Sincerely was co-written by Harvey & DJ Alan Freed
@pookie18 No, "Sincerely" was written by Harvey Fuqua alone. Alan Freed never wrote one song in his entire life.
Like many in those years, unfortunately, Freed was one of those disc jockeys and other music business
people who got songwriting credits they didn't deserve in return for certain favours involving either
getting an artist's work played on the radio or getting an artist to record certain songs. In fact, Morris
Levy---arguably the single most corrupt man who ever had anything to do with the music industry---
also got songwriting credits, in his case regarding artists who recorded for his record labels. (He
created one, Roulette, and ended up owning a small ton of others that had once been created
by George Goldner but which Levy took over as payment for helping Goldner with a gambling
habit that rivaled that of Elvis Presley's manager Tom Parker.)
Freed also got a songwriting credit for Chuck Berry's first hit, "Maybelline," in the same way. (So
did Russ Fratto, a printer whose specialties included printing record labels and whose clients
included Chess Records; Fratto had made Chess a loan and giving him a songwriting credit on
the record probably enabled him to recoup the loan and how, since "Maybelline" went to number
one on the rhythm and blues charts and number five on the pop charts.)
Elvis Presley---who also never wrote a single song in his entire life, and could barely play a guitar while
he was at it---got a lot of songwriting credits on material he didn't write one note or syllable for,
including "Heartbreak Hotel" and several of the Otis Blackwell rhythm and blues songs he covered.
Blackwell, who was no shrinking violet, fatalistically accepted the arrangement since it enabled
him to pitch his songs to Presley; strangely enough, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, who also got
to pitch songs to Elvis and wrote a film soundtrack or two for him, never had to worry about Elvis
getting a writing co-credit on
their stuff. (Elvis was so fond of Lieber & Stoller's work---never
mind Parker often strong-arming them into certain things---that he once asked them to write him
a "pretty" R&B ballad, and they promptly came up with "Don't.")
Lieber & Stoller's association with Elvis Presley ended not over writing credits but publishing---
Tom Parker tried to force them to have their songs published by Elvis Presley Music, Inc., and
they balked. (Parker also fumed over "Don't," because Elvis asked for the song on his own
and Lieber & Stoller made a demo with a singer named Jesse Young to pitch the song to
Elvis; and, over Lieber & Stoller accepting a chance to write the music for a musical that was
to be based on Nelson Algren's
A Walk on the Wild Side---Parker thought he'd bagged
exclusive providers in Lieber & Stoller, who didn't want to be exclusive to anyone. Little by
little, even before he maneuvered Elvis into the Army, Parker began showing it would be his
way or the highway when it came to Elvis Presley who, for whatever reasons, felt powerless
to stop Parker for a very long time.)
