Barry DeVorzon/Perry Botkin Jr.--Nadia's Theme (1976)

     Barry DeVorzon had a varied and successful career as a songwriter, performer, and label owner (founding Valiant Records) throughout the late 50's and 1960's. By the 70's he was composing soundtracks to movies.
     One of those movies was 1971's, "Bless the Beasts and the Children", who's title track was recorded by the Carpenters that year and both DeVorzon and Botkin won an Oscar nomination for best song.  One of the album cuts was a short piece called, "Cotton's Dream" and in 1973, CBS approached both men about it's use in a brand new soap opera called, "The Young and the Restless" that was going to debut in the spring. They did some re-arranging, and almost 40 years later it's still the theme song of the soap.
     It came to the general public's attention in 1976 as ABC began using the song in musical montages with gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Response to the song to the network inspired A&M records to re-release the album cut. It was identical to the album cut except the bridge had been repeated and an ending put to it.
     Released as, "Nadia's Theme (The Young and Restless)", it went to number 8 in the fall of 1976. Interestingly enough, DeVorzon's name was not on the original pressings for which he sued A&M and won a judgement of over 200,000 dollars.

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William DeVaughn--Be Thankful For What You Got (1974)

     It's always been a fantasy of anyone who has ever picked up a mic to go into the studio, make a record, and almost immediately have a hit. The truth of course is that things like that rarely happen. For William DeVaughn however, it became a reality.
     DaVaughn had a job for the government as a drafting tech. when he spent $900 of his own money to record a song at Omega Sound in Philadelphia. The song, which he wrote, was very reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield and his old group, The Impressions. The band included several members of the MFSB band, and it caught the attention of the vice president of the studio, who began shopping it around to various record companies.
      Signed to Roxbury, the song reached #4 on the charts in the summer of 1974 which led to the recording of an album. DeVaughn, who was a devout Jehovah's Witness found that his devotion to his faith was greater than his love for music, and he lost interest after awhile, and left the industry almost as quickly as he entered it. He has since recorded a couple more albums, one in 1980, and just recently in 2004.

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