Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music, Inc. (sometimes referred to as Hecht-Lancaster-Buzzell Music Publishing, and later known as Hecht & Buzzell Music, Inc. and Colby Music, Inc.) was an American music publishing company founded by film producer Harold Hecht, his brother-in-law Loring Buzzell, and Hecht's business partner, actor/producer Burt Lancaster."Buzzell Ties with Hecht & Lancaster". Billboard, March 16, 1957. p. 8.
Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music was solely associated with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). The three partners also founded the music publishing company Calyork Music, Inc. (sometimes referred to as Calyork Music Corporation or Calyork Music Publishing), which was solely associated with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI).
Hecht, Lancaster, and Buzzell also briefly operated their own record labels, Calyork Records and Maine Records, which were active in the late 1950s. Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music, Calyork Music, Calyork Records, and Maine Records were divisions of Hecht and Lancaster's film production corporation Norma Productions.
Compositions published by Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music and Calyork Music have been recorded by dozens of artists and have in turn been released by such record labels as Columbia Records, Warner Bros. Records, MGM Records, ABC-Paramount Records, Capitol Records, London Records, United Artists Records, Decca Records, Mercury Records, RCA Victor Records, Jubilee Records, Coral Records, Top Rank Records, Date Records, Kapp Records, Apollo Records, Everest Records and Cabot Records; as well as their own imprints Calyork Records and Maine Records.
History Origin, Cromwell Music association, and Leigh Music
Following World War II, Hollywood's Golden Age started to fade. After a 1948 ruling that major studios could no longer own theater houses and thereby monopolize production, distribution, and exhibition, things changed greatly."Pic Industry in Wholesale Climb on Indie Bandwagon". Billboard, November 25, 1957. p. 28. More room was awarded to independent producers, and fewer relied on long-term deals with major studios. Talent agent Harold Hecht and actor Burt Lancaster formed Norma Productions, a film production company, in the summer of 1947. But income in the movie business box office, although far from poor, continued to dwindle, because of stiff competition from radio and television. By the mid-1950s most households owned a television, and the producers who could afford it started producing shows for that market. A similar situation was happening in the music business, as most households owned at least one phonograph. All the major studios either bought out existing record labels or started their own. The studios also began exploiting the soundtrack album, which had before then mostly been an M-G-M musical fad, but caught on with all types of films in the mid-1950s.
In January 1955, Hecht-Lancaster Productions, by then the leading independent film production unit in Hollywood, announced that it was extending its operations into music publishing, entering into a partnership with Howie Richmond's Cromwell Music, Inc. company."Hecht-Lancaster Expanding into Stage, Music Projects", Motion Picture Daily, January 5 1955. p. 1."Pic Industry in Wholesale Climb on Indie Bandwagon". Billboard November 25, 1957, p28] The contacts were made through Loring Bruce Buzzell, Hecht's brother-in-law (the brother of his first wife, Gloria Joyce Buzzell), who worked for Richmond at Cromwell Music. Loring and Gloria's father, Samuel Jesse Buzzell, had been a music patent attorney, and their uncle, Edward Buzzell, was a successful film director."Marriages", Variety, November 5 1947, p56 Both Hecht and Buzzell had worked for Irving Mills' Mills Music, Inc. company earlier in their careers.The Billboard. November 15, 1947. p. 67."Heart Attack Fells Buzzell". Billboard, October 26, 1959. p. 16] Buzzell was also a field man for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and in July 1954 married singer Lu Ann Simms (née Lu Ann Ciminelli), who got her big break performing on the Arthur Godfrey show and had since then released a series of successful singles through Columbia Records."I Never Make My Beds", Life January 9 1956, p57"Music as Written". Billboard, May 1, 1954. p. 20.
Hecht-Lancaster Productions first published the music from their film Marty in April and June 1955 through Cromwell Music.Catalog of Copyright Entries 1955 Music, 1955Catalog of Copyright Entries 1955 Music, 1955 This gave way for a series of interpretations by various artists of Marty'''s theme song."Reviews of New Pop Records". Billboard, May 7, 1955. p. 44.. Billboard, May 21, 1955. p. 52."Reviews of New Pop Records". Billboard, June 4, 1955. p. 34."Reviews of New Pop Records", Billboard, June 4 1955, p36 Hecht-Lancaster Productions' next film soundtrack, The Kentuckian, composed by Bernard Herrmann, was published through Frank Loesser's publishing company, Frank Music, Inc."Hecht-Lancaster Expanding into Stage, Music Projects". Motion Picture Daily, January 5, 1955. p. 1] It is unknown what kind of deal Hecht and Lancaster worked out with Frank Loesser, or if Herrmann had a publishing deal directly with Loesser.
