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Restless Giant
The Life and Times of Jean Aberbach and Hill and Range Songs
Awards and Recognition:
Received the award for Best Research in Recorded Rock or Popular Music from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), 2011. Winner of the Belmont Country Music Book of the Year Award, 2011.
An in-depth look at the career of Jean Aberbach, legendary founder of Hill and Range Songs
Restless Giant is a fascinating account of the life and times of Jean Aberbach, the elusive music publishing legend who, with his brother Julian, built one of music history's most powerful popular music publishing companies: Hill and Range Songs. During the 1940s and 1950s music publishers, rather than artists and record companies, controlled the American hit-making machine. Using corporate records, Aberbach's daybooks, and extensive interviews with top performers and songwriters, Biszick-Lockwood weaves an adventure story that demystifies this occupation, showing how Aberbach's keen insights, behind-the-scenes manipulations, and bold business moves fundamentally changed the music industry and nurtured the careers of some of America's biggest popular performers and songwriters.
The Austrian-born Aberbach brothers overtook their American competitors, capturing entire genres of music to build a privately owned international "empire of song" while at the same time affording songwriters unmatched control over their work. This business model resulted in more than three hundred chart hits and the first-ever song royalties being paid to songwriters and performers including Bill Monroe and the Sons of the Pioneers. Biszick-Lockwood also brings new, intriguing material to the story of Elvis Presley, who shared ownership with the Aberbachs in two music publishing companies throughout his entire career.
"Any reader with an interest in the music industry will find valuable information and analysis here, and fans of country music will learn much about the relationships among Hill and Range artists such as Elvis Presley, Hank Snow, and Eddy Arnold, and songwriters such as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Highly recommended."--Library Journal
"A detailed and engaging account of music publisher Jean Aberbach's long life and the musical empire he built with his brother Julian. In telling the story of Hill and Range Songs, Biszick-Lockwood puts the emphasis right where it should be: on the innovations and forward thinking that made Aberbach's great success possible."--Ronnie Pugh, author of Ernest Tubb: The Texas Troubadour
