The Sale of Duke Records and Johnny Ace's Contract

Johnny's career moved forward working with both Don Robey and James Mattis, however, following the sale of Duke records, Robey had a rather undefined partnership with Mattis which would play a role in Johnny's music with the Beale Streeters.

Still, with no musical skill but undeniably an ear for music and the ability to push it to gain results, Robey was able to release 2 hits back-to-back. Nonetheless, this would not negate the subtle villainy he would adopt to forge ahead.

In this continuation of the series, Michael T. Davis, Casey Wood, and Seth West talk more on the hits released by Robey, the relegation of Johnny's music to a cover, and how that relates to the controversial songwriting process Johnny and Mattis adopted.

In this episode, we talk about…

● [04:08] Casey’s old recordings from his archives including one with Manny Pacquiao.

● [12:00] The sale of Duke Records and Johnny Ace's contract to Robey although Mattis continued to direct the career of Johnny Ace, both having little experience in artist development. Robey hears "My Song" and believes it will be his next hit, although the song is not great, and Johnny is not as good as Gatemouth.

● [18:19] How "My Song" became a hit within a week of Robey pushing it out but a cover by Marie Adams broke out before Johnny’s original. Casey explains how royalties work in the music industry.

● [28:15] The songwriting technique of Johnny and Mattis is called to question when a magazine picks up on how "My Song" was extracted from "So long", and calls out Johnny Ace. Why Kansas City is a huge Blues town.

● [32:04] Another hit Song "Cross my heart" released by Robey, which was essentially a similar song structure to "My Song".

● [35:50] The recording of "Angel". While in a loose partnership with Robey, Mattis cuts about ten sides of recordings with the Beale Streeters and sends them to be mastered by Robey, who without any discussion records them again to produce better music.