Naples Florida Weekly
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Musical genius helped others succeed while fighting his inner demons

FLORIDA WRITERS



¦ “Phil Gernhard, Record Man” by Bill DeYoung. University Press of Florida. 208 pages. Hardcover, $24.95.

¦ “Phil Gernhard, Record Man” by Bill DeYoung. University Press of Florida. 208 pages. Hardcover, $24.95.

The University Press of Florida has published an official series of books about the state’s role in popular American music. These include “Florida Soul: From Ray Charles to KC and the Sunshine Band,” “Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town” (about the Gainesville scene) and “Elvis Ignited: The Rise of an Icon in Florida,” all of which have been reviewed in these pages.

Mr. DeYoung’s effort is essentially a biography of a relatively unknown giant in the popular music world.

Following along the trail Phil Gernhard’s life, the author paints a vivid picture of the American music industry in the second half of the 20th century.

Trained neither as a musician nor a businessman, Mr. Gernhard picked up what he needed to know through hustle and hard work. He began early and by the time he reached 19 had produced a million-copy recording: “Stay,” a monstrous hit performed by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs. It was 1960, and Mr. Gernhard had already recorded a few other songs by the same group.

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Mr. Gernhard’s career was hardly a straight or unbroken line. He had many ups and downs. Still, he managed to produce an amazing amount of recorded music. A high percentage of those releases became hits, bringing money into the pockets of the musicians, songwriters, studio technicians and owners of record labels. He succeeded through changing times and changing tastes.

The author makes it only too clear that Mr. Gernhard was an accomplished and somewhat greedy dealmaker, negotiating contracts that gave him many slices of the pie. Sometimes songwriter credit for doctoring a needy lyric, sometimes a percentage for enhancing production quality, and sometimes simply by writing himself into the contract for being able to put all the pieces together. He was labeled as a producer, and he produced.

He worked to get studio time, rehearsal time, radio play, live engagements and whatever else might make a record a success. When singles lost out to albums in the economics of the music industry, he learned how to adapt and how to help others adapt.

 

 

Originally based in his home state of Florida, Mr. Gernhard also rose the ladder of influence in such music capitals as Los Angeles and Nashville.

Now it’s time to name names: Mr. Gernhard resurrected Dion DiMucci’s career with the improbably successful ballad “Abraham, Martin and John.” He produced hits for Lobo, Jim Stafford, the Bellamy Brothers, Rodney Atkins and Tim McGraw. And it wasn’t all just hustling. He was credited with having “magic ears.” He could tell that a song (or a singer) had a lucrative future. He knew how to match a song and a singer for maximum effect.

However, aside from the pleasure of making hits, Mr. Gernhard’s life was largely joyless.

While many of his contemporaries in the business paid their respects to his talent, work ethic and drive, few of his relationships turned into meaningful friendships. Perhaps his connection with record label owner Mike Curb came closest. There was something private, something hidden, about Phil Gernhard. The story of his personal life, particularly that of his several marriages, is a sad one. Drug addiction and alcoholism plagued him — and, therefore, those around him. He never got over the abusive treatment he received from his father, yet in several unfortunate ways he mimicked his father.

His highly productive life ended in suicide, a decision perhaps reached to end his fight with prostate cancer.

Mr. DeYoung tells this intriguing, complicated and multi-valanced story remarkably well. The stage of Mr. Gernhard’s life is crowded with many notable characters. The author manages their interaction in a style that thumps with energy.

About the author

Bill DeYoung is also the author of “Skyway: The True Story of Tampa Bay’s Signature Bridge and the Man Who Brought It Down.” His music journalism has been published in hundreds of national and international magazines, and he has written the liner note essays for more than 100 CDs. Nationally recognized for his music journalism, he has been a writer and editor at various Florida and Georgia newspapers for more than 30 years. ¦

— Phil Jason, Ph. D., United States Naval Academy professor emeritus of English, is a poet, critic and freelance writer with 20 books to his credit, including several studies of war literature and a creative writing text.

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