DICK JAMES
Born in 1920 in London, Richard Leon Vapnick -his real name- became a professional singer at age 17 and in 1945 changed his name to Dick James. in 1955 he recorded "Robin Hood" for
George Martin in Parlophone Label. that number was the soundtrack for a TV series played by Richard Green and it reached number 9 in the hit parade. In 1959 he gave up music and started working as an assistant for Sidney Bron until September 1961 when he formed his own company where he edited music. Among the number ones his company owned was "How Do You do it?", which was offered to George Martin. On July 1 1962 he meets Brian Epstein and the Beatles, with whom he negotiates the possibility of acquiring the publishing rights of "Please Please Me". It was him who got their first national TV appearance for the programme Thank You Lucky Stars. Brian Epstein. as a sign of his gratitude towards his help. proposed him, on one side, to be his musical agent, and, on the other side, to form a company called Northern Songs which would be responsible for editing all the Beatles music. Dick James got the 50% of the shares and the rest was offered to Paul, John and Brian, who shared them as 40 - 40 - 20 respectively.In the hectic days of Beatlemania, Dick James went back to singing and edited in Parlophone a song called Sing A Song of The Beatles, a medley with songs by the fab four. That same year 1965, Northern Songs became an AS. After his changing, Dick James and his mate owned just the 23% of the shares, John And Paul 15% each one respectively, NEMS Enterprises 7'5% and George and Ringo, both together, 1'6% out of the total shares. Towards 1967, these shares had multiplied by five their value.
He was constantly asking John and Paul to write songs such as "
Yesterday" or "Michelle", that is, songs which generate lots of benefits. Towards 1968, Dick James, aware that the Beatles would never write songs of the like, started to become nervous. All the same, he didn't like the social campaign of John's. On the other hand, "the boys" felt uncomfortable with the contract that joined both parts, something that back in 1963 they had felt it was marvellous. On top of this mutual segregation, one had to add the each-time-more sweet offers that Dick James received due to his percentage in Northern Songs. The entrance in the picture of Allen Klein to the Beatles universe was what rushed Dick James into selling his part to ATV (Sir Kew Grade), which was made behind John and Paul's back.In 1986, short before the heart attack that caused his death -this took part while he was playing cards- a trial would sum up that his way of doing business was "inadequate and illegal".