Bernice Davis

If there is a real songwriter out there by the name of Bert, Bertha, or Bernice Davis or any variation thereof, she or he should stand up and restore some integrity to names badly tarnished by the corrupt publishing practices of the early rock & roll era. A songwriting scholar already reeling from the revelation that there was really no such person as the Bert Davis credited with writing so many ditties will be saddened to find out that although Bernice Davis existed, she wasn't much of a tunesmith. What she was, was the wife of a disc jockey who wasn't much of a songwriter either. Nonetheless, both their names wound up with writing credits for "Long Lonely Nights." The background of this song does indeed promise a long night of accounting procedures, but one would hardly be lonely considering the number of participants in the scam. The classic doo wop number was recorded aplenty, with versions available by the Four Seasons and Clyde McPhatter, to name just a few. In the former case the label squinter will see the names Lee Andrews and Bernice Davis, which is how the songwriting credits for this song sometimes appear. This suggests a classic male and female songwriting team, as was popular in this period. Unfortunately, ripping off the real songwriter was the only thing going on, also a classic move in the music business during any period. On other recordings of this song, the credits read Andrews/Davis/Henderson/Uniman or Uniman, Abbott, Andrews, and Henderson, the latter version leaving Davis in the lonely zone for sure. The flip side of the original single version of this song by the Hearts was an alarming song entitled "The Clock," credited to Curry, Golder, Binnick, and Davis. Time for everyone to put on their name tags. Mimi Uniman was married to the powerful...