Archie Bleyer

Archibald Martin Bleyer (June 12, 1909 – March 20, 1989) was an American song arranger, bandleader, and record company executive.

Early life

Bleyer was born in the Corona section of the New York City borough of Queens. The younger Bleyer began playing the piano when he was only seven years old. In the early 1930s, Bleyer wrote a number of songs that were recorded, all 'hot' novelty numbers, including "Mouthful O'Jam", "Business In F" and "Business In Q". Included among the instrumentalist who appeared with his orchestra was John Serry Sr., who emerged in later years as a leading orchestral accordionist.

Godfrey years

Bleyer became Arthur Godfrey's musical director in 1946, remaining in this role until 1953.

In the fall of 1953, Godfrey dismissed La Rosa on the air and later claimed the young singer "lacked humility", which diminished Godfrey's popularity. La Rosa had hired a personal manager, going against an unofficial Godfrey policy. That same day, Godfrey fired Bleyer, apparently offended when Bleyer recorded spoken recitations by Chicago radio personality Don McNeill, host of Don McNeill's Breakfast Club. Don Shirley appeared on the label in 1955 with "Tonal Expressions". It became a Top 15 album in the spring of that year, reportedly selling more than 20,000 copies, a respectable debut for a jazz artist. It was the only chart album Shirley was to enjoy, but his sales remained steady enough that he was with the label until it closed in 1964, recording more than a dozen long-play releases.

Bleyer also had limits to his tolerance for rock and roll. While he clearly, and correctly, viewed the Everlys as a commercially appealing, clean-cut act whose country-influenced harmonies could reach a vast following, he was not as tolerant of pioneer garage-rock guitarist Link Wray. In 1957, Bleyer reluctantly agreed to release Wray's no-frills, roaring instrumental "Rumble," in part due to his daughter's fascination with the song. Wray had a contract with Cadence, but in 1958 after he submitted a newly recorded album of similarly raw material recorded in Nashville, Bleyer was convinced the instrumental music was morally and musically inappropriate. He shelved the album and canceled Wray's contract. The material would not be released for decades until it was acquired by the British Rollercoaster label.

Cadence had a short-lived jazz subsidiary, Candid, which lasted for about a year from 1960 (it was reactivated under new owners several decades later).

Cadence had another major hit in 1962 with comic Vaughn Meader's album The First Family, which featured Meader's comedic sketches and his peerless impersonations of President John F. Kennedy. The album was an enormous seller, as was a follow-up, until Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

Cadence always maintained a small roster of artists. Other Cadence hits included 14 chart hits by Johnny Tillotson, ten by The Chordettes, four by Lenny Welch, and two by Don Shirley. In 1964, Bleyer, who was unable to accept the changing pop music market at the dawn of the British Invasion, sold the Cadence label and all its recordings (except for certain material which he kept to himself, like the Link Wray album). The buyer was Cadence artist Andy Williams, who formed Barnaby Records to manage the Cadence catalog.

Bleyer moved with his wife Janet to her hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where he died in 1989 of the effects of Parkinson's disease, less than a year after his wife.

Bleyer was a freemason, and a member of St. Cecile Lodge No. 568, New York City.

Early life

Godfrey years

Selected records

References

External links