Julian Aberbach

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Julian J. Aberbach (8 February 1909 – 17 May 2004)

Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel
.

Life and career

Julius "Julian" Aberbach was born in

jewelry
business.

Julian left school at the age of 17 and went to the

Fort Benning, Georgia, became an instructor at a military intelligence school in Maryland, from where he was discharged in 1944.[3][4]

By this time he had developed an interest in

Chappell Music sought to buy the company, Aberbach refused, and his brother Jean, who had been working for Dreyfus, joined the company. From then on the two brothers shared the management of Hill and Range, gradually expanding the business, with Julian notionally based in Los Angeles and Jean in New York, although the two frequently swapped roles and met regularly in Chicago to discuss business.[3][4]

In 1955 Hank Snow suggested that Aberbach check out a new singer, Elvis Presley. Aberbach was impressed by Presley, helped his own friend, Colonel Tom Parker, become his manager, and helped negotiate his move from Sun Records to RCA.[6] He also set up an unprecedented arrangement in which the publishing rights to songs that Presley recorded were split 50:50 between Hill and Range and Presley.[3] Aberbach established his cousin, Freddy Bienstock, as head of Elvis Presley Music, and organised writers to provide songs for Presley's films and albums.[4] In effect, this precluded Presley from recording material not licensed to Hill and Range.[3]

Aberbach also developed his interests in France, contracting

Edith Piaf, and with Jacques Brel and Mort Shuman, who provided English language versions of many of Brel's songs.[2] By the early 1970s, after Hill and Range had become the biggest independent music publishing business in the world, Aberbach and his family moved their main residence to Paris. Shortly afterwards, while on a business trip to New York, Aberbach suffered a major heart attack and was hospitalised for several months. His brother then sold 75% of the Hill and Range publishing rights to the Warner Chappell company.[3]

He effectively retired from the music business in the early 1970s, but expanded his collection of paintings and sculpture, and later opened the

National Order of the Legion of Honour in 2003, in recognition of his unique contribution to French culture.[3][4]

Personal life and death

Aberbach married Anne Marie in 1953. They had two sons, Dolfi who died aged 23 in 1983 and Ronny who died in an accident the same year, and a daughter, Belinda. His brother Jean Aberbach died in 1992.[4][7]

Julian Aberbach died of heart failure in New York in 2004 at the age of 95.[7]

References

  1. ^ Profile at Geni
  2. ^ a b American Society of the French Legion of Honor, Newsletter, December 2003 Archived 2012-03-22 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b c d e f Biography by Jason Ankeny at Allmusic
  4. ^ a b c d e Autobiography at Julian Aberbach website Archived 2011-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Biography
  6. ^ a b John Shepherd, Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 1, p.586
  7. ^ a b Death notice, New York Times, 19 May 2004

Further reading

  • Bar Biszick-Lockwood, Restless Giant: The Life and Times of Jean Aberbach and Hill and Range Songs, University of Illinois Press, 2010
  • Joyce Short, Carnal Abuse by Deceit: How a Predator's Lies Became Rape, Chapter 12, Living Off Elvis, Pandargos Press, 2013
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