From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1967
‘Senator Bobby’ First Novelty Single Chords Cameo Success
NEW YORK — Cameo/Parkway Records’ success with ”Wild Thing,” by Senator Bobby – 650,000 in sales, according to sales director Neil Bogart – has prompted a new single to capitalize on the recording success of another Senator on another label.
The new single will team Senator Bobby and Sen. Everett McKinley on “Mellow Yellow.” As in the “Wild Thing” hit, which produced an album “Boston Soul,” there’ll be no doubt of McKinley’s “image.” The label has already taped a Hollywood Palace TV show debuting the new single in which Senator Bobby and Senator McKinley vie for top billing.
The successful comedy records – and comedy hit singles are few and far in between -are a big indication of the vitality shown by Cameo /Parkway during the past year. Since Al Rosenthal took over as president, the firm has had its first No. 1 record on the Hot 100 chart in three years – “96 Tears,” by ? (Question Mark) and the Mysterians. This was a master Bogart purchased from Pagogo Records by flying to McAllen, Tex., and making a deal with producer Joseph Gonzalez.
Windy C Pacts
Also part of the revitalizing was the signing of distributing deals with Windy C Records, produced by Curtis Mayfield, Lucky Eleven Records, and Sentare Records. “What we’ve tried to do,” Bogart said, “is come up with seven or eight artists who will sell a certain amount of records every time one is issued – like Terry Knight and the Pack, who’ll sell 100,000 copies; or Eddie Holman, who’ll sell 60,000. Then we try to make them ‘happen’ all over the nation rather than in just their normal sales areas. I feel that if a group can do well. like the Rationals who always sell 15,000 in Detroit on every record, in a given area there’s a chance of them hitting it big nationwide. The Fabulous Flippers sold 28,000 on their last record in Kansas City and Minneapolis.
“If we take a group like this and keep pushing them and building them we can break them to other markets and have a big group,” Bogart said. “A good example is Terry Knight. It took the fourth record before we were able to break him to other markets than Detroit,” he said. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; February 11, 1967)
