I must confess that this kind of interview is really an answer to one of the most "persistent" requests that do not come "in to my official site," as they usually do from fans, friends, etc., but it did come "from my official site" directly!!!!! A so called "inside job"...This is due to the fact that who's been asking me relentlessly about some inside info, with respect to my song "TELL ME THERE'S A WAY" recorded by Joe Cocker, happens to be my production manager for the Italian Territory, who's also the webmistress responsible for the website that you are visiting, Miss Elena Gavazzi!!!! Therefore I should start with a formal...
Dear Elena,
I wrote this song "TELL ME THERE'S A WAY" when I was a staff writer for Screengems-Colgems-EMI back in 1983/84. During that period I used to collaborate quite often with Roy Freeland, the same lyricist with whom I wrote "Another Night" for Aretha Franklin (Roy was also back then the co-producer with Gino Vannelli of several records that the notorious italian-canadian singer was releasing in those years).
I remember the artistic director at EMI Publishing with whom I was working, Mr. Tom Sturges, calling Roy Freeland and asking him, like he did with "Another Night," to write the lyric for this melody that I just composed; melody accompanied by a rhythm and a sound that were becoming very popular in America in the early 80s.
When I first sang for Tom Sturges the song that later became "Another Night," I was singing some English words "made-in-Taiwan" but at least, when the song's hook came along, I was singing "Another...without you..." with what later did become the title of the song. When I first sang for him what later became "TELL ME THERE'S A WAY" (as in both songs the music was written before the lyrics), I honestly do not remember, after twenty years, what the hell I was singing!!!! One thing for sure, in that song Roy Freeland didn't have to use any of my mumbled words!!!...'cause that would've been the perfect reminder!!!
I do remember though that when I wrote this song, I was thinking about a singer like Tina Turner who would give it that "rock & soul" attitude and sound that would perfectly match both the groove and the sound, fusion of the then so called as well "rock-top / black bottom," so predominant in the demo that I recorded for EMI, and that was becoming very popular in those years, thanks to such Artists as Tina Turner herself, Aretha Franklin, Patty LaBelle, Earth Wind & Fire, and other black artists and non-black artists such as Madonna, Mike Sembello, Annie Lennox & The Eurythmics, Darryl Hall & John Oats, and Michael Jackson himself with "breaking-ground" songs - especially for a black artist - such as "Beat It" and "Billie Jean," just to name a few. Artists who did not sing what was back then defined as "pure R&B" tunes, but rather an infectious & exciting fusion, called "rock & soul" that, as the name pretty much explains it, was "rock-up-stairs," with its tipical aggressive sound, but with a rhythmic texture "down-stairs" really "black" and "groovy." This genre was also quite often called "rock top - black bottom" that in a way, as usually slang is, was even more "direct" and "illustrative." With respect to what I just said, I believe that it was my dear friend Gerd Muller, the then Vice President A&R and Acquisitions at EMI Publishing, who came up with that funny quote that became immediately popular in between publishers, writers, producers & record companies...while the "rock-up-stairs-and-black-down-stairs" one became & remaind the "Beppe-Cantarelli's-version" for friends & collaborators, including Gerd Muller who did admit that his "more successful" definition was definitely "inspired" by my more "Italian-mama-boy's" one!!!!...as he used to tell me when we played soccer together...and his home-team (Germany) just lost to Italy at the 1982 final game for the World Cup championship!!!!!!!!
Coming back to my song "TELL ME THERE'S A WAY," as soon as I finished the demo featuring singer Joe Turano, the same talented guy who sang for us "Another Night," I remember receiving lots of phone calls from Tom Sturges who had several requests from both established and new artists who heard the song and expressed desire to cover it. Due to the fact though that Don Grierson, the then A&R Director at EMI-Capitol responsible for big hits at that label with all their major artists in the late 70s and early 80s such as Tina Turner's big come back with the multi-platinum selling album "Private Dancer," wanted to record my song with Joe Cocker, Tom Sturges informed me that it was EMI's intention to hold the song for that artist's new album-project.
