Screen Gems Days

Overview:

As head of Screen Gems-Columbia Music for 13 years, Lester was instrumental in its rise from a $1.3 million dollar business to one that became one of the most important acquisitions in music history, being bought by EMI for $23.5 million in 1976. It has spawned such successful artists as, Carole King, The Monkees, The Partridge Family as well as songwriters such as David Gates, Mac Davis, Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann, Gerry Goffin, Howard Greenfield, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart; and Lester remained president of Screen Gems-EMI Music, Inc. and Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. and was awarded a chair on the board of directors of the new company.

During his 21 years at Screen Gems, the company name had changed from Screen Gems, to Screen Gems – Columbia, to Screen Gems – EMI. At that point, Lester Sill was head of the publishing division. Of the deal with EMI, Capitol Records', Barry Kimmelman jokingly said of Lester, "To get you, we had to buy the company," this after offering Lester a position at Capitol Records three years earlier.

Before the EMI merger Screen Gems Music had fourteen out of the twenty BMI million performance songs. They included “Born Free”, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me”, “Spanish Eyes” and “Strangers In The Night.” “Born Free” won an Academy Award. Additional milestone examples of Lester’s successful cross-pollination of songs in film and TV are “Nadia’s Theme” (from “Bless The Beasts And Children” soundtrack), “Brian’s Song” “Mahogany” and “The Way We Were.” “The Way We Were” won an Academy Award for best song.

When contract renewal negotiation stalled at Screen Gems in 1985, Motown’s Barry Gordy, hired Lester as head of Jobete Music (Motown publishing division) where he stayed until he retired in 1993 and remained a consultant until his passing in 1994.

Before Screen Gems

In 1962, Lester Sill took some time off to evaluate his career. Betrayed by Phil Spector in their label partnership, Philles Records, and having a wife and four sons caused him to re-evaluate his place in rock-n-roll at 43 years of age. With the exception of his stint in the Army in World War II and some door-to-door sales that he despised, Lester had always been in music. He had worked his way up from the bottom, starting from a distribution route on the west coast for Modern Records. He had delivered records to shoe-shine stands, cafes, five and dime stores and radio stations. He went on to producing music for his artists, getting them on the charts, getting them booked for gigs and getting them on on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand television show.

After giving Spector a job, and taking him into his home, Spector worked as an apprentice to Leiber and Stoller. Spector had decided that he needed to be in New York, and we suspect that Lester felt that three thousand miles between them might not be a bad idea, Lester’s partnership with Lee Hazlewood was already suffering because of Spector – Hazlewood wanted nothing to do with Spector as they created Philles Records. In fact, in an interview with Joe Smith in 1986, Lester discloses that the longer Spector stayed in New York, the worse he became. On separate occasions, Spector pulled a gun in negotiations with Jerry Rubinstein and Jack Nitzsche, Spector was convicted for Lana Clarkson’s shooting death decades later.

• Lester Sill, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were interviewed concerning Spector for the documentary He’s A Rebel (MGM 1982)

While Lester was suing Spector to recover his investment, he was running low on money. Chuck Kaye (Lester’s step-son) had taken a job with Colpix Records under Don Kirshner, Colpix which was in the process of being sold to Columbia Pictures. Based in New York, Kirshner was having problems getting west coast radio play, he sent six records to Lester to promote on an informal basis, Lester says he got six sweaters for this efforts. Kirshner offered Lester a six month consultancy.

The Job OpeninG

In the sale of Colpix / Colgems, the staff song writers had been blind-sided in the deal, they had lost confidence in Don Kirshner and were refusing to sign with the new company. During this stint in New York, Lester was able to gain the confidence of the writers, however, they were concerned about his short-term contract with the company, but he was ultimately able to work out the details. Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were the first to sign and the rest of the writers followed.

Lou Adler’s departure from Screen Gems / Columbia Music left an opening for Lester to fill.

The Monkees -- The Wrecking Crew -- Jack Nicholson:

Lester was tasked to manage a massive open audition call for the music themed sitcom, The Monkees. The show was created as a vehicle for Broadway actor Davy Jones, the show’s concept was to capitalize on the success of The Beatles film, Hard Day’s Night, as television comedy. Musician and songwriter, Michael Nesmith played the band’s onscreen leader and it is thought that he may have already been associated with Screen Gems as a songwriter with ColGems Records. Peter Tork was an accomplished musician at the time, recommended by Stephen Stills, and played comedic relief. Accomplished actor Mickey Dolenz jokes that he had a private audition, coming from his childhood in television series Circus Boy (1958-60), where he played the lead, Corky, for the three season run. Dolenz played some guitar and learned to play the drums during the first two seasons.

Lester stayed on with the Screen Gems to become the Monkees musical director since things did not work out with Snuff Garrett in that position. Not without controversy, the media took exception to the sitcom, lip-syncing, which had been never been a problem in film, artists appearing on American Bandstand were rarely even plugged in to amplifiers, but now lip-syncing was suddenly something for critics to write about. The critics also took exception to the music being backed by studio musicians, but by the release of the second album, Dolenz had become proficient on drums and played them on tour.

The media controversy also caused some friction within the group, the musicians (Nesmith and Tork) wanted credibility with their peers in the music world, to tour and sell albums, the actors, Dolenz and Jones were content and wanted the show to continue. In addition to the daily shooting schedule, Lester worked with the band in the evenings at the studio, honing their skills enough for them to perform on tour and contribute more than just vocals to the albums.

Screenwriter, Jack Nicholson and producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider went on to do a film called Easy Rider (1969) with Joel Sill as music supervisor, earning Nicholson his first Academy Award nomination.

The studio musicians for the first Monkees albums are known today as The Wrecking Crew and some were previously members of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, an association that began during Spector’s apprenticeship at Gregmark (Duane Eddy band) and continued with Phil and Lester’s Philles records. .

Carole King

Carole King and Lester Sill had been associated prior to the Screen Gems years, she and husband Gerry Goffin had worked for Don Kirshner and Phil Spector under Philles records. In fact, Phil Spector had used one of King's songs to poison the relationship between himself and Lester. When Carole left Gerry Goffin for a new life in Los Angeles, the Sill family and the King family became fast friends.

In her memoirs King writes...

"I felt comfortable with Lester partly because I had met him on previous trips and partly because he had the haimishe demeanor of a warm Jewish uncle.

[...]

"After proudly showing me around and introducing me to his staff, Lester brought me into his office and told me who was looking for material and what kind of songs each artist was looking for. It was a detailed briefing by a capable, knowledgeable publisher and it made me hopeful about my ability to continue to earn a living as a songwriter without Gerry [Goffin]."

[...]

"All of the Sills except Harriet would attain success in Hollywood as part of the Sill/Kaye music publishing and music supervision dynasty, now in its third generation. Harriet achieved her own success as the matriarch and fighting tigress of the Sill family. You did not want to mess with a Sill or wight Chuck Kaye, Harriet's son from a previous marriage."

--A Natural Woman, A Memoir, By Carole King, Grand Central Publishing, 2012

King and Goffin wrote "Pleasant Valley Sunday" which scored a Hot 100 #3 for The Monkees. Some years later, Lester cleared a deal and arranged financing for Carole King's Tapestry album, setting her on the path to four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

Executive Suite: Screen Gems - Colgems - EMI

…continue to The Jobette Music Days (1985-94)