[ PHOTO GALLERY OF RICHARD HAYES' CAREER ]

RICHARD HAYES

From Desire to Discovery

Born January 5, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, Richard Herbert Hayes began his recording career during the golden age of pop singers, the "Interlude Era" between the crooners of the mid-1940s and the rockers of the mid-1950s.

In an October 2004 phone interview, a happily-retired Richard Hayes talked easily about his years as a recording artist.

I wasn't born into a show-biz family, but my mom and dad were supportive. They said, "If that's what you want to do, do it." They trusted me, and I can say I didn't get into any trouble. Well, so far -- I still have a few days left!

When I was 14 years old, I listened to Bob Emery's "Rainbow House" on WOR radio out of New York I wondered, "How do kids get on that show?" So I wrote a letter to the station and I got an answer, which was come down and audition. I sang in the chorus. I didn't do it for money or anything, because you didn't get paid. I just wanted to be on for, you know, the notoriety of being on the show.

And here's how good I was -- the show had been on for something like 27 years, and shortly after I joined, boom, the show was cancelled. I don't think my singing had anything to do with it, but you never know!

I really wasn't a show-off kind of guy, but I think I had confidence. I had been in glee club in high school, had gotten a few solos, so I knew I had something.

Just 19 years old, Richard was signed to a recording contract with the fifth "major" label, Mercury Records.

I was discovered by Mercury in 1948 while singing in a New York nightclub called Leon & Eddie's. Somebody saw me at Leon & Eddie's and invited me to do a local Saturday night TV show on WPIX. The host was deejay Art Ford, a popular deejay, and the show was called "Art Ford Saturday Night." The name was a spoof on "Hartford Saturday Night" out of Connecticut. Of course, if you weren't from Hartford, you just didn't get the joke. God, I would open each show wearing a conductor's cap!

Now, local TV was nothing then; I was on TV every Saturday, but completely unknown. When I took the subway home -- I was still living with my parents in Brooklyn -- no one ever recognized me from the show. Most folks on a weekend night were watching Jackie Gleason on CBS. But a Mercury vice president saw me on Art's show and invited me to record for Mercury. So there I was.

His first three recordings for Mercury didn't make much noise; for Richard, it was the fourth time that was the charm. His fourth recording turned out to be the blockbuster hit so few aspiring singers ever achieve.

From Recording Artist to Recording Star

The song "The Old Master Painter" was recorded by notables Dick Haymes, Peggy Lee and Mel Torme, Phil Harris, Snooky Lanson -- even the "Voice" himself, Frank Sinatra. But it was teen newcomer Richard Hayes who led the pack as his version of the song (Mercury 5342) rose to #2 on December 17, 1949, and remained on the Billboard chart for 12 weeks. Less than a month before his 20th birthday, Richard Hayes was a bona fide star and Mercury began looking for the all important follow-up.

I give all the credit for the success of "The Old Master Painter" and a lot of my other hits to Mitch Miller. He brought in those great French horns and that really made the song.

The next Richard Hayes release for Mercury was "My Foolish Heart" (Mercury 5362), again with great accompaniment by Mitch Miller. Although this record did not match the chart success of Hayes' previous record, it did reach #21 on the charts on May 27, 1950. In the next three months, there were five more Mercury releases for Richard before he hit the charts again. Hayes's "Our Lady Of Fatima" (Mercury 5466), a duet with Kitty Kallen, reached #10 on September 9, 1950. The record was a solid seller for two Mercury artists, riding the charts for three months. Barely out of his teens, Richard Hayes had three chart hits in less than one year!

I remember Mercury had studios in Chicago and New York. At each session, you had to finish about four songs in three hours. Less than that and it was like the label was losing money. And you didn't have the luxury of separate tracks, you sang it all together, recorded it all at once. If there was a small band for the record, I might be positioned right in the middle of the band; if we used a larger group, I could be put off in a booth for isolation.

Since we were recording together, if anybody made a mistake, you started over. You could sing your heart out, but if an instrument hit a wrong note -- start over. Of course, I made my mistakes too. But that's the way it was -- another side every 45 minutes or so.

