Shapiro Bernstein, America’s oldest independent music publishing company still active on the Billboard charts, this year celebrates its centenary. Over the past 100 years, the New York based company has had hits with classic songs including “In the Mood,” “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “Ring of Fire” and today is continuing that tradition of hit songs with modern day chart toppers such as David Guetta and Usher’s “Without You,” Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On,” and Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling,” which has been certified as the biggest selling single of the digital era.
Says the President of Shapiro Bernstein, Michael Brettler, “We must be doing something right to be in business for 100 years in New York City. In a world of conglomerates, our long term survival as an independent company has been based on the ability to make quick, savvy decisions over many decades. Through four generations, we’ve always been able to adapt to new innovations and challenges, and have strived to maintain very close relationships with our clients and songwriters.”
Incorporated in 1913 (but with roots dating back to the 1890’s), the company began publishing out of offices on Manhattan’s West 28th Street, better known as Tin Pan Alley, in the age of ragtime and vaudeville. The founding partners, Louis Bernstein and Maurice Shapiro, teamed up with composer, Harry Von Tilzer, fresh on the heels of his first hit song, “My Old New Hampshire Home.”
In the years that followed, the company went through many changes and partners before Louis Bernstein, Maurice’s brother-in-law, took over the business after his untimely death in 1911. The name was restored to Shapiro Bernstein & Co., Inc. and that year the company had its first major hit with “Trail of the Lonesome Pine.”
Louis Bernstein went on to become a founding member of ASCAP and serve as its Vice-President for 26 years. During the formative years of the modern music industry, Shapiro Bernstein was a consistently outspoken advocate for the rights of the creative community, engaging as a plaintiff in several landmark cases still cited by specialists in copyright law.
The company was able to adapt to the changing industry of the 1930’s, utilizing favorite bands of the Swing Era, emerging jazz stars, and Hollywood movie musicals to popularize songs that are now considered American classics. Benny Goodman launched “The Glory of Love”; Gene Autry performed “You’re The Only Star (In My Blue Heaven)” in three of his films; and Tommy Dorsey launched “In the Blue of the Evening,” sung by a young man named Frank Sinatra. In 1940, Glenn Miller debuted “In the Mood” – which spent 12 weeks at #1 and became perhaps the best-known dance song in American history.
At the close of the 1940’s, Shapiro Bernstein ushered in the era of rock ‘n’ roll with the ground-breaking “Guitar Boogie” by Arthur Smith, and followed it with Fifties and Sixties pop standards like “Cry,” “Papa Loves Mambo,” and “Harlem Nocturne.” When Louis’ son-in-law Dick Voltter took the reins of the company in 1962, he continued to expand the diversity of their catalog, securing rights to and eventually purchasing the Columbia Pictures catalog acquiring score classics like The Guns of Navarone, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia.
Seeing an opportunity in the emerging country music market, the grandson-in-law of Louis Bernstein, Leon Brettler, formed Painted Desert Music and opened a Nashville office in the early 1960’s. It was a move that paid off quickly and continues to pay, yielding hits like “Wolverton Mountain” and the Johnny Cash all-time country classic, “Ring of Fire,” penned by his wife-to-be, June Carter and his best friend, Merle Kilgore.
Today Shapiro Bernstein remains a current leader in the world of independent music publishing and continues to publish songs that top the charts. They actively court new writers and expose their current hit makers to the public and the industry.
Under the leadership of Michael Brettler, who became president in 2000, Shapiro Bernstein is committed to continuing in its long tradition: “I am proud to be at the helm of such an iconic music company which has maintained its role in developing and championing music writers for 100 years. Our songs today are just as much in demand as they ever were, and we represent and publish some of today’s hottest writers and most exciting songs.”
Selection of Shapiro Bernstein Songs
Popular Songs:
Crush
Glory of Love
Harlem Nocturne
I Gotta Feeling
In The Mood
On The Sunny Side of the Street
Put Your Records On
Ring of Fire
Way You Look Tonight
White Cliffs of Dover
Without You
Woo-Hoo
You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You
Classic Songs
Alabamy Bound
Beer Barrel Polka
Cherokee
Harlem Nocturne
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
If You Knew Susie
Let There Be Love
Papa Loves Mambo
Red Sails in the Sunset
Royal Garden Blues
Second Hand Rose
Side by Side
Solitude
South of the Border
Yes We Have No Bananas
Country Songs
Born a Woman
Come Back When You Grow Up
Cry
Have You Ever Been Lonely
Ring of Fire
Sea of Heartbreak
The Last Round-Up
The Prisoner’s Song
Wolverton Mountain
Film Scores
Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
Guns of Navarone
Lawrence of Arabia
Man From Laramie
Picnic
Scrooge
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Misfits
The Wedding Banquet
Walk On The Wild Side
Broadway Scores
Color Purple
Jekyll and Hyde (Opening again on Broadway on April 19th, 2013)
Victor Victoria
