Abbott Records

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abbott Records
Active years 1951 to 1958
founder Fabor Robison
Genre (s) Country music

Abbott Records was an independent American record company founded in 1951 by Fabor Robinson (born November 3, 1911 in Beebe, Arkansas , † September 1986 in Minden, Louisiana ) in Hollywood , California . The company was particularly successful in the field of country music in the first half of the 1950s .

history

Abbott Records record label

The company was named after its co-partner, a pharmacist who financially supported Robinson in founding the company. Robinson originally started the company to promote Johnny Horton 's career. The first ten singles produced in 1951 and 1952 were all by Horton, but he did not have a hit with Abbott himself. In 1952 only three more singles by unknown hillbilly musicians were released.

Robinson made his economic breakthrough in 1953 when he signed Jim Reeves , whose second single for Abbott, Mexican Joe, was a number one hit on the country charts. The single became the sixth most successful country single of 1953. In the same year, Abbott Records had another number one hit on the country charts with the title Caribbean by Mitchell Torok. In October 1953, Robinson bought all other shares and became the sole owner of Abbott Records. At the same time he founded a second record company, Fabor Records.

Numerous musicians with whom Robinson produced records were under contract with the radio station KWKH in Shreveport and the Louisiana Hayride broadcast from there . Numerous later stars were initially under contract with Abbott before they were successful with other labels. Floyd Cramer and Smiley Burnette, among others, began their careers at Abbott. Even Dorsey Burnette and the DeCastro Sisters produced until the mid-1950s singles for Abbott Records.

1954 the song Bimbo by Jim Reeves on Abbott Records again reached number one in the country charts. The successful up-and-coming singer Jim Reeves was bought out of the Abbott contract by RCA Records in 1955, as was Floyd Cramer . In the spring of 1957, Abbott stopped producing records. Since 1954 Robinson had concentrated his main activities on his second label Fabor Records. In February 1957, Robinson agreed with Randy Wood of Dot Records that Dot could get master tapes from the Abbott and Fabor catalogs to publish on Dot. Robinson was reimbursed the recording costs and royalties for the records released by Dot .

Musicians and music groups

The following selection of musicians and music groups released various recordings on the Abbott Records label. For more information see Abbott Records / Discography .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kingsbury, Paul (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Preface by Emmylou Harris. New York / NY: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 3
  2. ^ Billboard Magazine, May 22, 1954 issue, p. 19
  3. ↑ The title landed at number 20 of the best-selling country singles of 1953. In 1959, Mitchell Torok managed to reach number 27 on the Billboard Top 100 charts with a recording of the title from 1953; see. Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993. Menomonee Falls / Wisconsin: Record Research, 1994, p. 607
  4. ^ Billboard Magazine, March 2, 1957 Issue, pp. 19 and 27

Web links