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Morris Levy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Morris Levy (August 27, 1927 - May 21, 1990), born Moishe Levy, was an American music industry executive, who ran Roulette Records.
He was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York.
He was widely known to have close ties to the Mafia, namely the Genovese family, and had a reputation for cheating his (largely African-American) artists out of royalties.
After leaving the Navy he became the proprieter of numerous night clubs in New York at the dawn of the bebop movement in the 1940's - the most famuous of which was Birdland. At this time he learned the value of owning the publishing rights of a piece of music - as each time a song he owned was performed or played he was entitled to royalties. He also founded Roulette Records in 1956, which began his practice of claiming authorship on many early songs of the rock and roll era that he did not have a hand in composing, such as "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.
The best-known lawsuit is that against John Lennon, band member of The Beatles, for borrowing a line from Chuck Berry's song, "You Can't Catch Me", which Levy owned the publishing rights to, for his song "Come Together." Lennon ultimately settled with Levy.
Levy sold Roulette Records and his publishing rights for an estimated $55 million. Law officials caught up with Levy in 1986. He was convicted of extortion but died in Ghent, New York before serving any time in prison.
He may have been the inspiration for the character Hesh Rabkin in the HBO series The Sopranos. Like the fictional character, Levy kept race horses and had ties to the Mafia.
