Del-Fi Records
Del-Fi Records was an American music label that released records in the pop music field between 1958 and 1965 .
history
The Del-Fi record company was founded in 1957 by the then 35-year-old clarinetist and music producer Bob Keane . He had previously been a co-owner of the Keen Records label, but left the company in 1957 after a dispute with his partner John Siamas. The first Del-Fi single was released in 1958 with the titles Caravan and September Song sung by Henri Rose under catalog number 4101. In the same year, Keane signed the 17-year-old unknown Ritchie Valens . Its first single was already a success, the title Come On, Let's Go made it to number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was also Del-Fi's first listing on Billboard. Del-Fi achieved the greatest success in the company's history with Valens' second single, Donna , released in November 1958 . In January 1959, the song was number 2 on the Hot 100 and stayed in the charts for a total of 23 weeks. By July 1959, Valens was represented with three other titles in the Hot 100, before that he had died in a plane crash in February of that year.
In 1959, Keane founded the subsidiary Donna, named after Del-Fi’s greatest success to date. No special category was assigned to the sub-label, its only top 50 hits were Love You So by Ron Holden (7th place) and To Be Loved by the Pentagons (48th place). By 1965, Donna had produced about 90 singles.
With the death of Valence, Del-Fi had lost its guarantee of success and it was two years before Those Oldies but Goodies with Little Caesar appeared again in June 1961 , a Del-Fi single on the Hot 100. The song achieved its best rating at number 9. At the same time, Del-Fi signed a record deal with 14-year-old Johnny Crawford . With the title Daydreams on his first single, he immediately got into the Hot 100 and subsequently developed into the label's new workhorse. By 1964 he came with a total of seven titles in hit lists and in 1962 with the title Cindy's Birthday , which reached number 8 on the Hot 100, his greatest success.
Crawford's title Judy Loves Me , published in November 1963, was Del-Fi’s last chart listing, it came in at number 95 on the Hot 100. After only four singles had been produced in 1965, Keane stopped the Del-Fi and Donna productions. Around 200 singles and 49 vinyl records had been released under the Del-Fi label. Of the long-playing records, only the productions Ritchie Valens (1959, number 23 in the PL charts) and A Young Man's Fancy with Johnny Crawford (1962, number 40) were successful. Keane continued his business with the new Mustang label.
US Billboard Hot 100
| year | title | Interpreter | Cat.-No. | rank |
| 1958 | Come on, let's go | Ritchie Valens | 4106 | 42. |
| 1958 | donna | Ritchie Valens | 4110 | 2. |
| 1958 | La Bamba | Ritchie Valens | 4110 | 22nd |
| 1959 | That's my little suzie | Ritchie Valens | 4114 | 55. |
| 1959 | Cherrystone | The Addrisi Brothers | 4116 | 62. |
| 1959 | Little girl | Ritchie Valens | 4117 | 92. |
| 1961 | Those oldies but goodies | Little Caesar & The Romans | 4158 | 9. |
| 1961 | Daydreams | Johnny Crawford | 4162 | 70. |
| 1962 | Patti Ann | Johnny Crawford | 4172 | 43. |
| 1962 | Fortune Teller | Bobby Curtola | 4177 | 41. |
| 1962 | Cindy's Birthday | Johnny Crawford | 4178 | 8th. |
| 1962 | Your Nose Is Gonna Grow | Johnny Crawford | 4181 | 14th |
| 1962 | Aladdin | Bobby Curtola | 4185 | 92. |
| 1962 | Rumors | Johnny Crawford | 4188 | 12. |
| 1963 | Proud | Johnny Crawford | 4193 | 29 |
| 1963 | Cindy's Gonna Cry | Johnny Crawford | 4221 | 72. |
| 1964 | Judy Loves Me | Johnny Crawford | 4231 | 95. |