I feel, at this time, our country could benefit from the release of 'I Want a Doll.' It's the type of song that's good for morale.
—Greg Nathan
Springfield, Oregon is not the entertainment capital of the world, but as a result of a long process, it was there, last month, that Soaring Music Publications became the successor to all of the song-royalty rights owned by the 1950's music publisher Chase Music Company, as SMP's Owner/President, Greg Nathan completed the successor process enabling the merging of his parents' music-publishing business with his own music-publishing business, a process that began in 2014.
Actually, music publishing in the Nathan family goes back another generation since Nathan's grandmother was the composer of the published song: “Dancing to an Old Time Melody," words and music by Jean Nathan. Pictures of Nathan's Grandmother and the cover of “Dancing..." can be seen under the “Pics" tab at the website of Soaring Music Publications. It was Nathan's grandmother that always avoided her grandson's short name, Greg, preferring to summon him in a thick, English accent that she never lost, calling out: Gregory... “My brother Larry still teases me about it," Nathan said.
Yes, on his father's side, Nathan has an ancestry that belongs to England. His dad Charles, the songwriter responsible for the estate of musicals and songs that Greg became trustee over, was born in London, coming to this country at the age of two. Soaring Music Publications and its website are dedicated to the future production of songs written by Charles Nathan. “There are too many good songs to let them go to waste," Nathan says.
In 1953 Charles Nathan earned a Citation of Achievement from BMI because of “the great national popularity attained" by the song for writing the melody to “Say You're Mine Again." Nathan explained, “I was going through BMI's catalog and located the entry for “Say You're Mine Again." There was a star by the title of my dad's song. There were a bunch of titles to songs listed on the page, but my dad's song was the only one that had a star by it. I found out later that the star meant it was a “BMI award-winning song." It seems that earning an award from BMI for songwriting is a rather-rare distinction."
Since the pathway for the royalty payment of songs written by Charles Nathan is now clearly defined, Greg is stepping up his effort to find artists to record his dad's songs. Charles wrote a Christmas song that was produced in 2004. The song was on the local radio in the Springfield/Eugene area but was never released. The song, featuring Nathan's long-time sister-in-law, Donna Courtell is being released for the first time this holiday season. Nathan said, “Everybody performs well on the recording of the Christmas song 'I Want a Doll,' and despite a couple of engineering elements being less than desirable, it still seems to be an enjoyable, holiday-season listen. “I Want a Doll" is a well-written song and I've decided to release the track for this year's holiday season. I feel, at this time, our country could benefit from the release of “I Want a Doll." It's the type of song that's good for morale. We're hoping for a positive response. We'd love to see the song starting to be performed during the holidays. We'd be even more thrilled to learn a new rendition of “I Want a Doll“ was scheduled for release."
What Nathan also hopes to accomplish from releasing “I Want a Doll“ this holiday season is the sale of some lead sheets to other songs written by Charles Nathan. “We're different that way. We have lead sheets for sale. The foundation of Soaring being a business is that we sell downloadable files containing lead sheets. There are twenty-four songs written by my dad, in seven different keys, currently for sale at the Soaring site. The lead-sheet files we sell include three types of lyric sheets, so there's real value there for just two bucks. You can hear records or demos of all of the songs there are for-sale lead sheets to at the Soaring site. A full track player and a preview player are available to enable listening before you buy. Just for fun, both players can shuffle the tracks. Using the preview player, it takes less than ten minutes to hear twenty-four previews of the concerned songs. If a preview catches your ear you can listen to the full track in a couple of places on the site. Merry Christmas Everyone."
Nathan's Christmas could be very merry if some music professionals surfing the Soaring website fall in love with the songs written by his dad, Charles Nathan. Greg knows the numbers won't lie. He has a wait-and-see attitude. He also knows: there's always next year.
Actually, music publishing in the Nathan family goes back another generation since Nathan's grandmother was the composer of the published song: “Dancing to an Old Time Melody," words and music by Jean Nathan. Pictures of Nathan's Grandmother and the cover of “Dancing..." can be seen under the “Pics" tab at the website of Soaring Music Publications. It was Nathan's grandmother that always avoided her grandson's short name, Greg, preferring to summon him in a thick, English accent that she never lost, calling out: Gregory... “My brother Larry still teases me about it," Nathan said.
Yes, on his father's side, Nathan has an ancestry that belongs to England. His dad Charles, the songwriter responsible for the estate of musicals and songs that Greg became trustee over, was born in London, coming to this country at the age of two. Soaring Music Publications and its website are dedicated to the future production of songs written by Charles Nathan. “There are too many good songs to let them go to waste," Nathan says.
In 1953 Charles Nathan earned a Citation of Achievement from BMI because of “the great national popularity attained" by the song for writing the melody to “Say You're Mine Again." Nathan explained, “I was going through BMI's catalog and located the entry for “Say You're Mine Again." There was a star by the title of my dad's song. There were a bunch of titles to songs listed on the page, but my dad's song was the only one that had a star by it. I found out later that the star meant it was a “BMI award-winning song." It seems that earning an award from BMI for songwriting is a rather-rare distinction."
Since the pathway for the royalty payment of songs written by Charles Nathan is now clearly defined, Greg is stepping up his effort to find artists to record his dad's songs. Charles wrote a Christmas song that was produced in 2004. The song was on the local radio in the Springfield/Eugene area but was never released. The song, featuring Nathan's long-time sister-in-law, Donna Courtell is being released for the first time this holiday season. Nathan said, “Everybody performs well on the recording of the Christmas song 'I Want a Doll,' and despite a couple of engineering elements being less than desirable, it still seems to be an enjoyable, holiday-season listen. “I Want a Doll" is a well-written song and I've decided to release the track for this year's holiday season. I feel, at this time, our country could benefit from the release of “I Want a Doll." It's the type of song that's good for morale. We're hoping for a positive response. We'd love to see the song starting to be performed during the holidays. We'd be even more thrilled to learn a new rendition of “I Want a Doll“ was scheduled for release."
What Nathan also hopes to accomplish from releasing “I Want a Doll“ this holiday season is the sale of some lead sheets to other songs written by Charles Nathan. “We're different that way. We have lead sheets for sale. The foundation of Soaring being a business is that we sell downloadable files containing lead sheets. There are twenty-four songs written by my dad, in seven different keys, currently for sale at the Soaring site. The lead-sheet files we sell include three types of lyric sheets, so there's real value there for just two bucks. You can hear records or demos of all of the songs there are for-sale lead sheets to at the Soaring site. A full track player and a preview player are available to enable listening before you buy. Just for fun, both players can shuffle the tracks. Using the preview player, it takes less than ten minutes to hear twenty-four previews of the concerned songs. If a preview catches your ear you can listen to the full track in a couple of places on the site. Merry Christmas Everyone."
Nathan's Christmas could be very merry if some music professionals surfing the Soaring website fall in love with the songs written by his dad, Charles Nathan. Greg knows the numbers won't lie. He has a wait-and-see attitude. He also knows: there's always next year.
