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| Don Addrisi |
| Born: 12-14-1938 Died: 11-11-1984 a victim of cancer... |
| Don, along with baby brother Richard, were seasoned performers by their early teens. Joining their parents on the road, mom and pop were the "Flying Addrisis," a famous traveling trapeze act from Boston, the boys sang and played their way across America. By 1957 the family had relocated to Los Angeles, to further the boys careers. Their act gained local exposure and Don boasted that "we became the youngest act to ever work in Las Vegas." This noteriety brought them to the attention of record mogul Bob Keane. Keane and his label Del Phi Records signed the boys to a contract in 1959. Don wrote their first hit "Cherrystone" which peaked at #-62 that year. That year also marked their first appearance on "American Bandstand." After a handful of singles on Del Phi, most notably "Saving My Kisses," the boys parted ways with Keane. Over the next few years Dick and Don had unsuccessful releases on Imperial, Pom Pom, and Warner Bros. records. All the while they were perfecting their songwriting abilities and hoping for bigger success. An introduction to Hollywood-based music publishers Barry DeVorzon & Billy Sherman, who also owned the Valiant record label, led to a $25.00 a week job as in-house songwriters. "While at Valiant, we wrote with other writers such as Perry Botkin Jr. (later a famous arranger of many pop hits), Bodie Chandler, and Shelby Flint," boasted Don. 1965 was their breakthrough year. Charles Boyer recorded Don's song "Where Does Love Go" as a spoken word piece. "The song was originally nominated for a grammy in the spoken word category that year, but the nomination was withdrawn because there was some singing on the record," Don said. By 1966 the brothers were firmly entrenched in Valiant Records as songwriters and also as talent scouts. During an open audition the label signed a fledgling group as its latest bid for a desperately needed hit. The group, The Association, scored a top ten hit with "Along Comes Mary." Their next single, "Cherish," went to #-1 for three weeks and the b-side was an Addrisi brothers tune "Don't Blame It On Me." The brothers were even luckier the next year when The Association recorded "Never My Love." "Initially, we cut the song for ourselves, but it did not turn out very well, so we gave the song to Bones Howe (the producer of Association) and he picked up on the intro bass lick which is key to the Association's hit version." Although the song never made it to number one (it peaked at #2 in 1967), there have been over 300 versions of the song recorded over the years, and groups such as the Fifth Dimension (#12 1971) and Blue Swede (#7 1974) have had big hits with that song. In fact, in large part because of the success of that song and the Association, Warner Bros. bought Valiant and all its publishing rights in 1967. "Never My Love is now Warner Bros.'s most valuable copyright; it is still played over 1000 times a day on radio; it is the second most played song of all time, after only `Yesterday' by the Beatles," stated Don. The next few years were consumed with writing and recording for Warner Bros. records. The highlights were few but included "Time To Love" which was used as the theme song for ABC television's fall network promotion in 1968. And In 1970, they wrote and recorded the theme for the television show "Nanny & Professor." In the early 1970's, the brothers began to write for April Blackwood Music. "We wrote a song called 'I Can Count On You' which was heard be the then head of Columbia Records, Clive Davis. He signed us and released the single. However, the flip side, `We've Got To Get It On Again' (#25 1972), began to receive massive airplay instead and that song became our first major record" boasted Don. When Clive left Columbia and formed Bell Records he took Don and Dick with him. In 1973, while on Bell, the brothers released the love song "Who Do I Think I Am" that failed to chart. Soon after Bell was morphed into Arista Records and the brothers were dropped from the label. Their next stop was at Private Stock Records, where in 1975 they released the single "Busted Bad," produced by Bones Howe. Also, in the mid 1970's, the brothers co-produced, with future disco star Joel Diamond, the first album for a young David Hasselhoff, the album sold well overseas, but failed to chart in the U.S. In 1977 the brothers wrote and recorded "Slow Dancin' Don't Turn Me On." According to Don, "the owner of Buddah Records happened to be at the studio where we recorded the song in Nashville, heard the song, and picked it up for release." That was a wise move for Buddah because not only was that song a top 20 hit, but the subsequent album included the chart hits "Does She Do It Like She Dances" and "Never My Love." During this period the brothers had another hit when their song "I Believe You" was recorded by Dorothy Moore (1977) and the Carpenters (1978). By 1979 Buddah had dropped the brothers and they landed at Scotti Bros. Records. The label was owned by Tony Scotti, who portrayed "Tony Polar" in the racy movie "Valley Of The Dolls." While at their new label the duo recorded two excellent disco 12" singles. Don elaborates "Our song 'Ghost Dancer' (#-45 1979) was produced by Freddie Perren who had just produced hits for Peaches & Herb and Gloria Gaynor. The song had a great disco beat. It was taking off right at the time that the disco backlash started, so it was stopped dead in its tracks." The second 12" single, "As Long As The Music Keeps Playing" was equally as good and yet did even worse in sales. During that same period the brothers began writing for the Filmways company. "while at Filmways, we wrote a TV pilot called 'Time for Living' about 2 songwriters that worked out of their car. Unfortunately, the show never became a series," states Dick. The Addrisis' final commercial single was entitled "Red Eye Flight" and released on Elektra in the early 1980's. Dick elaborates: "we released that on our own label and it began to receive airplay. Elektra purchased it from us and put it out." The single did not chart and the brothers turned their attention to composing TV themes. However, in 1984 the partnership suddenly ended when Don was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died that same year. He left behind a wife, Kimberly Christian whom he had married in 1980. Following the death of Don, "since I had good connections, I became an agent for composers; that lasted 1 1/2 years," says Dick. These days, along with writing motion picture and TV themes, Addrisi is his own talent scout and he showcases live acts in Los Angeles. The ripples of their creative genius are still felt to this day, and who knows, with the right promotion their recording careers could have been even bigger. |
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