Hutch Davie

Robert Bunyan Davie III (August 4, 1930 – April 7, 2020),[1] professionally known as Hutch Davie, or Bob "Hutch" Davie, and sometimes credited as Bun Davie, Budd McCoy, Clint Harmon or Chuck Harmon, was an orchestra leader, arranger, pianist, and composer of popular music.[2] He composed the song "Green Door",[3] and led the orchestra which backed Jim Lowe on the best-selling version of the song in 1956.

Early life and education

Davie was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the only child of Bunyan Davie Jr. and Louise McCoy. He was a musical prodigy and taught himself to play the piano by the age of four. He had perfect pitch and expressed his distaste for music that was not in tune while still too young to articulate what was wrong with it. At the age of five he started attending the Birmingham Conservatory of Music. After high school, he attended Louisiana State University but refused to comply with a sports requirement and dropped out after a year.[2]

Career

He moved to New York City and started working for NBC at the age of twenty. He married a model, Mary Elizabeth Pfaff, and entered the music business. His first big success was the song "Green Door" in 1956, which he arranged and on which he played piano.[4] The record achieved BMI Million-air status (a million radio and television performances in the United States).[5] With record producer Bob Crewe, he also arranged Santo and Johnny's hit "Sleep Walk", and in 1958 had a #51 chart hit, as "Hutch Davie and his Honky Tonkers", with his version of Woody Herman's "Woodchopper's Ball".[6] As a pianist he recorded jazz standards with his band the Honky Tonkers, and an album featuring his solo playing, Piano Memories, was issued in 1958.

He produced and arranged Linda Scott's three big hits on Canadian-American Records: "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star", "Don't Bet Money Honey", and "I Don't Know Why". He also produced and arranged the Angels' "'Til" and "Cry Baby Cry" and James Ray's "If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody" on Caprice Records, a subsidiary of Canadian-American. As a songwriter, record producer and director of A&R, he also worked with such artists as Shirley Ellis, Patty Duke, Lesley Gore, Ellie Greenwich, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.[4] He was the arranger on the Bob Crewe Generation’s song "Music to Watch Girls By" in 1967, for which he was nominated for a Grammy.[4] He also worked with Oliver on the songs "Good Morning Starshine" and "Jean", The Shirelles, and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, among many others.[2]

In 1974, he moved to Scotch Plains, New Jersey with his wife and son.[2]

Davie died on April 7, 2020 in West Orange, New Jersey, at age 89.[1]

Works

1956

• "By You, by You, by You" (1956) with Marvin Moore (b. 1919)[7]
• "Corn Poem" (1956)[8]
• "Dixieland Roll" (1956) with Charles Grean[9]
• "Green Door" (1956) with Marvin Moore[10]
• "I Dreamed" (1956)[11]
• "I Feel The Beat" (1956) with Marvin Moore[7]
• "Just Love Me" (1956) with Marvin Moore[11]
• "Just One More Time" (1956)[11]
• "The Little Man In Chinatown" (1956) (B side of "Green Door")[9]
• "Love! Love! Love! (1956)[11]
• "Moon Pearls" (1956)[8]
• "You Were Mine for a While" (1956) with Charles Grean[11]

1957

• "By You, By You, By You (1957) with Marvin Moore[12]
• "I Ain’t Goin’ There No More" (1957) with lyrics by Marvin Moore[13]
• "The Bright Light" (1957) with Marvin Moore[7][14]
• "Highway" (1957) with Marvin Moore[14]
• "I Don't Love You No More" (1957) with Marvin Moore[12]
• "I Feel the Beat" (1957) with Marvin Moore[10][12]
• "(I Wish I Had A Dog Like) Rin Tin Tin" (1957)[15]
• "Love and Kisses" (1957) with Marvin Moore[14]
• "A Million Teardrops" (1957) with lyrics by Ralph Miller[14]
• "My Confession" (1957) with Marvin Moore and Charles Randolph Grean
• "Oh, Oh, Baby" (1957) with Marvin Moore[12]
• "Piano Roll Pete" (1957) with Marvin Moore[12]
• "Puppets in Paris (1957) with Marvin Moore[14]
• "Rock and Roll Rhapsody" (1957) with Marvin Moore[14]
• "Rooftops Of Rome" / "Puppet In Paris" (1957) with Marvin Moore (as Bob Davie, His Orchestra and Chorus)[16][14]
• "Slow Train" (1957) with Marvin Moore[12]
• "The Song You Heard When You Fell in Love" (1957) with Marvin Moore[14]
• "That Kind of Love" (1957) with Marvin Moore[12]
• "What's Behind the Strange Door" (1957) with Marvin Moore[12]
• "Why Did You Break My Heart" (1957) with Marvin Moore[12]

1958

• "Annabelle" (1958) with Marvin Moore[17]
• "Gwendolyn and the Werewolf" (1958) [17]
• "Honolulu Holiday" (1958)[17]
• "The Hoobaschnob Machine" (1958)[17]
• "Hoopa Hoola (With A Hula-Hoop)," (1958) with Charles Grean, sung by Betty Johnson[7]
• "How Much" (1958) sung by Betty Johnson[7]
• "The Ladder of Love" (1958) with Marvin Moore[17]
• "Lantern Street" (1958)[17]
• "The Look" (1958) with Marvin Moore and Irwin Schuster[17]
• "Mildred, Our Choir Director" (1958) as "Bob Davis"[18]
• "One More Time" (1958) with Marvin Moore
• "The Restless Sea" (1958) with Marvin Moore[17]
• "Rickshaw" (1958)[17]
• "Rock and Roll Rhapsody" (1958) with Marvin Moore[10]
• "Shanghai Doll" (1958)[17]
• "Swing, Swing" (1958) with Marvin Moore[17]
• "There's Never Been A Night" (1958) (as B. Davie) with Irwin Schuster, sung by Shirley Bassey
• "Turtle-Dovin' (1958) with Marvin Moore[17]
• "Waiting for My Date" (1958) with Marvin Moore, sung by Moore's two daughters the School Belles[19]
• "The Year of Our Love" (1958) with Marvin Moore[17]

