Henry Stone On Morris Levy and George Goldner’s Songwriting Credits for Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers

“Lots of guys put their names on songs they didn’t write so they could get those royalty checks.  I never actually did that. The only name recognition I really had was for “Two Hearts, Two Kisses (Makes One Love),” which I actually wrote.

Frank Sinatra covered me on that song.

All the other stuff later on that became big with KC and all those people…I mean, I owned the publishing, but I never would put myself down as a writer.

Now, Morris Levy did that a couple times and he got caught. Morris Levy owned Gee Records. He picked the label up from George Goldner who liked to gamble and always needed to borrow some money.

Oh these New York charactas. They’re all in my head, man. I can just see em’ now.

That’s where “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” by Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers came out….Which was a big big hit, and he put his name on it as a writer: Goldner and then Levy. But it didn’t mean anything then, not till later on, when Diana Ross recorded it. Then it became a big huge record and then all of a sudden out of the woodwork come these writers, awhh Morris Levy didnt write this song, bah bah bah bah, and they went to court and they beat him in court.

You can see the songwriter credits on any record by the names on the label right under the song title.

All of a sudden Morris Levy is a song writer? Ya know? Not everything. But he put his name on a lot of songs. If the songs dont mean nothin, nobody gives a damn, yunderstan, but when a song like “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” becomes a huge hit by another artist it becomes to the point where people, out of the wooodwork they come, zoom zoom zoom.”

• From a 2013 interview with Henry Stone

Text ©Jacob Katel and HenryStoneMusic USA Inc.