From Records to Television

With name recognition, the new medium of network television beckoned. Almost by accident, Richard was cast in a comedy TV series called "Two Girls Named Smith," which starred Peggy Ann Garner and Peggy French as two sisters who moved to New York to make it in the "Big City."

Mercury Records is responsible for my meeting my first wife, Peggy Ann Garner, who was already a successful actress, having won a Special Oscar for Outstanding Child Actress in the 1945 "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." It's often reported I met and married her because I was her co-star on the show. But the truth is we met before that, at a Mercury Records promotion for one of my records, and we began dating and later we got married.

"Two Girls" was a live show on ABC on Saturday afternoon. I would drive Peggy to rehearsals and to the broadcast, and then after she would usually drive me to my rehearsals or shows later that night. I was always hanging around the ABC set, waiting for Peggy to get off work. So, I happened to be there the day they fired the guy playing her boyfriend. The director, who knew me from my hanging around, said, "Do you think you could play her boyfriend?" I figured, sure -- being married to her certainly qualified me. So I got the job by being in the right place at someone else's wrong time. But we were already married when I joined the cast.

While on "Two Girls Named Smith," Richard continued recording for Mercury Records, often with Kitty Kallen. In March of 1951, the pair recorded "The Aba Daba Honeymoon" (Mercury 5586). The tune was made famous by Carleton Carpenter and Debbie Reynolds in the film, "Two Weeks With Love," who had also recorded it earlier for MGM. However, Hayes and Kallen held their own with the record buyers.

Mitch Miller was also the one who put me together with Kitty Kallen and later with Roberta Quinlan. We were all on Mercury and he suggested we sing together. He gave Kitty and me "Our Lady of Fatima," which had to be one of the first religious records ever. Then we did "Aba Daba Honeymoon" and had a big hit with that. Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter had done it in the movie and recorded it for MGM Records, but to be honest, the MGM label didn't have any real distribution then, so our version took off.

The Hayes/Kallen version of "Aba Daba Honeymoon" reached #9 on March 3, 1951, and spent 10 weeks on the charts. Hayes's next hit was a recording of Nat Cole's hit "Too Young" (Mercury 5599). Hayes' cover reached #24 on July 4, 1951.

A lot of the music critics, reviewers of my music, brought up my age because I was still, to them, a kid. They would remark I was too young to be emotionally invested in these grown-up love songs. That's why I thought recording "Too Young" was a great idea, since that's what they were saying about me.

In August, he followed up a cover version of "Come On-A My House" (Mercury 5671), from the Broadway show, "The Son." The same song was a big hit for Rosemary Clooney on Columbia. Still, even against the Clooney competition, Hayes' version, recorded with George Bassman's orchestra, reached #14 on August 11, 1951, while its flip side, "Go! Go! Go! Go!" charted #23 on the same date.

From the Airwaves to the Stage

As a recording artist, I would travel to New Jersey, Cleveland and Philly, working night clubs. I'd sing at night, and then in the morning make the rounds of the radio stations to get airplay and get my name out. It isn't like today where you just sing your hits -- you had an act, you covered the popular songs. There was usually an opening act, then a dance team or comedian, and then I would come on and do 45 minutes or an hour. And not just songs; there was a whole act, with banter between the songs. When I was starting out, I had my act written for me. Later, when I was more experienced and knew the ropes, I created my own act.

Part of a good act was the special material, material written just for you, or at least tailored to your style. I used to perform a beautiful song called "Tenement Symphony." I never recorded it, but Tony Martin did and I loved that song. Before I entered the Army, I had some special material written to the melody of "You." The adapted words went "Before I wear those G.I. pants / Gee, I'm glad I got the chance / To sing for wonderful you."

I also loved doing "As Time Goes By." I would do the introductory verse, which no one ever did. It was just so beautiful to sing. That's something you learn from working out; some songs just don't translate from the record into a nightclub setting. Either you don't have the band you need, or the material doesn't hold their attention in a live show. But some songs are even better on stage, like "The Bull Walked Around, Olay." The audience loved that, they would always sing along, shouting "Olay."

