So Tom, the station manager at KSER, told me he got a phone call this past week from a guy who claimed to be Frank Bingo -- the son of the songwriter responsible for "Twenty Flight Rock."
The manager quickly checked out the details of this guy's story online; they were accurate, as far as it goes. The song is credited to Eddie Cochran and Ned Fairchild -- "Ned" being the pen name of Nelda Fairchild. Eddie Cochran took a songwriter's credit, but the royalty statements showed undivided payments to Ms Fairchild. Cochran's credit simply existed on paper -- a common practice at the time.
Ms Fairchild later married a man named Richard Bingo. The caller, Frank, claimed to be their son.
So Tom asked Frank what he was calling about. (It couldn't have been to arrange an interview; Ms Fairchild died two years ago.) He said he was calling about royalty payments -- since I use that title for my show.
Tom told this guy that, while songs are copyrighted, their titles usually aren't. (There's nothing to prevent a young band from writing a totally new song called "Stairway to Heaven" -- apart from the fact that it'd be a poor idea.) He said KSER pays its needle-drop fees every month, so he could take it up with ASCAP if he's serious. And he told the guy, rather than bending over for this sort of cheap shakedown, he'd sooner get me to change the name of my show.
