A MCRFB news brief: 1963
Bonds says Checker Stole His Song
PHILADELPHIA — Rock and roll singer Gary (U.S.) Bonds claims that twister Chubby Checker swiped his top-selling song, “Quarter To Three.” And he went into U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to get the song back.
Bonds, who used to sing out of Norfolk, Va., as plain U.S. Bonds, filed a $100,000 damage suit against Checker. Bonds, a one-time spiritual singer named Gary Anderson, and Rock Master, Inc., a firm in which Bonds is associated with, claimed that “Quarter To Three” sold 800,000 records in 1961 before Checker and a number of co-defendants pirated it, as Bonds and his firm claimed in court.
The suit, filed by attorney Harold Lissius, alleges that they “manufactured and sold a version of “Quarter To Three” called “Dancin’ Party,” sung by Checker.
Named as co-defendants with Checker were Kalmann Muci, Inc., a publisher; Cameo-Parkway Recording Comapany, Kalmann Cohen, and officer of Kalmann Music, and David Appell, a music writer, all from Philadelphia.
U.S. Bonds says that “Dancin’ Party” was a flagrant imitation made to “deceive and confuse the public . . . and unlawfully capitalizes on the popularity of “Quarter To Three.” END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; January 12, 1963).
So what was the outcome?
I’ve heard that part of the settlement agreement was The Orlons recording a cover of Bonds’ song, “Not Me,” which went on to rise to Billboard #12 in ’63.