In late October of 1951, Hayes followed up his last double-sided hit with another big seller for Mercury, "Out In The Cold Again" (Mercury 5724), backed by the orchestra of Joe Reichman. "Out in the Cold Again" reached #9 nationally on October 27, 1951.

"Out in the Cold Again" was a song I brought in and wanted to record. I had a gig at a nightclub in Wildwood, New Jersey. Wildwood was jumping then, they called it the "Poor Man's Miami Beach" -- there were a million nightclubs and a million people there. Folks didn't even stay in the hotels, some just camped on the beach. Well, when I arrived, someone had screwed up and I didn't have a room. They finally found me a room, but it was over a noisy bar -- which was okay; I was in the business, I was used to that noise. But downstairs, on the jukebox in the bar, was this song "Out in the Cold Again." And it was really popular, it must have played a thousand times in the week I was there. I don't know who was singing it, but I think it was on a small label.

Anyway, I heard it coming up through the floorboards every night, over and over. When I got back to New York, I said, "I want to do this song." I didn't have a copy of the record or anything, so I just sang it to them, because I knew it by heart by then! We recreated the arrangement of the jukebox song I'd heard, right down to the Four Aces-type backup group on the original. Of course, we used a studio pick-up group, but we got the same sound.

After a few non-charting records, including "Babalu / More Than Love," recorded with Xavier Cugat, Hayes' next appearance on the hit parade was with the tune "I'll Walk Alone" (Mercury 5821). Despite a number of versions in circulation by various artists, including the big hit version by Don Cornell, Hayes record got to #24 on May 3, 1952. On the same date, his recording of "Junco Partner" (Mercury 5833), recorded with Eddie Sauter's Orchestra, likewise hit #15 on the national Billboard chart and stayed on the charts for 11 weeks.

It was always fun to hear yourself on the radio and later, some of our songs had a second life in films. "Babalu," with Xavier Cugat, was used in Woody Allen's movie "Radio Days." I waited to see the music credits roll, because I thought my family would be happily surprised to see my name up on the screen, but it wasn't there! I was so disappointed; they only listed Xavier Cugat in the film credits. But that's me singing in "Radio Days."

In 1952, Hayes had two more hits . His recording of "The Mask Is Off" (Mercury 5872), with Jimmy Carroll's orchestra, reached #23 on July 12, 1952. And then, his last chart hit of the year was "Forgetting You" (Mercury 5910). The tune got to #15 on November 1, 1952.

From Nightclubs to "Music Videos"

Richard also made several Snader telescriptions -- short music movies which could be shown on television or played on video jukeboxes (Scopitone being a popular brand).

Snader telescriptions were supposed to be television "records." Instead of a deejay, like on radio, you'd have a guy on TV introducing these short movies of performers singing, each just 2 or 3 minutes long - I guess these were the first "music videos." I was working in Cleveland, Ohio at a night club, and this guy had built a sound stage and made these telescription films. I'd get off work about 4:00 a.m., and from there I would usually do radio interviews to promote the night club or my latest record. If I didn't have any interviews, I went first thing in the morning to this sound stage, usually singing live to a pre-recorded playback. I probably made dozens of them.

Several of these 16mm black and white films still exist and feature a young and handsome Richard performing songs which he did not record for Mercury, such as "I'm Gonna Live Until I Die" and "That Old Black Magic."

In the summer of 1953, Richard entered the charts for the last time with "Midnight In Paris" (Mercury 70169), with the Richard Hayman orchestra, which made it to #24 on July 25, 1953. In less than three years, from late 1949 to mid-1953, Richard Hayes charted 13 times on Mercury, with four songs in the Top Ten. In 1953, he was just 22 years old.

From VIP to GI

Setting his recording career aside, Richard Hayes entered military service in 1953, but kept his hand in the music business. He was a talent scout for the TV show, "Talent Patrol," which featured musical performances by servicemen. The hosts were Steve Allen and Arlene Francis and the show ran on ABC from 1953 to 1955.

