Bet-Car Records

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bet-Car Records was a record label founded by jazz singer Betty Carter in 1970 to release her own recordings after her negative experiences with other recording companies. In 1983 Bet-Car also began to serve as her production company under the name Bet-Car Productions. Bet-Car maintained offices in houses that Carter and her family owned in Detroit and later in San Francisco.

The first album released on the Bet-Car label was the eponymous Betty Carter (reissued by Verve as Betty Carter at the Village Vanguard) with the catalog number MK 1001 (MK were the initials of her two sons, Myles and Kagle)^[1]. Other albums originally released on Bet-Car as an independent label include The Betty Carter Album, The Audience with Betty Carter, and Whatever Happened to Love?.

In 1987 Carter reached an agreement with Verve Records to release her future recordings on Verve, with her maintaining full creative control over her releases and Bet-Car becoming an imprint of the larger company. Her first Bet-Car release under Verve's auspices was Look What I Got!. Her earlier Bet-Car recordings were also issued on CD for the first time by Verve.