Valiant Records

Valiant Records was also the name of a record label which was renamed Instant Records.

Valiant Records was an independent record company co-owned by Four Star Television which was sold in 1967 to Warner Bros. Records.^[1]

Valiant Records was never fully independent; for most of its existence, its distributor was Warner Bros. Records before Warner acquired the label in 1967.

Formed in 1960 by songwriter Barry DeVorzon and manager Billy Sherman,^[2] Valiant charted with its first release, Shelby Flint's "Angel On My Shoulder." Flint scored again six years later with a soft vocal version of "Cast Your Fate To The Wind." DeVorzon's own group, Barry & The Tamerlanes, hit in 1963 with "I Wonder What She's Doin' Tonight." In 1966 DeVorzon rescued folk-rockers The Association from obscurity at Jubilee Records, and they debuted on Valiant (which had just ended a very brief distribution stint with Four Star Television, the distributor of such shows as Burke's Law and Honey West) with a non-charting version of "One Too Many Mornings." The next handful of records - "Along Comes Mary," "Cherish," "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" and "No Fair At All" - helped establish The Association as one of the premier Sunshine Pop acts of the '60s.

In 1967, after a little over 110 singles and 11 albums (seven under Warner Bros. and four under Four Star/independent distribution), the label itself ceased to exist and was folded into Warner Bros. Records. Its output remains desirable to collectors, with the early years featuring a string of obscure but worthwhile white pop titles, and the later years an intriguing mix of slick Southern California psych and pop.

Collectors should note that Valiant singles sported two separate numbering series. For singles, the 6000 series (6001–6062) ran from 1960 to 1966, then the 700 series (701–762) followed in 1966–1967. Some numbers from 6002 to 6013 were shared with a Montclare Records, a very short-lived Warner subsidiary, as well as several one-shot labels such as Elloma and Burbank. The first 10 numbers of the 700 series were reserved for reissues of the most popular singles of the 6000 series. It appears the following numbers were never released: 706, 707, 708, 710, 722, and 746. Albums were also given different numbering sets. The seven Valiant albums distributed by Warner Bros. were numbered from W/WS 401–407, the four albums under Four Star/independent were issued VLM 5001–5004 for mono, VLS 25001–25004 for stereo. Warner Bros. reissued the Four Star/independent albums using numbers W (mono)/WS (stereo) 1701–1704 in alignment with the original issues.

Valiant Records was also the name of an unrelated label headquartered variously in Swarthmore, PA and Bronx, NY that re-released some albums originally issued on the Somerset Records label, largely for inexpensive supermarket and variety store distribution.^{[3] [4] [5]}

Label variations

• 1960-1966 (Warner Bros. distribution) -- Purple or red label with silver print (singles were pressed only with the purple labels)
• 1966-1967 (Four Star/independent distribution) -- Red label with black logo (album labels also include a white knight head). Some records show a black bar at the bottom of the label, covering the Four Star disclaimer.

Valiant Records artists

• Danny & The Memories
• The Association
• Barry & the Tamerlanes
• Perry Botkin, Jr.
• Charles Boyer
• The Cascades
• The Collectors
• Shelby Flint
• The Addrisi Brothers
• Corey Wells & The Enemys
• J.J. Cale
• The Grads
• Denny Provisor (Dennis Provisor of The Grass Roots)
• Dean Jones
• The Silvertones
• Singers, Inc.
• The Lost Ones

References

See also

• List of record labels