Acuff-Rose Music
Encyclopedia
Acuff-Rose Music was an American
music
publishing
firm formed by Roy Acuff
and Fred Rose
in Nashville, Tennessee
. Acuff-Rose's honest behavior towards their writers set them apart from other music publishing firms at the time and lead them to fame throughout the 50's, 60's, 70's.
and Fred Rose
, a major Nashville music-industry figure who had a respected ability as a talent scout. Many country performers had been badly cheated in the past with regard to copyright
and other rights to their creations. Many were unsophisticated and naive and were taken advantage of by unscrupulous agents, attorneys
, record promoters, record labels and others. When they started their publishing company, a condition to the gentleman's agreement between Acuff and Rose was that "our company would be honest. The writers would always be taken care of. No one would act in a shady way". Acuff-Rose was affiliated with BMI
and had a subsidiary firm, Milene Music which handled music from ASCAP member composers.
Acuff-Rose had its headquarters on 8th Avenue South in the Melrose district of Nashville and was something of a landmark to those knowledgeable of the music industry. It was here that Hank Williams, to prove his ability to Rose, wrote what would become a major hit song ("I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love with You") while Rose went out to a nearby restaurant for a cup of coffee. Rose formed a friendship with Williams, as he did many performers.
On Fred Rose's passing in 1954, his son Wesley Rose
served as president of Acuff-Rose. Wesley Rose led the publishing company for the next 30 years. He was not only instrumental in the success of Acuff-Rose, but was also instrumental in the growth of country music outside the U.S., being the first country music publisher to establish offices overseas. Acuff-Rose Music flourished throughout this period. Lefty Frizzell
, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
, Roy Orbison
, Don Gibson
, The Everly Brothers
, Mickey Newbury
, Dallas Frazier
and Whitey Shafer were some of the significant songwriters signed exclusively to Acuff-Rose in the '50's, '60's and early '70's.
Acuff-Rose Music also operated a record label, Hickory Records
.
Recognizing the frailty of their health and that the company he and Fred Rose had founded in 1942 was in steady decline, Roy Acuff approached Wesley Rose late in 1984 and suggested that it was time to sell the catalog. They didn't have to look very far for a buyer. By May 1985, Grand Ole Opry parent company Gaylord Entertainment Company
purchased the catalog. The company returned to prominence during this time under the guidance of Music Row veterans Jerry Bradley and Troy Tomlinson. However, finding itself in need of cash in order to complete construction of one of its trademark convention hotels in Texas, Gaylord sold the publishing company to Sony/ATV Music Publishing
in 2002. Sony/ATV Music Publishing had previously gobbled up Acuff-Rose's main Music Row rival, Tree International. The combined catalogs continue to dominate the country music publishing industry. In 2007, Sony/ATV Music Nashville became the first publisher in history to capture BMI
Country Music Publisher of the Year, ASCAP Country Music Publisher of the Year, SESAC
Country Music Publisher of the Year and Billboard
Country Music Publisher of the Year.
Acuff-Rose Music was involved in a landmark copyright infringement case in the 1990s. Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
(510 U.S. 569), 1994 In dispute was the use by rap
artist Luther Campbell
(then using the alias "Luke Skyywalker") and his band 2 Live Crew
of a substantial amount of the Roy Orbison
hit song "Oh, Pretty Woman" in a parody
. Claiming their version of the song fell under the fair use
doctrine of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107, Campbell prevailed in The United States District Court in Nashville
. However, this was reversed at the appellate level by the United States 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case was argued before the United States Supreme Court on November 9, 1993. Handing down its ruling on March 7, 1994, the court held that the appellate court placed too much emphasis on the commercial nature of the parody. The opinion of the appellate court was reversed and the case was remanded for further proceedings. Subsequently, the parties agreed to settle the case to avoid further legal expense.
