THE DOMINO EFFECT
by Crawford Anderson

In this age of high-tech globally franchised pop it is difficult to envisage a time when the record industry was run along simpler lines. Back in the mid-50s, the supremacy of major labels began to be challenged by dozens of small independents which were more attuned to the tastes and needs of the teenage consumer than the hidebound majors. This was especially true in the field of R&B/rock'n'roll which between 1953 and 1959 witnessed an unparalleled scale of activity as innumerable aspiring entrepreneurs vied for a roll of the dice in the back street lottery that was the independent record game.

Rock'n'roll hysteria was at its peak in 1957 when 11 genteel men and women from the professional classes pooled their resources to form the Domino label in Austin, Texas, the state capital and home to the University of Texas. The 11 had met at a YWCA seminar titled 'How To Market A Song' taught by Jane Bowers, a local songwriter with a couple of hits to her credit. As the course progressed, the class members who were not especially opportunistic or ambitious, merely curious, formed a consortium and launched Domino Records and an affiliated song publishing company, Balcones Music.

In 1957, Domino signed the Spades, a white vocal group who were to become its principal act. Two of the group were songwriters and herein lay the key to whatever success Domino was destined to achieve. Joyce Webb, a 17 year-old vocalist (who went on to enjoy a long career), was also signed.

The Spades' first release, You Mean Everything To Me, written by group member Tommy Kaspar, was recorded at the same session as Joyce Webb's debut disc, Right Here, and both featured the blind teenage prodigy Bobby Doyle standing in on bass. Before long, Domino began receiving enquiries from larger labels wishing to purchase the Spades' master which was leased to Liberty Records in Hollywood for a sum of $600, although Domino wisely retained the publishing rights through Balcones Music.

Initial Liberty pressings of Baby / You Mean Everything To Me continued to credit the Spades but following feedback from politically sensitive radio stations, it was re-pressed as by the Slades, a name-change the group learned about only after the event. Their follow-up You Cheated, penned by group leader Don Burch, was originally the B-side of The Waddle, a driving dance number. Out in LA, a distributor frustrated in his efforts to lay his hands on the Slades' disc encouraged a local record producer named George Motola to produce a cover version of You Cheated by underwriting the venture with an advance order of 2000 copies and within a few days Motola had produced a duplicate using a black studio group cunningly christened the Shields to confuse the market. The master was sold to Dot Records and competed with the Slades original for Top 40 honours although, as publishers of the song, Domino profited from both recordings.

Having enjoyed a heady spell in the limelight through the summer of 1958, Domino was now faced with the uncertainties involved in maintaining its stride in a notoriously fickle business. They signed rockabilly singer Ray Campi and assigned him to write and produce the Slades' follow-up, You Gambled. Billboard made it one of its coveted Hit Pics, an accolade that had the folks at Domino celebrating. In the event, You Gambled failed to make it partly because Domino lacked the resources to compete in a marketplace that depended as much upon financial inducements and chicanery as the quality of the product. The fact that the Slades regarded their pop career as little more than a pleasant diversion from their academic objectives couldn't have helped. Campi's tenure at Domino did not extend beyond a few months (though he did get to cut the tremulous rocker My Screamin' Screamin' Mimi) and, by 1959 as successive releases failed to make an impression, Domino began to feel the pinch.

In the middle of this trough came an unexpected turn of events which resulted in another windfall in publishing royalties. The Fleetwoods, a soft harmony trio based in Washington State who had notched up a US #1 with Come Softly To Me, recorded You Mean Everything To Me as the B-side of Mr Blue the group's second #1. As publishing royalties are equal for both sides of a hit, Balcones Music was assured a sum in the region of $10,000 - a substantial figure in 1959.

By 1960 most of the original partners had departed and the three that remained - all women - launched a new series with interesting fare by the sassy Joyce Harris and an R&B group, The Daylighters, whose leader, Clarence Smith, later changed his name to Sonny Rhodes and carved out a successful career in the blues field.

This release is The Last Picture Show set to music and it comes with a lavish 20-page booklet containing rare photos and a 5000 plus word essay by Rob Finnis.