Dear Ben,

It was a pleasure and an honor to meet to meet you on Long Island at your niece Christine’s wedding reception in 1969. She was a classmate of my then girlfriend Taffy at the College of Steubenville in Ohio. Taffy and I had been writing songs and singing songs with high hopes for two years and were having some difficulty beginning our professional careers. The advice and help you provided us proved to be invaluable.

Chris had asked me to bring my guitar and for Taffy and I to sing a few songs. She also said “You have to meet Uncle Ben.” After we sang our songs for anyone who chose to listen we were introduced to you and treated to a remarkable conversation of stories which you told of your years in the music business; receiving the first gold record on your retirement from CBS for your recording of “Dardanella;” your role in helping start Muzak and so many other events.

You asked what was going on in our musical lives and we told you our sad story.

Two years before, we had had our first paid singing engagement at a black-tie eve-of pre-Redskins game party at the Watergate hotel in Washington DC. The party was attended by young successful professionals. I had a tuxedo from my college glee club days at Georgetown University. Taffy found a dress at a thrift shop and dyed some shoes to match. We were sort of hippie-ish still but we tried to appear respectable and did a short set of mostly originals. Much champagne had been served and our music went over well. Afterwards we had a conversation with a young stockbroker, George Fellows and his attorney, Bob Dougherty. They liked one song in particular which we said was going to be a hit (it never was) and asked what it would take to record it. We told them it would take money to make a really good demo and then try to interest a major company to release us. They asked how we were living and we said that was a problem too.

The following Monday we had a meeting with Bob in his office and set up a company, Fat City Productions that would fund us in exchange for half of the publishing. They would advance us fifty dollars a week.

We wrote and practiced and recorded making fruitless trips to New York only to receive rejection after rejection. Then one lucky day we found a producer who decided to take a chance on us. His name is Dick Weismann and he was in New York producing for a new branch of ABC Records, ABC Probe. He introduced us to the president of the company who welcomed us to the label and said a contract would be mailed to us. We were elated.

Then the contract arrived. It awarded all the publishing rights to ABC which would violate our deal with Bob and George. Bob and I took a train to New York to discuss the contract with the company’s attorney. After discussion we realized the publishing portion was non-negotiable. We rode home disappointed and I discussed the matter with Taffy. I believed our loyalty belonged to the first folks who believed in us and helped support us. We declined the much coveted recording contract.

You listened to our tale and then offered advice from your years of experience. You said we never should have turned down the contract: that it was very difficult to get a start in this business; since we had no clout we were in no position to bargain for anything. You said if we had some success our opportunities would be different and there would be many more chances to better our position. You appreciated our loyalty to our backers but suggested there had to be alternative ways to fix that arrangement since fifty percent of nothing was still nothing. I said that I’d already turned down the deal and nothing could be done.

You asked what label it was and who was president. I said “ABC, Joe Carlton.”

“Joe Carlton? He worked for me. I gave him his start. If you’d like, go talk to your people and if you want to reconsider rejecting the contract I’ll call Joe on your behalf and write him a letter of endorsement for you. You need to get your foot in the door. After that it’s up to you.”

We did as you suggested. Bob agreed that we would make an exception for this one record and future deals would include Fat City Productions (which they did). You wrote an elegant letter, ABC sent us a new contract (same terms) and we went on to record our first album, Reincarnation by Fat City.

The album was not a hit, but now when we played the small clubs in DC we could put the cover in the window and say “ABC Recording Artists” which set us far apart from other local acts and laid the groundwork for what was to come.

Taffy and I wrote a song about Dick Weismann called “I Guess He’d Rather Be in Colorado” which John Denver heard us sing in a local saloon. I’d known John when he was in the Mitchell Trio and I was a student working at the famed Cellar Door nightclub as lights and sound guy. He did not know I sang and wrote songs but when he heard it he asked if he could record it. (He lived in Edina Minnesota at the time). He played it for Milt Okun producer and owner of Cherry Lane Music and for Mary Travers who also recorded it. Milt called and asked to publish it with an ample advance.

The Mitchell Trio and its later versions had broken up and Denver was now a solo act. As a solo he was not a big draw because folks din’t know who he was. Taffy and I as Fat City were getting to be a good draw in local clubs. One of the Cellar Door owners, Sam L’hommedieu, suggested putting both acts in the week between Christmas and New Years 1970. It was that week that we showed John the nearly completed “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and he said “Can we record that?” We did.

It’s an interesting chain, Ben, but it became much stronger when you made the impossible possible.

Thank you so much.

Eternal Peace and Love,
Bill Danoff

Editor’s Note: CLICK HERE to read the Wikipedia entry for Ben Selvin.