‘Sound-Alike’ Shock Waves Over Midler Suit

Bette Midler wants to sue Ford Motor Co. for using another singer to impersonate her voice in a 1985 commercial. Last week a federal appeals court in San Francisco, noting that “to impersonate her voice is to pirate her identity,” ruled that Midler’s case, previously thrown out by the federal court in Los Angeles, should be tried after all.

Among those expressing concern over the court’s ruling is Jon St. James. The La Habra-based record producer is best known for producing dance-pop hits for Stacey Q and Bardeux, but he is also regarded as an expert at turning out “sound-alikes”--note-for-note replications of music by well-known rock and pop figures, produced for use in commercials and TV programs. Before 1986, when he scored his first hit with Stacey Q’s “Two of Hearts,” St. James earned his primary living from sound-alikes.

“If I were an artist I would take a sound-alike as a compliment and realize it was only benefiting my career,” St. James said this week.

Midler sued Ford after she declined an offer to sing in the car manufacturer’s commercials, only to have her voice imitated by another singer.

Her court action, if successful, “could hurt a lot of people,” St. James said.

During his peak sound-alike period a few years ago, he said, he employed “six or seven people regularly, and I’ve employed as many as 50 to 60 different people doing sound-alikes. The worst thing about it is, do you think Bette Midler really needs the money?”

St. James said his sound-alike output has dwindled as his involvement as a record producer and head of a new label, Synthicide Records, has increased. He said his Formula One studio turned out about 15 sound-alikes in the last year.

In a separate judgment that St. James endorses wholeheartedly, the Japanese music industry recently chose Bardeux as best new dance artist in a music awards show in Tokyo.