Bill Buchanan
Encyclopedia
Bill Buchanan was an American songwriter.
created the sound collage "The Flying Saucer." After Buchanan and Goodman severed their partnership in 1959, Buchanan later wrote the song "Please Don't Ask About Barbara" for Bobby Vee
. He also wrote and produced records for other artists, one of which was The 3 Stooges. Some records he co-produced with Dickie Goodman
.
In 1962, with his then partner, Brill Building
veteran Howard Greenfield
, he wrote and produced a break-in for a new recording artist, Susan Smith. (A Letter From Susan / Will You Love Me When I'm Old?" -- Dynamic Sound 502) A few years later, she would meet one of Bill's old partners, Dickie Goodman
, and record with him, become his wife and the mother of their children, one of which is Jon Goodman
, who continues in Dickie's footsteps; making break-in records, and recently wrote the book, "Dickie Goodman
: King Of Novelty".
He also was president of a company manufacturing Disk-Go Cases, a plastic cylindrical portable record storage unit.
In his later years, he worked in a jewelry store in Texas until a few years before his death. He died of cancer August 1, 1996.
5032
"The Thing" was a cover version of Phil Harris' hit of the same name. "Oh Happy Day" was recorded by someone else, before Buchanan did this version.
United Artist Records 531
This was a Halloween-based version of "The Night Before Christmas". "Beware" was also a pretty good Halloween rocker.
This song includes a joke on a break-in when one of the characters tells the creature to stop talking to him in records.
101
101X
102
103
105
107
108
Comic Records 500
Novelty Records 301
Other records he was involved with:
Gone Records
5031
Eddie Platt & His Orch. / Cha-Hua-Hua / Vodka (9/27/58)
It's not known for sure if the Bill Buchanan listed on the label as producer of "Vodka" is the same one this page is about, but, since both records on Gone were released back to back, it's a reasonable assumption that they are the same person.
Golden Records
The Three Stooges / Party At Your House (1959)
This album was written and produced for the Stooges by Bill Buchanan and Bob Ancell. The back-up band, The Music Wreckers, was a band put together by Bill. It's a pretty safe assumption that any of these children's records by the 3 Stooges that mentions the Music Wreckers is produced and written by Bill Buchanan.
The tracks on this album are as follows:
We're Coming To Your House
The Concert
At The Baseball Game
Click Dart's Band Stand
The Chipped Monks
Let's Cut A Record
Sing-Along With Moe
At The Circus Parts 1 & 2
The Toy Store Parts 1 & 2
Goodbye, Auld Lang Syne!
Golden Records 559
The 3 Stooges / All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth / I Gotta Cold For Christmas (12/1959)
Golden Records 623
The 3 Stooges / Sing Happy Yuletide Songs
The tracks on this e.p. are as follows:
I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
I Gotta Cold For Christmas
Wreck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly
Jingle Bells Drag
Down Through The Housetop
20th Century Fox Records 45-139
The Little Toy Band / The Little Tin Man / Teeny Little Me (1/1960)
This was written and produced by Buchanan & Cella
Guaranteed Records 204
The Prancers / Short Short `nin' / Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer (1/1960)
This one was produced by Buchanan & Goodman.
Triodex Records 112
James MacArthur / (The Story Of) The In-Between Years - (Parts 1 & 2) (1961)
This was also released on Scepter.
It was produced and co-written by Bill Buchanan.
The singer on this record would turn up in a much more famous Role on the hit t.v. show "Hawaii 5-0". When Steve McGarrett would say, "Book `em Dano!", this is who he was talking to.
Dynamic Sound Records 502
Susan Smith / A Letter From Susan / Will You Love Me When I'm Old? (1962)
This was written and produced by Greenfield & Buchanan.
Liberty Records
F-55419
Bobby Vee / I Can't Say Goodbye / Please Don't Ask About Barbara (2/24/1962)
Barbara was written by Bill Buchanan.
Rori Records 714
Joel Langran / I Really Want To Be A "Singar" / Young And Foolish (1964)
Written & produced by Buchanan & Goodman.
