Tears of Sorrow - The Primettes

[marybrewster]

I was looking at Wiki and songwriter credit for "Tears of Sorrow" was given to Florence Ballard, "Diane" Ross, and Richard Morris, yet when you look at the actual 45 credit, it only lists Morris.

I know Wiki is not the definitive source, but wondering why that might be stated? I'd never heard of any Supreme getting writing credit while in the group, so I found this of interest. Perhaps they arranged the background and someone felt they should get credit? Further reading indicates that Diana herself has said that she helped write the song, so I wonder why no proper credit was given if that's the case?

[RanRan79]

Mary I first noticed the writing credit in the Supremes lost and found. The writing credit for the Motown re-recording went to Flo, Diana and Morris. I can't recall if Mary was listed or not. It's an odd factoid to say the least. Hopefully someone can shed more light on what was up with this. I've never read or heard either Florence or Diana say they helped Richard Morris write this song.

[TomatoTom123]

Don't Forget The Motor City has the song as just being written by Richard Morris


Tears Of Sorrow [[Richard Morris) published LuPine
The Primettes; recorded Sep-60
1964; 45 [[M): LuPine LR120 A
29-Aug-00; CD [[M): Motown 159 415 2 The Supremes
The Supremes; recording details unknown
25-Mar-08; CD [[M): Hip-O Select B0003263-02 Let The Music Play: Supreme Rarities

http://www.dftmc.info/titles/tt-02.htm

[reese]

In her book SECRETS OF A SPARROW, Diana said the girls tried writing their own song, which was TEARS OF SORROW.

After reading that, I just assumed that maybe Richard Morris helped polish the song, then took sole credit, which happened a lot back then.

[robb_k]

In her book SECRETS OF A SPARROW, Diana said the girls tried writing their own song, which was TEARS OF SORROW.

After reading that, I just assumed that maybe Richard Morris helped polish the song, then took sole credit, which happened a lot back then.
13754
Yes. New singers that wanted to be recorded to get on the radio to help them get personal appearances in nightclubs, brought their own songs to producers, and regularly gave up the songwriting credits to get songs recorded and records pressed, released and distributed. Robert West, owner of LuPine Records, often allowed his producers [[Rich Morris, in this case) to get full writing credit for "polishing up" beginning singers' or groups' songs. BMI shows only Morris as writer, and the record only had Morris with credits.

[reese]

13754
Yes. New singers that wanted to be recorded to get on the radio to help them get personal appearances in nightclubs, brought their own songs to producers, and regularly gave up the songwriting credits to get songs recorded and records pressed, released and distributed. Robert West, owner of LuPine Records, often allowed his producers [[Rich Morris, in this case) to get full writing credit for "polishing up" beginning singers' or groups' songs. BMI shows only Morris as writer, and the record only had Morris with credits.

Ironically, even though Diana says the girls wrote the song, in the credits of her book, she had to credit Richard Morris for the composition since his name is on the copyright.

[marv2]

13754
Yes. New singers that wanted to be recorded to get on the radio to help them get personal appearances in nightclubs, brought their own songs to producers, and regularly gave up the songwriting credits to get songs recorded and records pressed, released and distributed. Robert West, owner of LuPine Records, often allowed his producers [[Rich Morris, in this case) to get full writing credit for "polishing up" beginning singers' or groups' songs. BMI shows only Morris as writer, and the record only had Morris with credits.

I've heard of that practice being employed quite a bit. Thanks Robb.

[milven]

Oddly enough, when Diana did a remake of WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE, it opened up a can of worms about its writing credits. The song was making money again, but Herman Saniago, the original lead singer of THE TEENAGERS, was not getting paid .

Herman Santiago, lead singer of The Teenagers, wrote the song, but writing credits kept changing and he also was made to give up the lead on the song that he had written. All subsequent songs by The Teenagers had Frankie Lymon as lead and the name of the group was changed to Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. [[Hmmm. Sound familiar?)

When Diana did a remake of the song, the Santiago and his co-writer brought the case to court and eventually won. But that case was eventually overturned and today the credits say Levy and Lymon. Morris Levy owned Roulette Records and added his name to the song even though it was written long before he bought the master from Gee.

From Wikopedia
In late 1955, The Teenagers [[at that time calling themselves The Premiers) auditioned a song called "Why do Birds Sing So Gay?" for George Goldner, recording producer and owner of Gee Records. Herman Santiago, tenor of the group, had written the song based on a line from some love letters given to the guys by a tenant in bassist Sherman Garnes' apartment building. One of them featured the words "Why do birds sing so gay?," which fit in with lyrics of other songs that Herman had been writing based on a 1-6-2-5 chord pattern. So Herman worked with it, creating a song for Herman Santiago to lead, and adjusting the harmony to take advantage of Frankie Lymon's high tenor/soprano. Along the way, Herman changed some of the lyrics. During the audition Frankie's voice stood out and, at Goldner's suggestion, the lead in subsequent recording sessions was given to Frankie. Frankie did some improvising and re-created the melody to match his own style. According to Jimmy Merchant, what happened at the recording session was a combination of "Frankie's singing ability coupled with George Goldner's special ability to bring out the best in Frankie."

Although early vinyl single releases of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" credit Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago, and George Goldner as co-writers of the song, later releases and cover versions were attributed only to Lymon and record producer George Goldner. Goldner's name was later replaced by Morris Levy when Levy bought Goldner's interest in Gee Records, the Teenagers' record company.

After a lengthy court battle, songwriting credits were awarded to original Teenagers members Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant in December 1992.

However, in 1996, this ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit under the statute of limitations and authorship, because Santiago and Merchant did not bring the case to court soon enough. This gave the song rights back to Lymon and Levy. The current publisher of the song is EMI Music Publishing, which still lists these as the songwriters.