Charles Randolph Grean

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Charles Randolph Grean (October 1, 1913 – December 20, 2003) was a producer and composer. His first work was as a copyist in several big bands, including Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Charlie Spivak. He worked at RCA Victor Records under Steve Sholes[1], producing country & western recordings by such artists as Eddy Arnold, Pee Wee King, the Sons of the Pioneers, Texas Jim Robertson, and Elton Britt[2]. He was the arranger for the Nat King Cole recording of The Christmas Song. In 1950, he wrote "The Thing," a popular song which reached #1 on the charts in a version sung by Phil Harris. The same year he became the head of A&R at RCA Victor Records, passing over his previous superior, Sholes. He later produced the album Leonard Nimoy presents Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space in addition to writing many of the songs. He composed Nimoy's "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" and Betty Johnson's hits "I Dreamed" and "The Little Blue Man." He also produced the Mills Brothers' late '60s album Fortuosity, which yielded the hit "Cab Driver." In 1969 he reached the charts as a performer, with his group, the Charles Randolph Grean Sounde, doing a version of Robert Cobert's Quentin's Theme for Dark Shadows. He was married four times, once to one of the Paris Sisters and once to Betty Johnson, but although the marriage to Johnson was short-lived, the professional relationship continued. He died from natural causes at age 90. [3]

One of Grean's compositions became a focus of litigation in 1958 in the case Dorchester Music v. National Broadcasting Company [171 F. Supp. 580 (S.D. Cal. 1959)][4]. Fred Spielman, who had composed the song "Rendezvous" in 1953, charged that Grean had plagiarized from his song in writing "I Dreamed," using the access he had as A&R director to the original manuscripts when "Rendezvous" was submitted to RCA for recording. (No charge was made with reference to the lyrics.) The court found in favor of the plaintiff on November 18, 1958.

See Leonard Nimoy discography

[edit] External references

  1. ^ Biography of Charles Grean by Mike Streissguth
  2. ^ Biography of Betty Johnson by Mike Streissguth
  3. ^ Obituary of Charles Randolph Grean
  4. ^ Summary of the court case
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