Label Unknown
Susan Smith / Never Play Poker With A Man Named Doc Or Eat At A Place Called Joe's (1966) (At this time, no other information about this record is known.)
Produced by Dickie Goodman
and/or Bill Buchanan.
Career
His most famous composition took place in 1956, when he and Dickie GoodmanDickie Goodman
Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman was an American music producer.-Career:In June 1956 Goodman created his first record, "The Flying Saucer", which he co-wrote with his partner Bill Buchanan, and featured a four-minute rewriting of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio show...
created the sound collage "The Flying Saucer." After Buchanan and Goodman severed their partnership in 1959, Buchanan later wrote the song "Please Don't Ask About Barbara" for Bobby Vee
Bobby Vee
Robert Thomas Velline , known as Bobby Vee, is an American pop music singer. According to Billboard magazine, Vee has had 38 Hot 100 chart hits, 10 of which hit the Top 20.-Career:...
. He also wrote and produced records for other artists, one of which was The 3 Stooges. Some records he co-produced with Dickie Goodman
Dickie Goodman
Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman was an American music producer.-Career:In June 1956 Goodman created his first record, "The Flying Saucer", which he co-wrote with his partner Bill Buchanan, and featured a four-minute rewriting of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio show...
.
In 1962, with his then partner, Brill Building
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood...
veteran Howard Greenfield
Howard Greenfield
Howard Greenfield was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building...
, he wrote and produced a break-in for a new recording artist, Susan Smith. (A Letter From Susan / Will You Love Me When I'm Old?" -- Dynamic Sound 502) A few years later, she would meet one of Bill's old partners, Dickie Goodman
Dickie Goodman
Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman was an American music producer.-Career:In June 1956 Goodman created his first record, "The Flying Saucer", which he co-wrote with his partner Bill Buchanan, and featured a four-minute rewriting of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio show...
, and record with him, become his wife and the mother of their children, one of which is Jon Goodman
Jon Goodman
Jonathan "Jon" Goodman is an Anglo-Irish former professional footballer, and was the Sports Scientist at Reading before leaving to concentrate on his consultancy business....
, who continues in Dickie's footsteps; making break-in records, and recently wrote the book, "Dickie Goodman
Dickie Goodman
Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman was an American music producer.-Career:In June 1956 Goodman created his first record, "The Flying Saucer", which he co-wrote with his partner Bill Buchanan, and featured a four-minute rewriting of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio show...
: King Of Novelty".
He also was president of a company manufacturing Disk-Go Cases, a plastic cylindrical portable record storage unit.
In his later years, he worked in a jewelry store in Texas until a few years before his death. He died of cancer August 1, 1996.
Bill Buchanan
Gone RecordsGone Records
Gone Records was a record label founded by George Goldner that was active in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was founded in 1957. Among the artists that recorded for the label were Bill Haley & His Comets, Ral Donner, Jo-Ann Campbell, and Johnny Rivers. It was acquired by Morris Levy and...
5032
- The Thing/Oh Happy Day (9/27/1958)
"The Thing" was a cover version of Phil Harris' hit of the same name. "Oh Happy Day" was recorded by someone else, before Buchanan did this version.
United Artist Records 531
- The Night Before Halloween/Beware (10/11/1962)
This was a Halloween-based version of "The Night Before Christmas". "Beware" was also a pretty good Halloween rocker.
Buchanan And Ancell
Flying Saucer Records 501- The Creature (From A Science Fiction Movie)/Meet The Creature (From A Science Fiction Movie) (11/30/1957)
This song includes a joke on a break-in when one of the characters tells the creature to stop talking to him in records.
