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Arthur "Art" N. Rupe (born September 5, 1917 in Greensburg , Pennsylvania as Arthur Goldberg ) is an American music producer , music publisher and founder of Specialty Records .

Life

Art Rupe was born on September 5, 1917 in Greensburg , Pennsylvania. His father David, who was a furniture dealer, played bass in a band. In the local church, young Arthur liked to listen to the gospel choir. He first studied in Oxford , Ohio and moved to UCLA in Los Angeles in 1939 . After graduation, he decided to move into the entertainment industry. After an unsuccessful attempt to get into the film business, Rupe eventually partnered with Bob Scherman of Atlas Records in 1944 . Despite well-known contract interpreters such as Nat King Cole , Frankie Laine , Johnny Moore's Three Blazers and Charles Brown , Atlas went bankrupt and Art lost his investment. As an independent label , Atlas had tried to compete with the major labels on the pop market .

With this experience richer, Rupe then analyzed the hit potentials of the specialty markets and decided to switch to the rhythm and blues business of the black music industry, which was largely ignored by the big labels. With Boogie # 1 of Sepia Tones , Rupe started his first own label Juke Box Records in 1945 and quickly enjoyed success with 70,000 singles sold. So he was able to sign Marion "The Blues Woman" Abernathy , Roosevelt "The Blues Man" Sykes and Roy Milton . Abernathy's Voo-it! Voo-it! and Milton's RM Blues also became bestsellers. Rupe entered into a partnership with Al Middleman from Sterling Records , which included the mutual co-ownership of the respective labels. Soon Rupe feared the influence of Eli Oberstein , who was a talent scout at Victor Records and operated the Hit Records label with Middleman . He sold all the shares in Juke Box and Sterling and started a new company with some master tapes with Specialty Records .

Rupe persuaded Roy Milton to follow him to the new label. This attracted other jump blues singers like Joe Liggins and Joe Lutcher . From 1948 Rupe took on gospel quartets, which should become a focus of Specialty Records in the future. Rupe's interest and passion for gospel also influenced the selection and production of secular artists in light music, whose emotionality was always more important to him than the perfection of the recording technique.

Since 1952 the neighboring Imperial Records had great success with Fats Domino in the rhythm and blues of New Orleans . Rupe was therefore looking for talent there and discovered Lloyd Price in 1952 , whose Lawdy Miss Clawdy was to become one of the first crossover hits on the pop market. Since then, Cosimo Matassa's J&M studio and its studio band have been a highly booked branch of Specialty Records. The big commercial breakthrough in both markets finally came in 1955 with rock 'n' roll Little Richards . In the 1950s, one of the label's greatest commercial successes, Guitar Slim's The Things That I Used to Do , also fell, and the song stayed on the R&B charts for 42 weeks.

Around 1960, Rupe lost interest in the music industry after a few setbacks: Little Richard had started his religious career, Sam Cooke had switched to Keen Records during a dispute with producer Bumps Blackwell and had great success there. Rule's marriage also fell apart. Other lucrative deals made it easier for Rupe to transfer the operational business of Specialty to other managers, who however began to concentrate on the maintenance and re-edition of the existing catalog. Rupe himself became very successful in the oil and real estate trade.

Rupe was ready to support Little Richard in a possible comeback attempt. Before that happened in 1964, the extravagant rocker had recommended a young British beat band to him for the American market: the decision not to sign the Beatles was the second big mistake in his career as a label boss, alongside the expulsion of Sam Cookes. The revival of the recording activity of Specialty Records with Little Richard's Bama Lama Bama Loo and some pieces by Percy Mayfield and Don and Dewey was unsuccessful and was discontinued after a short time. From then on, Rupe's daughter took over the management of the Specialty catalog until it was sold to Fantasy Records in 1990 .

Art Rupe founded and since then runs a foundation, the "Art Rupe Foundation", which finances a chair for research into the social influence of the media. He founded a library in the small Pennsylvanian town where he grew up. Despite old age, the anti-alcoholic and vegetarian Art Rupe is still involved in civil society.

In 2007 Rupe was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame with Ahmet Ertegün as a "non-performer" . This year's award-winning musicians were Dave Bartholomew , Dr. John , Guitar Slim and Sister Rosetta Tharpe . In 2011 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .

literature

  • John Broven: Record Makers and Breakers. Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers . University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Chicago 2010, ISBN 978-0-252-03290-5 (American English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Blues Hall of Fame , accessed November 20, 2009
  2. ^ Art Rupe Biography. In: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved November 27, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Rupe, Art
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rupe, Arthur N .; Goldberg, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American label founder, music producer and music publisher
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Greensburg , Pennsylvania