"That Alan" ...How ya' doin'? You asked about my long
time writing partner and friend Ben Raleigh.

Well I met Ben, who was the lyric writer of hits like
"Dungaree Doll", "Wonderful, Wonderful", "She's a Fool",
"Love is a Hurting Thing" and one of my all-time
favorites, "Tell Laura I Love Her" in 1962. We were
introduced by one of my early mentors Paul Vance, who
co-wrote "Catch a Falling Star", "Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie
Weenie Yellow polka dot Bikini",etc. He brought Ben in
to write with me and Danny Jordan [who later became one
of the Detergents] who were recording as a duo, for
Diamond records.

Soon Ben and I just started writing together and
started getting some good covers...Wayne Newton, Jack
Scott, Leroy Van Dyke, Aretha Franklyn, Jose
Feliceano, Bobby Darin. Ben introduced me to Freddie
Bienstock at Hill and Range, who asked us to write for
several Elvis movies, to Arnold Shaw at E.B. Marks
music who got us a hit with Helen Shapiro in the U.K.
and to Al Gallico at Shapiro Bernstein, who offered me
a chance to become the first Black country artist
signed to major label.

At that time Ben was also writing with Jeff Barry,
Ellie Greenwich, Sherman Edwards and Mark Barkan. I
was lucky to have him on Wednesday and Saturday.

Then in 1963 we wrote and I produced "Midnight Mary"
for Joey Powers. I still can remember taking publicity
pictures and being handed a gold record by Larry
Uttal, who whispered, "Now this doesn't neccesarily
mean it sold a million records!"

We continued to write for several years and have
covers by Dion, the Hues Corporation, Gene Pitney,
Freddie and the Dreamers, etc. and when I was at
WB Music We bought the renewal rights to his song,
"Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside".

Two weeks before he passed away in 1997, we got
together and updated "Midnight Mary". Originally, our
Hero worked on the railroad...[and with apologies to
Joe Nelson, who wrote recently that was his favorite
part of the song] we changed the line to 'Just got a
job at the Airport. Also in the new version, Mary gets
pregnant.

In one of my last conversations with Ben, I asked him,
which of his songs has earned the most money? He
laughed and said, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?"

This was before the release of the Multi-million
dollar making "Scooby-Doo Movie"...and it's equally
sucessful sequel!

regards, Artie Wayne http://artiewayne.com/