Time to reminisce
Before the internet, computers and Ipads, there were paper, pencils and file folders with colored tabs to keep you organizied.
As a Song Plugger in the Music Industry, I was pitching songs left and right, all day, every day to record execs, managers and producers who were looking for songs for their artists. Naturally, I needed a way to keep track!
On my desk I kept white, lined 5x7 index cards, which were alphabetized and separated into two file boxes - A-L in one and M-Z in the other.
At the top left was the name of the person I was pitching to, and below was a list of the artists they represented and which songs I had sent. Songs they liked got circled and songs they actually cut got marked with lots of stars.
Above is a photo of the card I had for Robert Kraft - an award-winning songwriter, film composer, recording artist, record producer and President of Fox Music (1994 to 2012).
I first started sending him songs when he was producing Bruce Willis’ debut album, "The Return of Bruno". Six months later he hired Sheryl Crow to sing backup on the Johnny Mathis album, “Once In A While". During one of their sessions, she told Robert of her dream to be a solo act.
He set us up to meet in hopes that I could help her find some songs. We all went to lunch at a Thai restaurant on Barham Blvd. Afterwards, Sheryl came back to my office at Screen Gems Music, where we spent hours listening to my catalogue of writers and she played me some of her own originals.
That was a great day, to say the least!
P.S. If you look closely, you can see that I spelled her name wrong - lets just say I never did THAT again! and the (pm) after her name is in reference to a band she sang with in St. Louis that we had just signed to a publishing deal.
