You
"You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You" is a popular song written by Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, and James Cavanaugh and published in 1944.The song was first recorded by Morgan and has been covered by numerous artists...
" (Russ Morgan
Russ Morgan
Russ Morgan was a big band orchestra leader and musical arranger in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life:...
), "The Three Caballeros
The Three Caballeros
The Three Caballeros is a 1944 American animated feature film, produced by Walt Disney and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on February 3, 1945...
" ( Andrews Sisters), "Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There" (Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....
), "I Should Care" and "The Coffee Song" (both Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
). In 1945, he published Jean Villard Gilles
Jean Villard Gilles
Jean Villard a.k.a. Gilles, was born on June 2, 1895 in Montreux , and died on March 26, 1982 in Vevey, next to his vineyard village of residence Saint-Saphorin that is reputed for its quality Swiss white wine.- Biography :...
and Bert Reisfeld
Bert Reisfeld
Bert Reisfeld was a lyricist, noted for adapting lyrics to well-known songs either to or from English. The songs he wrote English lyrics for include:...
's composition "Les trois cloches
Les trois cloches
"Les trois cloches" was a Swiss song written by Jean Villard Gilles written in French. Edith Piaf and Les Compagnons de la chanson started their US-Tour in 1945/46 with this song, which was one of Ms. Piaf's greatest hits...
" ("The Three Bells"), which was recorded by The Browns
The Browns
The Browns were an American country and folk music vocal trio best known for their 1959 Grammy-nominated hit, "The Three Bells". The group, composed of Jim Ed Brown and his sisters Maxine and Bonnie Brown, had a close, smooth harmony characteristic of the Nashville sound, though their music also...
.
In the 1950s Peer published "Mockingbird Hill", a million seller for Patti Page
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...
, "Sway
Sway (song)
"Sway" is the English version of "¿Quién será?", a 1953 mambo song by Mexican composer and bandleader Pablo Beltrán Ruiz. The most famous version is that of Dean Martin recorded in 1954. English lyrics are by Norman Gimbel...
" ( Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Bobby Rydell
Bobby Rydell
Bobby Rydell is an American professional singer, mainly of rock and roll music. In the early 1960s he was considered a so-called "teen idol"...
), and the novelty "I Know An Old Lady" (Burl Ives
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
). Then came rock 'n' roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
and Southern published hits by Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
, Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, The Big Bopper
The Big Bopper
Jiles Perry "J. P." Richardson, Jr. also commonly known as The Big Bopper, was an American disc jockey, singer, and songwriter whose big voice and exuberant personality made him an early rock and roll star...
and The Platters
The Platters
The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...
.
Starting in the late 1940s he took an avid interest in horticulture, growing, and becoming an expert on, camellia
Camellia
Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Korea and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number...
s. He died in Hollywood in 1960. His widow, Monique Iversen Peer became the active president of the then called Peer-Southern Organisation. Their son, Ralph Peer, II joined the firm in the late 60s and became CEO in 1980. He died in Hollywood, California.
Peer was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.
External links
- Ralph Peer Biography
- Ralph Peer's account of his work with Jimmie Rodgers
- Peermusic.com the current incarnation of the company started by Ralph S. Peer and now run by Ralph I. Peer II
- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carterfamily/peopleevents/p_peer.html
- [ Allmusic]
- Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum