No Rock And Roll Fun

PUBLISHEROBIT: The death of Julian Aberbach, music publisher has been announced. He died May 17th at the age of 95.

Born in Vienna in 1909, Aberbach ran a publishing company in Paris before the Second World War. Fleeing from the Nazi invasion, he and his brother settled in the US, where he joined the US Army. After a spell fighting in Europe, Aberbach returned to the States where he and his brother founded Hill and Range, specialising mainly in country music. In 1956, he persuaded Sun Records' Sam Phillips to sell him rights in Elvis' songs and arranged for Presley to sign with Colonel Tom Parker, in the deal which gave the colonel a healthy one out of every four dollars made by the singer.

Aberbach gave Elvis a USD2500 advance, which he blew on a pink cadillac - so, he always had grotesque taste, then.