Just say you will

NPR's All Things Considered had an obituary for Billy Davis, 72, whom they identified as an advertising executive. Which indeed he was; he created that "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" bit for Coca-Cola that grabbed the attention of the tragically-hip types at NPR, and the "If you've got the time...." spot for Miller Beer.

But before he did any of these things, Billy Davis was a singer, a songwriter, and a producer. For the first three years of their existence, he was the sort-of-fifth member of the Four Aims, later the Four Tops. (Top Lawrence Payton was his cousin.) Their demo, filled with Davis originals, got them signed to Chess Records in Chicago; they had no hits during their tenure with Chess, but Davis' songs were passed on to Chess acts like the Flamingos and the Moonglows.

It was about at this point that Davis started dating Gwen Gordy, and met Gwen's brother Berry; they began writing songs together, credited to Gordy and "Tyran Carlo," and one of them, "Reet Petite," became a small but indelible hit for Jackie Wilson in 1957. They continued to write for Jackie, and in 1958, with Gwen also credited, came up with Jackie's biggest hit up to that point: "Lonely Teardrops," which made it into the Top Ten in early 1959.

A falling out with Nat Tarnopol of Brunswick led Davis and the Gordys to set up shop on their own: Gwen, sister Anna, and Davis set up Anna Records in Detroit, which got its first hit in 1960 with "Money," a Barrett Strong single written by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford. (Strong would later wind up as Norman Whitfield's writing partner in the late Sixties, while Whitfield was producing massive hits for the Temptations.) Harvey Fuqua of the Moonglows came on board while Berry Gordy was starting up his Motown and Tamla labels; Fuqua also came on to Gwen Gordy, and eventually Davis found himself squeezed out.

Back in Chicago, Billy Davis took over A&R at Chess, where he pushed the legendary blues label into contemporary soul; he updated Etta James, brought back the Dells, and introduced new acts like Fontella Bass, whose enormous hit "Rescue Me" in 1965 got the attention of the ad agency McCann-Erickson, who after three years finally persuaded Davis to join them as their director of music.

The rest, of course, is advertising history. And, well, I didn't want his rep as an ad man to overshadow his days in the record business, which is why this is here.

Besides, when Billy Davis was a kid, he drank Pepsi, not Coke: at the time, Pepsi was selling 12-ounce bottles for the same five cents Coke was asking for six ounces. I have no idea about his taste in beer.

Posted at 10:20 PM to Tongue and Groove


TrackBack: 3:23 PM, 11 September 2004
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