Wayne Stierle

WAYNE STIERLE, best known for being the first person to put Rock n' Roll on TV as a direct-responce item, was the creator of Candlelite Records and Candlelite Music. (Direct-Responce being where phone calls are placed to order an item "not sold in stores"). The fast edits and short clips, and dramatic writing and audio/video editing by Wayne, pre-dated MTV by over seven years, and contributed to what became the basic MTV style. Cub Coda, the writer of "Smokin' In The Boys Room", called Wayne, "The Father Of MTV". Wayne worked with many artists through these years, including among others, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tony Williams the lead singer of The Platters, Bobby Darin,Fats Domino,Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, The Beach Boys, Dick Clark, Dick Jacobs,Jerry Wexler, and more. Wayne wrote 9 liner notes for Elvis Presley, which is more than any writer in history. (Elvis' favorite late-night commercials were The Candlelite spots produced by Wayne). The style, and the actual words from these ground-breaking commercials are still being used every day in the selling of music on television. In late 1959, and into 1960 and 1961, Wayne was involved in re-releasing records that had failed in the latter 50's. Some of these records became so popular that they were regarded as "new" records, and actually becames early "sixties" hits. These records include, among others, "There's A Moon Out Tonight", "Baby Oh Baby", "Rip Van Winkle", and "Rama Lama Ding Dong". Wayne produced the "oldies" radio show hit that inspired the "oldies" only radio stations, that first sprang up in the seventies. The show that started the trend was a major hit in New York City. Wayne was the first person to release a commercial album series using the word "Doo-Wop", which was not a known word or term at the time. Wayne was one of the creators of Acapella. It all happened as follows: Along with Donn Fileti, Wayne discovered unreleased master recordings that were to be purchased on behalf of three people, that included Donn, Wayne, and industry vet Leo Rogers. When Leo backed out of the deal, it was taken to "Slim" at Times Records, who made the purchase. Donn left the area, and Wayne continued on, eventually owning a few of the masters from the huge tape and demo findings. These tapes included practice tapes by the great Connecticut group, The Nutmegs. Like many practice tapes, these recordings were done without paying a band, as simple showcases for either the song, or for an arranger to listen to and thereby write an arrangement for a band or small combo. These recordings were done without music, and not planned for release whatsoever. Prompted by Wayne, "Slim" decided to release The Nutmegs recordings, although he had offered to give them to Wayne in return for his various work with Times Records. ("Slim" was not very impressed with The Nutmegs, and Wayne taught him the historical value of the group that had been so important in 1955 with "Story Untold"). "Slim" felt the recordings that had no musical background needed to be highlighted as such, in part to make sure they weren't returned by customers, and in part to show the difference they represented compared to "normal" vocal group recordings. They spent weeks kicking the ideas around, with Wayne voting for various names such as "Subway Sounds", and others. Finally "Slim", who wanted to press the records, opened a dictionary and found a' capella, the "high class" term used for operatic type music done without background. It was decided that if this was what it was going to be, then it would be changed to a word that didn't even exist: Acapella. And so, the word and the style was born, and the label company was called with the copy for the first releases. This was the beginning of "Acapella", and the start of this word meaning "rock n' roll or r&b vocal groups". (As Wayne likes to point out, the first releases were put in the Italian section of many record stores, who assumed they were foreign records.). ".....we started something that we didn't intend to start....and I still think the name is wrong........but it's way too late to do anything about it..........". Wayne produced, wrote, and did the music and vocal on the only Elvis "tribute" record to be approved of by Elvis and Vernon Presley - The Rock Era (A Tribute To The King). First released in 1969, and re-done in 1973, this release on which Wayne is billed as "The Phantom Of Rock", was well received, especially in Europe. (When Elvis passed away, Wayne refused all requests to re-release it, not wanting to exploit the sadness and loss. As of mid-2005, it still remains on the shelf). In the early sixties, Wayne produced a radio show that was the first rock n' roll show ever on FM Radio, and almost gives a new meaning to "underground radio"! (It was so early in FM, that the rock n' roll portion of the public did not know what FM Radio was!). Imagine a time where rock n' roll was not on FM! That was the 50's and early to mid-60's. Wayne was dedicated to preserving real rock n' roll.