The noted alternative-country band Uncle Tupelo
pays homage to the strength of the catalog with the song "Acuff-Rose" on their final record "Anodyne
". The lyrics include the line "Name me a song that everybody knows / And I'll bet you it belongs to Acuff-Rose."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
firm formed by Roy Acuff
Roy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the King of Country Music, Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.Acuff...
and Fred Rose
Fred Rose
Fred Rose may refer to:*Fred Rose , publisher of country music*Fred Rose , Polish-born communist politician and trade union organiser in Canada*Fred Rose , cyclist...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. Acuff-Rose's honest behavior towards their writers set them apart from other music publishing firms at the time and lead them to fame throughout the 50's, 60's, 70's.
History
Acuff-Rose was formed by country music performer Roy AcuffRoy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the King of Country Music, Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.Acuff...
and Fred Rose
Fred Rose (musician)
Fred Rose was an American Hall of Fame songwriter and music publishing executive.-Biography:Born in Evansville, Indiana, Fred Rose started playing piano and singing as a small boy. In his teens, he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he worked in bars busking for tips, and finally vaudeville...
, a major Nashville music-industry figure who had a respected ability as a talent scout. Many country performers had been badly cheated in the past with regard to copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
and other rights to their creations. Many were unsophisticated and naive and were taken advantage of by unscrupulous agents, attorneys
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, record promoters, record labels and others. When they started their publishing company, a condition to the gentleman's agreement between Acuff and Rose was that "our company would be honest. The writers would always be taken care of. No one would act in a shady way". Acuff-Rose was affiliated with BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
and had a subsidiary firm, Milene Music which handled music from ASCAP member composers.
Acuff-Rose had its headquarters on 8th Avenue South in the Melrose district of Nashville and was something of a landmark to those knowledgeable of the music industry. It was here that Hank Williams, to prove his ability to Rose, wrote what would become a major hit song ("I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love with You") while Rose went out to a nearby restaurant for a cup of coffee. Rose formed a friendship with Williams, as he did many performers.
On Fred Rose's passing in 1954, his son Wesley Rose
Wesley Rose
Wesley Rose was an American music industry executive and record producer.The son of songwriter Fred Rose, he was born in Chicago, Illinois, and studied to become a Chartered Accountant...
served as president of Acuff-Rose. Wesley Rose led the publishing company for the next 30 years. He was not only instrumental in the success of Acuff-Rose, but was also instrumental in the growth of country music outside the U.S., being the first country music publisher to establish offices overseas. Acuff-Rose Music flourished throughout this period. Lefty Frizzell
Lefty Frizzell
Lefty Frizzell , born William Orville Frizzell, was an American country music singer and songwriter of the 1950s, and a proponent of honky tonk music. His relaxed style of singing was an influence on later stars Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, George Jones and John Fogerty...
, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
Felice Bryant and Boudleaux Bryant were an American husband-and-wife country music and pop songwriting team best known for songs such as "Rocky Top," "Love Hurts" and numerous Everly Brothers hits, including "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Bye Bye Love".-Beginnings:Boudleaux was born Diadorius...
, Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
, Don Gibson
Don Gibson
Donald Eugene "Don" Gibson was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson penned such country standards as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoyed a string of country hits from 1957 into the early 1970s.-Biography:Don Gibson was...
, The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
, Mickey Newbury
Mickey Newbury
Mickey Newbury was an American songwriter, a critically acclaimed recording artist, and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.-Biography:...
, Dallas Frazier
Dallas Frazier
Dallas Frazier is an American country musician and songwriter who had success in the 1950s and 60s.-Biography:Frazier was born in Spiro, Oklahoma but was raised in Bakersfield, California...
and Whitey Shafer were some of the significant songwriters signed exclusively to Acuff-Rose in the '50's, '60's and early '70's.
Acuff-Rose Music also operated a record label, Hickory Records
Hickory Records
Hickory Records is a United States record label founded by Acuff-Rose Music in 1954 which operated the label up to 1979. Present owner Sony/ATV Music Publishing revived the label in 2007. Originally based in Nashville, functioning as an independent label throughout its history, it has had several...
