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George Paxton

American big band leader, saxophonist, arranger, producer, label owner and publisher. Born March 24, 1914 Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Died April 19, 1989 (age of 75) in Vero Beach, Florida, USA. Paxton also played trombone but mostly saxophone. Paxton founded [l62217] Records with [a6711932]. In addition to leading his own band, he wrote many arrangements for, and sometimes also played sax in, such well-known bands of Charlie Spivak, Vaughn Monroe, George Hall, and Ina Ray Hutton. Paxton used the pseudonym "George Eddy" for songs he wrote with Mark Barkan & Sandy Baron, including "The Writing on the Wall". Around 1950, Paxton went full-time into music publishing. He became embroiled in the 1960 payola scandal in which DJ and [i]American Bandstand[/i] host Dick Clark was accused of accepting payment (percentages of publishing rights) to promote songs on Clark's various programs. Paxton, who testified before the House of Representatives, paid Clark to push the Crests’ recording of “16 Candles,” making a reported $200,000 personal profit from the deal. Coed went out of business in the early 1960s. Paxton's publishing footprint was large and he made more money there than as a performer and songwriter. Publishing entities of Paxton included: [l1117170], [l3501802], [l376414], [l704388], Winneton Music Corp., Coronation Music, Inc., Edgevine, January Corp. (which Cane "gave" to Clark), Whiting Music (50-50% with the estate of Margaret Whiting, Barbara Whiting, & Mrs. Eleanor Whiting), Chatsworth Music, Inc. (50-50% with [a300048]) and Andrew Music. With some of these companies Paxton was partners with [b]Marvin Cane[/b], who also testified in the payola case, for 50% each or sometimes 60% for Paxton and 40% Cane including publishing Winneton and Coronation and the record label Coed. Cane also testified but most of blame fell on Paxton.