News

FREDDIE CANNON: The Spaghetti Freddie

Freddie Cannon is many things, with Creative and Dreams calling Sir Fred Cannon their ‘music man,’ a name that suits him well. For more than 40 years, he has worked in various roles in the music industry as a musician, music producer, radio DJ, songwriter, lecturer, marketing and promotion consultant, A&R expert, music publisher, music lobbyist, music business historian, artist development mentor, and government relations professional.

 Don’t confuse Freddie with the explosive “Tallahassee Lassie” singer. “His name is Fred Piccirillo, he stole my name,” he informs me. “I got copyright claims on that and we grew up in the same environment. He’s using my name and he came before me. And then when I started in the music business, everybody thought they knew me. They thought I was a singer because, when I met McCartney and The Beatles, they were all singing my— or his—songs. I said, no, no, no, I’m not there. I live in Italy and I’m growing up in Italy, and at the time they said, oh, Spaghetti Freddy and so I became Spaghetti Freddy”.

 “I’m from Meridian, Mississippi, where Jimmy Rogers is from, and he’s the godfather of country music.”

Success with EMI and Casablanca and twenty other labels distributed by EMI

Freddie had a lot of success in the UK. He joined EMI Italy in 1973 and was in the A&R department. He came in as the senior product manager for Harvest Records at EMI in Italy. He was working with all the big acts, including Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, ELO, and The Beatles, as well as all the EMI trademark bands. In Italy, they also distributed Motown and many others, having a big array of popular hits. He had a radio show in Rome, where he interviewed EMI executives. They were excited about having an American, English-speaking guy in Rome and wanted to bring him to London, which they eventually did. His first hit at EMI sold 10 million copies. The song was “When a Child is Born,” which Johnny Mathis had a big hit with, but Freddie had the original in Italian. That original version went to No. 1 in probably nine countries. Johnny Mathis’s version was in the Top 10 in the US. The guy who wrote the lyrics for the English version was German. When the Seventies was over, many music fans said it was not good for quality music, but Freddie disagrees. He says some great bands came out in the 70s, and to him, it was a transition period from rock and roll. He bought the first and second albums by The Eagles, who emerged in the 70s, and was handling them in Italy. He was also offered Kiss and took it, telling everybody they were going to be a great band. During that period, he handled about 26 labels in Italy. His job was to pick hits off their albums and make them hits in that local territory, which he did. While handling Capitol Records for EMI, one of the senior vice presidents left to start a new company called Casablanca Records with Neil Bogart and Maury Lathour. Maury, the former Capitol employee, told Fred they were starting a new label and asked if he would like to have their product. Before Fred could agree, EMI bought the label for Italy without consulting him, telling him they had spent $100,000 and he needed to find a hit to make the money back. He searched through 12 singles that came out and couldn’t do anything with them. In desperation, he turned over one of the B-sides and started playing it, loving the song called “We Can’t Hide It Anymore” by Larry Santos. He put it out, and it went to No. 1 in the club charts as a slow-dancing song. He telexed Maury at Casablanca, who wrote back to say the song was not on their label. They didn’t know what the B-side was. Fred wrote back, telling them to flip the record over. They were pleased, and when they put it out in America, it went to Top 13.

Producing the Paul McCartney Concert in Venice In 1976, Paul McCartney suggested Freddie take care of him when he toured Italy to perform a charity concert in Venice. They put Fred in charge of the concert in Venice. McCartney was coming from Yugoslavia with his band Wings and Fred had three days to get all the equipment and set up everything. He had to build a stage in St Mark’s Square. The inflatable roof for the stage was being flown from England. The sound people came from Dallas, US. The lighting lasers came from The Who, which was Tom Wolfe. Fred had to wait for the tides to unload the equipment onto St Mark’s Square, with only a three-hour period to do everything. First, a 10-ton truck that came onto the Square sank into the floor of the Square.  The Italian Navy had to get a crane by the next tide to lift the stuck truck off the spot. The city’s electricians built a cabinet for the power needs. Three days before the show, they lit up the lasers, and all the lights in Venice went out. The cabinet blew up and disintegrated in the square. They realized it must have been the wrong voltage. They eventually found three generators in Vicenza, two hours from Venice, and got the lights working the day before the show.

