Wayne Wadhams
Wayne Wadhams, a singer-songwriter, shares insights into the music industry, emphasizing the importance of songwriting for artists' careers. He recounts a story about writing a song for Vikki Carr and reflects on the ongoing nature of royalty checks from his past work.
Singer
Wayne Wadhams
of The Fifth Estate
“Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”
About Wayne Wadhams
Wayne Wadhams was a founding member of the 1960s pop group the Fifth Estate, which scored a top 15 hit with "Ding Dong! the Witch Is Dead" in 1967. He arranged and sang the main theme for the Candid Camera television series and co-founded Film Associates in Boston. Wadhams later became a founding member and developer of Berklee College of Music's Music Production and Engineering Department starting in 1982 and authored "Inside the Hits" in 2001.
In this interview
- Recalls writing "Solo Mente Amor" overnight for Vikki Carr's Spanish album recording session.
- Discusses how songwriters earn ongoing royalty checks while singers typically do not.
- Mentions being out of contact with the record industry for a period.
- Reflects on receiving royalty checks again after years of disconnection from the industry.
“It's more a case of making some royalty checks again rather than still because for a long time I was out of contact with the record industry.”— Wayne Wadhams, in this interview
Since this interview
Wayne Wadhams died on August 19, 2008, in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 61.