.
Recognizing the frailty of their health and that the company he and Fred Rose had founded in 1942 was in steady decline, Roy Acuff approached Wesley Rose late in 1984 and suggested that it was time to sell the catalog. They didn't have to look very far for a buyer. By May 1985, Grand Ole Opry parent company Gaylord Entertainment Company
Gaylord Entertainment Company
The Gaylord Entertainment Company operates a number of hotel, resort, and media companies that were built by Edward Gaylord. It was previously a subsidiary of the Oklahoma City-based Oklahoma Publishing Company, which is owned by the Gaylord family and publishes the Daily Oklahoman newspaper...
purchased the catalog. The company returned to prominence during this time under the guidance of Music Row veterans Jerry Bradley and Troy Tomlinson. However, finding itself in need of cash in order to complete construction of one of its trademark convention hotels in Texas, Gaylord sold the publishing company to Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Sony/ATV Music Publishing is a music publishing company co-owned by The Michael Jackson Family Trust and Sony. The organisation was originally founded as Associated TeleVision in 1955 by Lew Grade. In 1957, ATV acquired Pye Records as a wholly owned subsidiary...
in 2002. Sony/ATV Music Publishing had previously gobbled up Acuff-Rose's main Music Row rival, Tree International. The combined catalogs continue to dominate the country music publishing industry. In 2007, Sony/ATV Music Nashville became the first publisher in history to capture BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
Country Music Publisher of the Year, ASCAP Country Music Publisher of the Year, SESAC
SESAC
SESAC, originally the Society of European Stage Authors & Composers, is the smallest of the three performance rights organizations in the United States. SESAC was founded in 1930, making it the second-oldest performing rights organization in the U.S. SESAC is also the fastest-growing PRO in the...
Country Music Publisher of the Year and Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Country Music Publisher of the Year.
Acuff-Rose Music was involved in a landmark copyright infringement case in the 1990s. Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, 510 U.S. 569 was a United States Supreme Court copyright law case that established that a commercial parody can qualify as fair use...
(510 U.S. 569), 1994 In dispute was the use by rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
artist Luther Campbell
Luther Campbell
Luther R. Campbell , also known as Luke Skyywalker, Uncle Luke or Luke, is a record label owner, rap performer , and actor...
(then using the alias "Luke Skyywalker") and his band 2 Live Crew
2 Live Crew
2 Live Crew was a hip hop group from Miami, Florida. They caused considerable controversy with the sexual themes in their work, particularly on their 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be.- Early career :...
of a substantial amount of the Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
hit song "Oh, Pretty Woman" in a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
. Claiming their version of the song fell under the fair use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
doctrine of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107, Campbell prevailed in The United States District Court in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. However, this was reversed at the appellate level by the United States 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case was argued before the United States Supreme Court on November 9, 1993. Handing down its ruling on March 7, 1994, the court held that the appellate court placed too much emphasis on the commercial nature of the parody. The opinion of the appellate court was reversed and the case was remanded for further proceedings. Subsequently, the parties agreed to settle the case to avoid further legal expense.
The noted alternative-country band Uncle Tupelo
Uncle Tupelo
Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country music group from Belleville, Illinois, active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their previous band, The Primitives, left to attend college. The trio recorded three albums for Rockville...
pays homage to the strength of the catalog with the song "Acuff-Rose" on their final record "Anodyne
Anodyne (album)
Anodyne is the fourth and final studio album by alternative country band Uncle Tupelo, released on October 5, 1993. The recording of the album was preceded by the departure of the original drummer Mike Heidorn and the addition of three new band members: bassist John Stirratt, drummer Ken Coomer,...
". The lyrics include the line "Name me a song that everybody knows / And I'll bet you it belongs to Acuff-Rose."