With 45,000 fans there to see McCartney and Wings, the problems continued. They tried to kidnap Paul’s daughter, Mary. Kidnappings were frequent in Italy at the time, and the Prime Minister had been killed. Italian police were watching the boat leaving the island, but Mary was lost in the crowd when they rushed the stage. A young girl was noticed saying, “that’s my daddy on stage,” and she was reunited backstage.

EMI London and Carrere Records

Fred landed in London to run Harvest Records for EMI. He had a record produced in Italy called “Black Is Black”. At the time, Harvest had never had a disco record, and EMI had never done a 12-inch in England. He had to get the accounts department to give him a price because they didn’t know what to charge. “Black Is Black” was a big hit, selling over 750,000 copies. It got to No. 2 and was stuck there for four weeks. Claude Carrere, who had the record in France, called him a “genius” for putting disco on Harvest.

Carrere asked Freddie to take his label for England, and Freddie agreed. Carrere gave him “Singing In The Rain” by Sheila B. Devotion, which was another hit. Freddie also had success with the Trinidad Oil Company Calendar Song. Around the same time, Dave Gilmour introduced him to Kate Bush. Fred put her on Harvest to release, but his boss, Bob Mercer, said they were putting her on EMI. Later, Mercer announced that Fred would be the A&R commercial director of A&R. They had created a job for him, so he had EMI and all the hats. They did “We Are the Champions” and Kate Bush all about the same time. By June, Freddie was popular because he had introduced Kate Bush to Europe and all his EMI affiliates, who loved it. Kate Bush was No. 1 in all the countries with “Wuthering Heights”. Ramon Lopez, who was head of international at EMI, said they were bringing John Bush in from Italy that he and Fred would make a great team, and that Fred would run the department and report to him. John Bush had previously been Fred’s boss in Italy.  Before this happened, Claude Carrere called Freddie and asked him to visit. Carrere told him he wasn’t leaving the office without working for him. Fred said he was going to be the head guy at the EMI record label. Carrere put a checkbook in front of him and told him to write out what he wanted. Fred did, and Carrere didn’t blink. From that July, Fred worked for Carrere. His first record out was “Substitute” by Clout, which went to No. 1 in some charts and No. 2 in the Billboard Music Week chart.

Personal and Current Projects

Freddie still keeps himself busy. He produces and has a label, Creative and Dreams Music Network, with records in the charts in England. Current artists include The Cathodes with “Something About Substance” and John Carr. John Carr has a record called “Forbidden Love” that went in at No. 4 in the chart of gold. Carr has a superb voice and looks and sounds like Phil Collins. He can sound like just about anyone he wants to, including The Bee Gees and The Beach Boys, by doing harmonies with his voice. They put out a song called “Good Vibrations,” and people couldn’t believe it was only him singing. John Carr is launching a tribute to Phil Collins as of January 1 and will be touring, including in Japan. They also have an artist Georgina White, who does musicals on the West End, is versatile and exciting, and writes great songs.

Creative and Dreams Music Network under Freddie’s leadership along with long-time business partner Rose Drake, widow of famed steel guitarist and producer Pete Drake, works with First Generation Records  to promote and distribute the Nashville traditional country record label promoting country standards from the 40’s to the 80’s recorded by country legends and the Drake Music Group Publishing companies. 

Apart from music, for 18 years, Fred represented BMI in Washington, D.C. and 50 state capitals as a lobbyist protecting copyright. He fought against the major labels and publishers selling out the world copyright songwriters with the stream royalty, which he believes is killing the music industry. This caused him to have a heart problem, a heart operation, and he died on the operating table. He is very upset about the streaming royalty issue, which he calls a “calamity” that the tech companies and big corporate people have caused. He believes that if America doesn’t overthrow this, nobody will. He worked in England for years and knows the system: if you’re not in the “old boy circle,” you don’t get played. He wishes this would change because there’s so much good music in England that doesn’t get played.

He is not doing this to plug his song; he makes a record because he knows it’s good for him, and he doesn’t care if the world likes it or not. He considers his work his legacy that will live in the future, and he is enjoying what he does,”