Glenn Gibson

Glenn Gibson -- hmm...sounds like a simple, straight-ahead, all-American name, perfect for a roots rocker. There are rock mammals of various stripes with this name, but in terms of longevity in the music business, nothing beats the Glenn Gibson who never existed beyond a name on paper. This Glenn Gibson shows up as the composer of material in styles such as classic blues, jazz, R&B, and doo wop in the late '40s and throughout the '50s. To suggest that the name was larger than life is totally appropriate, since Glenn Gibson represented the publishing interests of more than one person. For awhile, Glenn Gibson was Irene Higginbotham. Around 1954, Glenn Gibson turned into Bertha Knapp (aka Bert Knapp, Phoebe Snow, Rinky Scott Jones, and Adrienne Garblikand). Could records have been made without the assistance of these non-existent people? Yes, but somebody counting beans wouldn't have been very happy. Students of the music business who wish to learn the importance of publishing and copyright in the scheme of things would do well to study these types of bizarre situations, none of which would ever have happened if songwriting credits were not a potential gravy train. Pianist, bandleader, songwriter, and singer Higginbotham became Gibson in order to place material with both competing performing rights societies, ASCAP and BMI. She was under contract to Joe Davis, whose activities in the music business included management, A&R, running record labels, publishing, and songwriting. For Davis, subterfuge with songwriting credits was simply a way of collecting publishing money without revealing whose pocket it was going to. One obvious advantage would be that funds would thus accumulate in a tidy row of smaller pools rather than an enormous one that might be heavily taxed. A case...