Buchanan And Cella
ABC-Paramount Records 45-10033- String Along With Pal-O-Mine/More And More String Along With Pal-O-Mine/Still More String Along With Pal-O-Mine (8/16/1959)
Buchanan And Goodman
Luniverse Records101
- The Flying Saucer Part 1/The Flying Saucer Part 2 (7/25/1956)
101X
- Back To Earth Part 1/Back To Earth Part 2 (7/25/1956)
102
- Buchanan And Goodman On Trial/Crazy (11/7/1956)
103
- The Banana Boat Story/The Mystery (In Slow Motion) (1957)
105
- Flying Saucer The 2nd/Martian Melody (7/13/1957)
107
- Santa And The Satellite Part 1/Santa And The Satellite Part 2 (12/14/1957)
108
- The Flying Saucer Goes West/Saucer Serenade (1958)
Comic Records 500
- Flying Saucer The Third/The Cha Cha Lesson (1959)
Novelty Records 301
- Frankenstein Of '59/Frankenstein Returns (1959)
Buchanan And Greenfield
Novel Records 711- The Invasion/What A Lovely Party (8/11/1964)
Other records he was involved with:
Gone Records
Gone Records
Gone Records was a record label founded by George Goldner that was active in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was founded in 1957. Among the artists that recorded for the label were Bill Haley & His Comets, Ral Donner, Jo-Ann Campbell, and Johnny Rivers. It was acquired by Morris Levy and...
5031
Eddie Platt & His Orch. / Cha-Hua-Hua / Vodka (9/27/58)
It's not known for sure if the Bill Buchanan listed on the label as producer of "Vodka" is the same one this page is about, but, since both records on Gone were released back to back, it's a reasonable assumption that they are the same person.
Golden Records
The Three Stooges / Party At Your House (1959)
This album was written and produced for the Stooges by Bill Buchanan and Bob Ancell. The back-up band, The Music Wreckers, was a band put together by Bill. It's a pretty safe assumption that any of these children's records by the 3 Stooges that mentions the Music Wreckers is produced and written by Bill Buchanan.
The tracks on this album are as follows:
We're Coming To Your House
The Concert
At The Baseball Game
Click Dart's Band Stand
The Chipped Monks
Let's Cut A Record
Sing-Along With Moe
At The Circus Parts 1 & 2
The Toy Store Parts 1 & 2
Goodbye, Auld Lang Syne!
Golden Records 559
The 3 Stooges / All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth / I Gotta Cold For Christmas (12/1959)
Golden Records 623
The 3 Stooges / Sing Happy Yuletide Songs
The tracks on this e.p. are as follows:
I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
I Gotta Cold For Christmas
Wreck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly
Jingle Bells Drag
Down Through The Housetop
20th Century Fox Records 45-139
The Little Toy Band / The Little Tin Man / Teeny Little Me (1/1960)
This was written and produced by Buchanan & Cella
Guaranteed Records 204
The Prancers / Short Short `nin' / Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer (1/1960)
This one was produced by Buchanan & Goodman.
Triodex Records 112
James MacArthur / (The Story Of) The In-Between Years - (Parts 1 & 2) (1961)
This was also released on Scepter.
It was produced and co-written by Bill Buchanan.
The singer on this record would turn up in a much more famous Role on the hit t.v. show "Hawaii 5-0". When Steve McGarrett would say, "Book `em Dano!", this is who he was talking to.
Dynamic Sound Records 502
Susan Smith / A Letter From Susan / Will You Love Me When I'm Old? (1962)
This was written and produced by Greenfield & Buchanan.
Liberty Records
Liberty Records
Liberty Records was a United States-based record label. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.-1950s:...
F-55419
Bobby Vee / I Can't Say Goodbye / Please Don't Ask About Barbara (2/24/1962)
Barbara was written by Bill Buchanan.
Rori Records 714
Joel Langran / I Really Want To Be A "Singar" / Young And Foolish (1964)
Written & produced by Buchanan & Goodman.
Label Unknown
Susan Smith / Never Play Poker With A Man Named Doc Or Eat At A Place Called Joe's (1966) (At this time, no other information about this record is known.)
Produced by Dickie Goodman
Dickie Goodman
Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman was an American music producer.-Career:In June 1956 Goodman created his first record, "The Flying Saucer", which he co-wrote with his partner Bill Buchanan, and featured a four-minute rewriting of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio show...
and/or Bill Buchanan.
External links
- http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/billbuchanan.txt
- http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/bill_buchanan.htm