King Records (USA)
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- For the Japanese record label, see King Records.
King Records was a United States based record label, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan, specializing in country music, at the time still known as "Hillbilly music". King advertised "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly -- If it's a Hillbilly, it's a King". King artists included Homer and Jethro, Grandpa Jones, the Delmore Brothers, and Reno and Smiley whose song "I'm Using My Bible for a Road Map" was one of the labels important early hits.
The company also had a "Race Records" (African American) label, Queen Records. In the 1950s, this side of the business outpaced the hillbilly recordings, as King Records was highly successful and recorded R&B artists like Valerie Carr, Roy Brown, Jack Dupree, Otis Williams & the Charms, James Brown (with whom they had a long legal battle after he repeatedly violated his King contract)[1] and Johnny Guitar Watson (the latter two distributed via sister label Federal Records). King purchased other record labels, including Deluxe Records (in 1952) and Bethlehem Records.
When Nathan died in 1968 the label was acquired by Hall Neely's Star-Day Company. Neely relaunched the label as Star-day King Records. The legendary songwriter duo Leiber & Stoller bought the label in 1970 but sold it soon afterwards to Gusto Records. Since 2001, U.S. based record label Collectables Records has been remastering and reissuing the King Records catalog.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ James Brown Biography. allmusic. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.
[edit] External links
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