Acapulco 1922 Writer's Credit

[B-Dub]

I have been looking through old boxes from my childhood which were stored in my Mother's former home in S. California, and I pulled out original LP releases of "The Lonely Bull" and "volume 2" (the latter intentionally in lower case letters on the front of the record sleeve).

"Acapulco 1922" is on the 2nd side of "TLB", (song #3), and the writer's credit states that it is by "Allan" (one name only). In the CD booklet notes from the Shout Factory release of "TLB", Mr. Alpert personally states that he wrote "Acapulco 1922". Why would he not credit himself as the composer of this great tune (which was a hit in England, as well as the B-side to original 45-rpm single release of "TLB")? Was this a typo on the part of the vendor who printed the LP labels? This seems very curious to me.

In a previous post (from 2005), there is a brief discussion regarding this discrepancy, including the information that "Acapulco 1922" was credited on the original single release to "Dave Allan". Certainly, "Acapulco 1922" was by the far the strongest and best-known of Mr. Alpert's original tunes on "TLB" 1962 LP release; why would he be reluctant about receiving the credit for it's creation, and not be proud to do so?

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I don't know why Herb said he wrote the song when in fact it was brother Dave Alpert who wrote it.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[B-Dub]

Here's part of the discussion regarding the writer's credit for "Acapulco 1922", originally posted by lgarvin on October 29th, 2005, 2005:

Can anyone clear up the confusion about "Acapulco 1922"? The original 45 listed "Eldon Allen" as the writer (who is that?), the original LP said "Alpert" was the writer, and sheet music said the song was written by DAVE Alpert (Herb's brother?).

Also, on the same day (10/29/2005), Steve Sidoruk posted this reply:
Eldon was Dave's "nom de tune," or musical pen name.

 

[Harry]

Early on in the history of A&M, we've heard tales of the powers that be intentionally doing things to make it sound as if it wasn't a brand new operation out of a garage. Things like the fact that the single catalog numbers started in the 700s to make it appear as if hundreds more singles had been issued previously.

The whole Eldon Allan thing may have been a ploy to make it sound like everything on the label wasn't being "homegrown", by using a pen name. As to who wrote "Acapulco 1922", I suggest it may in fact be Herb, with him giving the initial credit to his brother. Parts of the song are awfully similar to one he recorded as Dore Alpert in the years prior to THE LONELY BULL.

Harry

 

[B-Dub]

Thanks for all the great responses to my initial question regarding "A 22". I am consistently impressed with the intelligence, wisdom, and insight of your replies...thanks again!