Bill Simon (July 1, 1920 – August 20, 2000) was an American songwriter, musician and music critic. He was a contributor to the music business in the mid-20th century, notably as a jazz commentator for ''

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...

'' and other publications. His liner notes can still be found on many record albums of the era. Raised in Springville,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, Simon began his career in music in 1941 as the manager of his brother's record store in Buffalo, New York. In 1944 he moved to New York City and worked as a record salesman, record producer (he compiled the first

Edith Piaf Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning '' strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian lang ...

album issued in the USA) and jazz critic. He discovered the jazz clarinetist

Tony Scott Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was a British film director and producer. He made his theatrical film debut with ''The Hunger (1983 film), The Hunger'' (1983) and went on to direct highly successful action and t ...

; they shared an apartment for 5 years and Simon was Scott's first manager. They remained lifelong friends. Simon spent several years (starting in 1955) as associate editor of ''Billboard Magazine'' and wrote a monthly column on jazz for ''The Saturday Review''. He was manager and editor of the RCA Victor Popular Record Club, owned by the

Book-of-the-Month Club Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members ch ...

, which later sold the Club to

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

, with Simon as part of the package. He stayed at Reader's Digest for 22 years, producing dozens of best-selling albums, such as ''

The Great Band Era ''The Great Band Era'' is a compilation album featuring Swing music from 1936-1945. Reader's Digest released the album in 1965. In 1988, the Recording Industry Association of America certified 9 million sales of the album – making it one of the t ...

'' and ''Country Roads''. He also conceived and was the editor of 17 Reader's Digest song books, including ''Treasury of Great Show Tunes'' and ''The Children's Songbook'', which have sold in the millions and are still in print. Simon's articles appear in several jazz anthologies, including ''The Jazz Word'' (Ballantine Books 1960) and ''The Jazz Makers'' (Rinehart & Co. 1957). For ''Record Worlds 1974 tribute to

Sam Goody Sam Goody is a music and entertainment retailer in the United States and United Kingdom, operated by The Musicland Group, Inc. It was purchased by Best Buy in 2000, was sold to Sun Capital Partners in 2003, and filed for bankruptcy in 2006, ...

, Simon wrote the featured piece, "Sam Goody – The Early Years," on the occasion of Goody's 70th birthday and 35 years in the record business. (Simon worked for Goody for 5 years as salesman and record producer.) Simon was also a sheet music collector and a founder and past president of the New York Sheet Music Society. The William L. Simon Sheet Music Collection is a part of Indiana University Southeast's special collection

He also served on the board of directors of the

National Academy of Popular Music The National Academy of Popular Music (NAPM) is an American organization which administers the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and sponsors a series of workshops and showcases for the songwriting A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositi ...

(

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work represent and maintain the heri ...

), and was a member of

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

. As a saxophonist, Simon and partner

George T. Simon George Thomas Simon (May 9, 1912 – February 13, 2001) was an American jazz writer and occasional drummer. He began as a drummer and performed in this role in early versions of Glenn Miller's orchestra. He wrote about that orchestra in 1974 with ...

started the Simon Swing Group''The New York Times'', "Side Men" by Richard F. Shepard, Oct 21, 1981 which featured such guest artists as

John Bunch John Bunch (December 1, 1921 – March 30, 2010) was an American jazz pianist. Early life Born and raised in Tipton, Indiana, a small farming community, Bunch studied piano with George Johnson, a Hoosier jazz pianist. By the age of 14, he ...

Dick Hyman Richard Hyman (born March 8, 1927) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Over a 70-year career, he has worked as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, electronic musician, and composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts ...

, Tony Scott,

Ram Ramirez Roger "Ram" Ramirez (September 15, 1913 – 11 January 1994) was a Puerto Rican jazz pianist and composer. He was a co-composer of the song " Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" Early life Ramirez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on September 15, ...

Eddie Daniels Eddie Daniels (born October 19, 1941) is an American musician and composer. Although he is best known as a jazz clarinetist, he has also played saxophone and flute as well as classical music on clarinet. Early life, family and education Daniel ...

, Russell George,

Ed Polcer Ed Polcer (born February 10, 1937, in Paterson, New Jersey, United States) is an American jazz cornetist, bandleader, festival director, club owner, and mentor of young musicians. He has been described as a "melodic mellow-toned cornetist with an ...

, Warren Vache, Dan Fox and many others. They began the New York tradition of Twilight Jazz, playing at

Eddie Condon's club Eddie Condon's was the name of three successive jazz venues in New York run by jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader Eddie Condon from 1945 until the mid-1980s.Jack Brokensha John Joseph "Jack" Brokensha (5 January 1926 – 28 October 2010) was an Australian-born American jazz vibraphonist, known for his work with the Australian Jazz Quartet and Motown Records. Biography Brokensha was born in Nailsworth, South Austr ...

. Simon worked with lyricists

Jack Yellen Jack Selig Yellen (Jacek Jeleń; July 6, 1892 – April 17, 1991) was an American lyricist and screenwriter. He is best remembered for writing the lyrics to the songs "Happy Days Are Here Again", which was used by Franklin Roosevelt as the theme ...

