Louis Ferdinand Busch was an American record producer, musician and songwriter, who was best known for performing as a pianist under the pseudonymn Joe "Fingers" Carr.
Biography
Louis Bush was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, during the ragtime era and the jazz age. Blessed with an inherent music talent, he was already leading a ragtime and jazz bandLou Bush and His Tickle Toe Four, by the time he was 12 years old. At 16, he left school and home for a career as a professional musician, playing with the likes of "Hot Lips" Henry Busse, Clyde McCoy and George Olson. After a few years on the road, his desire to learn more about music theory led him to study at the CincinnatiMusic Conservatory in Ohio in the early 1930s. Following his music education break, Busch became the pianist for Hal Kemp's "sweet music" band for the remainder of the 1930s. Lou also honed his arranging skills, being offered an arranging position when arranger John Scott Trotter left the band in 1936. This position was shared with another key arranger, Hal Mooney, and was invaluable experience for them both. After Kemp died in a car crash in 1940 and the group disbanded, Busch and Mooney made their way to California to work as studio musicians and whatever gigs they could find. This was interrupted by World War II, where Lou spent three years in the Army.
After his tour of duty, Busch decided to dive back into the music business. It was around this time that singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer was recruiting artists and employees for his recently formed label, Capitol Records, so Busch was hired for the radio transcription service in 1946. He was in charge of production of promotional radio shows featuring Capitol artists for distribution to stations around the country. By 1949 he had been promoted to A&R man. One summer, Busch backed singer Jo Stafford and conductor Paul Weston on the hit record "Ragtime Cowboy Joe". The success encouraged both him and the label to release his own original single, "Ivory Rag", early in 1950. It was the first piece incorporated into the "Crazy Otto Medley" by German pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel, which was later associated with Johnny Maddox in the U.S. It was in 1962 that he formed Burning Bush Music ASCAP. His biggest hits from the 1950s include "Portuguese Washerwoman", "Sam's Song", a cover of Del Wood's version of "Down Yonder", and the international hit "Zambezi". Some of the singles include his vocal backup group, the Carr Hops. Often overlooked are several mainstream and jazz sides he recorded as Lou Busch, featuring exciting band or orchestral arrangements. One Busch collaboration with Milton DeLugg, "Rollercoaster", became the closing theme of the TV panel showWhat's My Line? for the entirety of its original network run, from 1950 to 1967.
Warner Brothers Records
Busch eventually left Capitol for Warner Bros. Records where he took on the same general responsibilities. Busch returned to arranging and conducting responsibilities again, one of the most notable being the musical force behind comic singer Allan Sherman. Sherman explained Busch’s choice to change the spelling of his surname: “Lou thought it would look fancier with a ‘c’ in it.” A few later albums were released on the ragtime-centric Dot label, and in the late 1970s he produced one more effort with friend and jazz pianistLincoln Mayorga, complete with a couple of new tunes, The Brinkerhoff Piano Company.
Marriages
He married to actress-singer Janet Blair in 1943; the union ended in divorce in 1950. He wed singer Margaret Whiting in 1950, and their daughter was born that December. Whiting also sued him for divorce, in 1953.
