IN OTHER NEWS: GARY U.S. BONDS SUES CHUBBY CHECKER . . . JANUARY 12, 1963

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logoA MCRFB news brief: 1963

Bonds says Checker Stole His Song

 

 

 

 

 

Gary U.S. Bonds circa 1961 (Click image for larger view)
Gary U.S. Bonds circa 1961 (Click image for larger view)

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.

Chubby Checker circa 1960

 (Information and news source: Billboard; January 12, 1963).

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