Charles Tobias Charles Tobias (August 15, 1898 – July 7, 1970) was an American songwriter. He was sometimes credited as Charley Tobias. Biography Born in New York City, United States, Tobias grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts with brothers Harry Tobias and ...

Gene Lees Frederick Eugene John Lees (February 8, 1928 – April 22, 2010) was a Canadian music critic, biographer, lyricist, and journalist. Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States, where he was a musi ...

and Chuck Darwin. Jack Yellen referred to the song "Remembering Time" as "my favorite non-hit" (Jack Yellen lyrics, Simon music). His musical compositions were performed by

Carmen McRae Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretati ...

Teddi King Theodora King (September 18, 1929 – November 18, 1977) was an American jazz and pop vocalist. King was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. She won a singing competition hosted by Dinah Shore at Boston's Tributary Theatre, later begin ...

, Tony Scott,

Art Farmer Arthur Stewart Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, doub ...

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

, B. Bopstein (pseudonym for

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

Don Byas Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas (October 21, 1912 – August 24, 1972) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also l ...

Oscar Pettiford Oscar Pettiford (September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960) was an American jazz double bassist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom. Jazz bassist Christian McBride called Pettiford "probably the most imp ...

, Jimmy Jones,

Gene Ramey Gene Ramey (April 4, 1913 – December 8, 1984) was an American jazz double bassist. Ramey was born in Austin, Texas, United States, and played trumpet in college, but switched to contrabass when playing with George Corley's Royal Aces, The Mo ...

Trummy Young James "Trummy" Young (January 12, 1912 – September 10, 1984) was an American trombonist in the swing era. He established himself as a star during his 12 years performing with Louis Armstrong in Armstrong's All Stars. He had one hit with his ...

and

Ben Webster Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz tenor Saxophone, saxophonist. He performed in the United States and Europe and made many recordings with Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hodges, a ...

among others.
Carmen McRae singing "Along About This Time Last Year"Bill Simon playing "Moon Over Yesterday" on PianoDemo recording of "At Home With the Blues"

Quote

On meeting

in NYC:

Notes

References

* ''The Jazz Makers'', "

Charlie Christian Charles Henry Christian (July 29, 1916 – March 2, 1942) was an American swing and jazz guitarist. He was among the first electric guitarists and was a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as ...

", edited by

Nat Shapiro Nat Shapiro (September 27, 1922, New York City - December 15, 1983, New York City) was an American jazz writer and record producer. Shapiro worked in the music industry from the late 1940s; he was a promotional director for Mercury Records in 1948 ...

and

Nat Hentoff Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. F ...

. Illustrated. 368 pp. New York: Rinehart & Co.,1957, pp. 316–331 * ''The Jazz Word'', "The Responsibility of the Artist", edited by Dom Cerulli, Burt Korall, Mort Nasatir, Ballantine Books, New York, 1960, pp. 31–36 * ''The New York Times Book Review'', "Nine Make A Meet" by Arnold Shaw; review of ''The Jazz Makers'', Nov. 17, 1957. * ''The New York Post'', "Jazz at Condon's", Oct 21, 1981, p. 28 * ''The New York Times'', "Side Men" by Richard F. Shepard, Oct 21, 1981 * ''The Daily News'', "Twilight and Night Sounds", Patricia O'Haire, Oct 21, 1981 * ''Billboard'', "Inside Track", Oct. 24, 1981 * ''The Daily News'', "Lounge Lizard", Oct. 3, 1986, p. 15 * ''The New York Times'', "Simon and Simon", C. Gerald Fraser, July 1, 1987 * ''The New York Times'', "Jazz: Bill and George Simon Swing Group", John S. Wilson, July 5, 1987 * ''The Daily News'', "The Team of Simon and Simon", Don Nelson, April 11, 1988, p. 37 * ''New York Newsday'', "Jazz before Dark", Stuart Troup, May 11, 1988 * ''

International Association of Jazz Record Collectors Journal The ''IAJRC Journal'' is an American quarterly magazine published by the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors. The journal was established in 1968, 4 years after the association was founded in Pittsburgh. The first issue was publi ...

'', "Tony Scott: Some Reminiscences of a Best Friend", Volume 31, #3, Summer 1998, pp. 47–4

* Local 802 Musicians Union: ''Allegro Archives'' Volume C No. 10, Oct., 2000

External links

Bill Simon compositions
* Video of Bill Simon speaking at a "Night for Nat"

in 198

* Indiana University Southeast Special Collection

New York Sheet Music Society

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090728202214/http://www.local802afm.org/publication_entry.cfm?xEntry=22483804#simon Allegro Archives
Gunnar Jacobsen's Puppy Jazz

IAJRC Journal

''Allegro Archives'', Volume C No. 10, October 2000: ''Requiem''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Bill 1920 births 2000 deaths American writers about music People from Springville, New York 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male musicians