1959

• "Be My Steady, Clementine" (1960) with Irwin Schuster[20]
• "Boppin' on the Beach (1959)[21]
• "The Count of Monte Christo" (1959) with Marvin Moore[20]
• "He Laid Poor Jesse in His Grave" (1959) with Joe Csida[20]
• "Hiawatha" (1959)[21]
• "Lucky 15" with Marvin Moore[21]
• "Lucky 16" (1959) with Marvin Moore and Johnny Hicks[21]
• "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" (1959)[21]
• "Moonlight Cha Cha Cha" (1959)[21]
• "More String Along with Pal-O-Mine" (1959) with John J. Reynolds and Bill Buchanan[20]
• "Past Freight" (1959)[21]
• "Potrzebie" (1959) with Marvin Moore[21]
• "Princess"(1959) with Irwin Schuster[20]
• "Ramar of the Jungle' (1959) with Marvin Moore and Joe Csida[20]
• "Rock and Roll Party" (1959)[21]
• "Rockin' One Up a Storm" (1959)[21]
• "Still More String Along with Pal-O-Mine" (1959) with John J. Reynolds and Bill Buchanan[20]
• "Suntan Tattoo" with Marvin Moore[21]
• "They Called Me Captain Kidd" (1959) with Joe Csida[20]
• "What's The Good (Of All This Love)" (1959) with Marvin Moore[21]

1960

• "Don't You Cry" (1960) with Irwin Schuster[22]
• "Double Date" (1960) with Marvin Moore[22]
• "Chestnut Drive" (1960) Instrumental, played by Clyde Gary And His Orchestra[7]
• "The Bells" (1960) words by Edgar Allan Poe[23]
• "Johnny On the Spot" (1960) with Irwin Schuster[22]
• "Plant a Little Kiss" (1960) with Rose Burton and Irwin Schuster[22]
• "The Raven" (1960) words by Edgar Allan Poe[23]
• "The Story of Jesse James" (1960) with Joe Csida & Irwin Schuster[24]
• "Yes You Are" (1960) with Irwin Schuster[22]

1961

• "Birmingham" (1961) as Hutch Davie[25]
• "Awake, My Charity (1961) with Marvin Moore[26]
• "Christmas Day" (1961) as Hutch Davie, with George Weiss[25]
• "Daddy, Daddy (Gotta Get a Phone in My Room)" (1961) with Betsy Brye[10]
• "Hop Scotch" (1961)[26]
• "It's All Because" (1961) words and music by Hutch Davie[25]
• "The Land of Stars" (1961) with George Weiss[26]
• "The Sacred Guest" (1961) with Marvin Moore[26]
• "Since I Met You" (1961) as Hutch Davie[25]
• "Starlight Starbright" (1961) with lyrics by George Weiss
• "Rhythm In My Heart" (undated) lyrics by Marvin Moore[13]
• "A Wicked World" (1961) with Marvin Moore[26]

1962

• "The Dance is Over" (1962) as Chuck Harmon[27]
• "Long and Lonely Night" (1962) as C. Harmon, with G. Weiss and N. Parrel, pseudonym of Neil Galligan[27]
• "That's All I Ask of You" (1962) as Chuck Harmon[27]

1967

• "A Lover's Concerto" (1967) as The Hutch Davie Convention[7]

Discography

• Much Hutch (1958) as "Hutch Davie (& His Honky Tonkers)"[28]

References

1. "Robert Bunyan Davie, Sr. Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information". fanwoodmemorial.com. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
2. Bob “HUTCH” Davie at Wikimedia Archived June 25, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
3. "Gov't control of PD? Why not breathing?". Billboard. May 26, 1958. p. 6. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
4. Biography by Craig Harris, Allmusic.com. Retrieved September 12, 2014
5. BMI Million-Air songs
6. Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955-2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 176. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
7. Search cat45
8. Billboard Vol. 68, No. 14 (April 7, 1956) ISSN 0006-2510
9. 45cat Search
10. "MusicVF.com". Archived from the original on May 3, 2014. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
11. Catalog of Copyright Entries 1956 Music Jan-Dec at the Internet Archive
12. Catalog of Copyright Entries 1957 Music Jan-June at the Internet Archive
13. New York Public Library, Collection of Brill Building Lead Sheets
14. Catalog of Copyright Entries 1957 Music Jul-Dec at the Internet Archive
15. Hutch Davie on IMDb Pro (includes entries for other persons with the same name)
16. Discogs
17. Catalog of Copyright Entries 1958 Music at the Internet Archive
18. The World's Worst Records
19. The School Belles
20. Catalog of Copyright Records july-dec 1959 Music at the Internet Archive
21. Catalog of Copyright Entries Jan-June 1959 at the Internet Archive
22. Catalog of Copyright Entries Jan-Jun 1960 at the Internet Archive
23. Poe for Moderns
24. Catalog of Copyright Entries 1960 Music July-Dec at the Internet Archive
25. Catalog of Copyright Entries 1961 Music Jul-Dec at the Internet Archive
26. Catalog of Copyright Entries 1961 Music Jan-June at the Internet Archive
27. Catalog of Copyright Entries 1962 Music Jan-June at the Internet Archive
28. Rate Your Music