I was drafted for the Korean War and I reported to Fort Dix, which sort of ended my recording for Mercury. I guess word of my enlistment got around and so frightened the enemy that they declared the war over just a short time later. It was nice they did that for me!

After Fort Dix, I was stationed at Governor's Island. Right out my barracks window, I could look at the New York skyline; it was really beautiful to see. I had it pretty easy, I went home on the weekends regularly and became a writer for the Army doing radio programs and emceeing shows. I sold a number of pieces to the NBC "Monitor" program -- two minute advertisements for the military. We would open with a song, and then once I got through the first chorus, I'd just drop into doing the commercial while the band noodled on the melody behind me.

Richard's run of charting records ended in 1953, but he kept recording with ABC, Decca and Columbia, releasing more than 40 sides for these labels, even re-recording "Come On-A My House" on the Columbia label.

While I was in the Army, Mitch Miller, who I thought of as my mentor, went on to Columbia and I wanted to follow him. Unfortunately, by then he'd gotten busy with other names -- bigger names, if you will -- and Columbia didn't make me an offer. I did a short stint with ABC, but wasn't really happy there. Columbia still wasn't ready for me, so I took whatever offer there was, which was from Decca, thanks to Mel Brackman, the A&R man there. I finally got to Columbia, but by then Mitch was pretty busy with other acts. I like to joke that I needed Mitch Miller, but he didn't need me.

Hayes remained a large presence on radio and TV for years to come. He was a featured singing performer from 1956 to 1964 on "The Robert Q. Lewis Show" and appeared in 1956 on "The Ed Sullivan Show." He also appeared regularly on Arthur Godfrey's radio and television shows from 1958 to 1972.

From Singer to Deejay

In the end, I started doing a lot of radio, hosting and singing. I worked on "Arthur Godfrey Time" for about 14 years. When I started, all the big stations still had their own orchestras, but at the end I was pretty much it, maybe the last live radio singer on the air. Slowly I moved over to doing more radio work. When rock and roll came along, I didn't think much of it - I thought it was all triplets and poorly constructed songs, so I turned down any offers. But I got more and more broadcasting work.

I even took over from Alan Freed when he got fired and did his "Moondog" show for a couple years in the afternoons at CBS for Metro Media. I remember my first day; there was a mob in front of Channel 5 and all these people that just wanted to hate me. CBS had the cops out and everything. But after a half hour into the show, the crowd was gone. They had gotten out their anger and the music just had to go on.

Eventually, calls from record labels just stopped coming, and that was that. So it wasn't a hard, conscious decision -- just something that changed over time.

For almost 15 years, Richard's radio talk shows were featured on WCAU in Philadelphia and WMCA in New York.

Looking Back Long Distance

I'd have to say that since I was a kid, I've been a lover of radio. I still love it. The strange thing for me is that because I started my career so young, many of the folks I worked with were much older, or seemed much older. Now that I'm in my 70s, many of the guys I worked with have passed on -- Jack Parr, Arthur Godfrey, Mitch Miller. All gone now.

I don't have any of my own records or any memorabilia. I was never a saver, so I have grandchildren who've never heard any of my songs. But I do wish I still had two things. One was the cover from Cashbox magazine, which had a picture of Frankie Laine, Patti Page and myself. I really looked up to both of them and they were good friends, so I wish I had that.

And I did the Frank Sinatra show, which was sponsored by Bulova, the watch company. So you got paid, and you got a watch. I had this nice Bulova watch with the inscription "To Richard Hayes, from Frank Sinatra." Years later, in New York, walking down to the corner for my Sunday newspaper, I got mugged. I got beaten up and they got the 35 cents for my paper and that watch. I hoped it would show up in a pawn shop where somebody would catch sight of the inscription. But no luck.

While Richard never recovered his watch, Jasmine Record's 2-CD set, Richard Hayes: The Old Master Painter recovers his finest Mercury recordings for all to enjoy (including those grandchildren of his). his set is available at Amazon.com and other retailers.

--- Rex Strother (November 2004)

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