In June 1956, it was announced that Hecht, Lancaster, and Buzzell had formed their own music publishing company, Leigh Music, Inc., which would be co-publishing music from their 1956 film Trapeze with Cromwell Music. The name of the company was based on Buzzell's daughter Cynthia Leigh Buzzell (Hecht and Lancaster frequently named their companies after their children). On July 6, 1956, the title song, Trapeze, was co-published through Cromwell Music and Leigh Music. By the second song co-published, Lola's Theme, on August 24, 1956, Leigh Music had been renamed Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music, Inc.Calatog of Copyright Entries, Music, 1956Calatog of Copyright Entries, Music, 1956 The new company was listed under the same address as Cromwell Music: 151 West 46th Street, New York City.Catalog of Copyright Entries 1956 Music, 1956, p890 Lola's Theme also received various interpretations and singles."Review Spotlight on", Billboard, July 14 1956, p36"Special Release", Billboard, July 14 1956, p32"Coming Up Strong", Billboard, July 21 1956, p38
In mid-July 1956, the Hollywood-based Record Releasing Corporation approached Hecht-Lancaster Productions regarding a music deal, though no information surfaced as to future plans."Releasing Co. Set on Romano Disks, Albums", Billboard July 21 1956, p23
Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music and Calyork Music publishing companies The new company remained silent for the next six months, until a press announcement was made in March 1957. By then, Hecht-Lancaster Productions had made James Hill a full partner in the company and changed its name to Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions, which was a subsidiary of Norma Productions, but Hill was not included in the music venture. The announcement revealed that Harold Hecht, Loring Buzzell and Burt Lancaster had formed a publishing company with plans to publish the scores of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions films and non-film-related pop music.
Two separate publishing firms were announced in the March 1957 press release. Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music, Inc. was to be solely associated with ASCAP, while Calyork Music, Inc. was to work exclusively with BMI (Calyork Music's CAE/IPI number is 4901911). The name Calyork was a combination of California, where Hecht and Lancaster were based, and New York, where Buzzell was based and where Hecht and Lancaster were originally from. The partners intended to alter between the companies for each release, starting with the soundtrack to Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions' The Bachelor Party through Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell, and then the soundtrack to Sweet Smell of Success through Calyork. Both Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music and Calyork Music were under the umbrella of Norma Productions.
In the summer of 1957, Howie Richmond announced that he was interested in acquiring overseas distribution of the Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell soundtracks."Global Sweep". Billboard, July 1, 1957. p. 62.
Notable releases and success The soundtrack to Hecht-Lancaster Productions' film Trapeze was released by Columbia Records in June 1956 (catalog CL 870), to a degree of success."Columbia Best-Selling Records", Billboard, June 9 1956, p41"Columbia Best-Selling Records", Billboard, June 23 1956, p44 But it was the film's and soundtrack LP's theme song, Lola's Theme, that became a radio favorite. It spanned three successful singles interpreted by different bands; in June 1956 Columbia Records released a Muir Mathieson Orchestra version featuring Lola's Theme on the A-side and Mike and Lola's Love Theme on the B-side (catalog Columbia 40725). This was followed in July by a Coral Records release of Steve Allen's version featuring Lola's Theme on the A-side and Conversation (on the Telephone) on the B-side (catalog Coral 61681). Later that same month, a third single was released by Mercury Records of Ralph Marterie and His Orchestra's version featuring Lola's Theme on the A-side and Yes Sir, That's My Baby on the B-side (catalog Mercury 70197).
Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music and Calyork Music went on to publish songs for every future Norma Productions (and its subsidiary companies) films. Their films include The Bachelor Party and Sweet Smell of Success in 1957, Run Silent, Run Deep and Separate Tables (which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) in 1958, Cry Tough, The Rabbit Trap, Take a Giant Step and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in 1959 and finally, The Unforgiven in 1960.
It is now practically impossible to know all of the various interpretations of songs copyrighted and published by Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music and Calyork Music, as some may only have been performed live with no documentation, others may have been recorded but not released, while others may have been recorded and released but did not chart. However, most of the movie soundtracks have been well discussed, even in negative criticism. The company's first official single, the theme song from The Bachelor Party, was composed and performed by Alex North but was not successful."Pop Charts". Billboard, April 27, 1957. p. 56. Theme Song from The Bachelor Party appeared on the B-side of an RCA Victor Records 7" showcasing Alex North's theme for Playhouse 90 on the A-side (catalog Victor 6896).