I remember as if it was a few days ago when Tom Sturges told me on the phone: "You better sit down before I tell you this: TELL ME THERE'S A WAY...(then a 3 or 4 seconds pause that seemed an eternity and that almost killed me!!!...and after that...)...Joe Cocker"
Joe Cocker, along with the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, has always been one of my idols when I was a kid and I started playing around with my band...I was very thankful to Tom Sturges, who obviously knew how much it meant to me to have a song of mine recorded by one of my teen-age idols, not only for pitching my song, but also for telling me to sit down before he gave me the good news...otherwise I would've seriously injured myself!!!!! Useless to say that it took me less than a "New-York-second" to agree with EMI about "holding" my song for M-i-s-t-e-r J-O-E C-O-C-K-E-R!!!
"TELL ME THERE'S A WAY" then, after that very exciting start, mainly due to a pretty lousy and miss-targeted production by a "sound-engineer-suddenly-promoted-to-be-a-hot-producer-just-because-he-engeneered-and-produced-what-it-turned-out-to-be-a-multi-platinum-album-by-ZZ-TOP" (I refuse to mention his name because first of all I do not remember it, then I am lazy enough not to look for it on the record's credits, but mostly because he made a very unpleasant havoc of that "rock & soul" genre, missing the point completely and making it into another genre which, if you forgive me for the bad word, I'd rather call it "rock & shit"!!!), as I was saying, due to such a poor production, even though Joe Cocker was litterally shining with his trade-mark vocals so perfect for that tune, it did not make it to the album. But after a year or so, it did become the B side of the single "You Can Leave Your Hat On" from the successful movie soundtrack "9 Weeks & a Half." That single though, especially on several European territories such as Germany, the U.K., and France, reached the 1 million units sales!!!!! So Tom Sturges, who was as disappointed as I was, used to tell me in order to cheer me up "Bitching all the way to the bank?!?!????"
I still believe though (...jee, ain't that a familiar title?!?!??) that "TELL ME THERE'S A WAY" is a great song, and I wouldn't be amazed if one of these days some new artist will discover it and it will make it to the top...as I was saying, it happened with another song of mine..."I Still Believe," that made it to the charts (Top 5) back in 1988 with Brenda K. Starr and 10 years later was recorded again by Mariah Carey in her multi-platinum selling album "#1's." and reached top 3 on the singles charts here in the U.S. and top ten worldwide on both the singles and the albums charts.
P.S.: the "rock & soul" genre, in case you didn't notice..., it is a genre that I really feel close to my musical sensitivity and that as from its "pioneers" such as Jimi Hendrix and Earth Wind & Fire and company it always has created a lot of excitement for me, both as a writer-producer as well as a performer. It is certainly due to this passion of mine that I HAD to record an album that I ended up calling "Blues, Rock & Soul"!!!! I had a lot of fun with this one also due to the fact that I had the fortune to work and jam-it-up with some friends musicians such as Vinnie Colaiuta & Gregg Bissonette at drums, John Patitucci, Alfonso Johnson & Rob McDonald at bass, Larry'"Earth Wind & Fire"-Dunn & John Baer at keyboards, Steve Tavaglione at sax and ewy, Larry David at the harmonica, and the gospel Pentecoastal Community Choir. In this album I also indulged myself with another genre, mixed with the "rock & soul thang", that I really love as well: and that's the "blues." "TELL ME THERE'S WAY" is not a selection of my "Blues, Rock & Soul" album though, and this I'm sure will be the perfect incentive, along with "Another Night" that is also not a part of this same album, to record one day a "Blues, Rock & Soul - Part II" album!!!!! And this time I certainly will try to record a version that I really like (we should all treat ourselves sometimes, shouldn't we?!?!???)...maybe without the "engineer-improvised-producer's" interference!!!!...and that's not arrogance...I just love music!!!
Love & music,
Beppe Cantarelli