Writing lead sheets

“Don Ciccone: I was doing lead sheets, which are a music sheet that embodies the melody of a written song, the chords that go with it above the melody, and the lyrics that go with it below. It’s just like sheet music. I did the tools for the printer to make that sheet music. I put the music, the chords and the lyrics on [special] paper, which would go through the printing machine.

“I would get a cassette or an acetate of a song that someone had written and long before the records came out, the publishing companies would have to copyright them. They would have to secure them, and they would give them to a guy like me and I would transcribe the music that I would hear onto paper so the publishing company could send that paper into the Library of Congress in order to get the copyright. It was very technical and specialized work, and apparently there weren’t very many people doing this, and within a year I was working for every single major record company.”

http://www.goldminemag.com/articles/backstage-pass-don-ciccone-reminisces-about-the-critters

I did not know there was such a job. The people who do or did that work had to have a good ear and knowledge of music. (Understatement.)