Bullet Records

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Bullet Records was an American independent label that was founded in March 1946 by Jim Bulleit in Nashville / Tennessee and was active until 1953. Bullet was the earliest Nashville-based record company and was best known for the fact that numerous country stars had their first record deal with Bullet Records.

The record company was started by radio announcer Jim Bulleit, banker Orville Zickler and CV Hitchcock, owner of a record wholesaler. Bulleit built the first record press plant in Nashville, but sold his shares in the company in 1948 and was replaced on the executive board by Overton Ganong, who had previously been sales manager at Capitol Records .

The company wanted to cover as broad a spectrum as possible with their record releases and released singles for the pop, R&B and country markets. This made Bullet one of the few independent labels alongside National Records and Dot Records that did not specialize in a submarket, but rather tried to be active in as many markets as possible as an "all-round indie".

The first three records were released in early June 1946. Bullet Records initially put on three series: The 600 series, called "Hillbilly" by Bullet, in which country music appeared; the 200 series, called "Sepia," which released rhythm and blues recordings; in addition, the 100 series, called "Sacred" by the company, offered gospel and religious music.

Francis Graig - Near You

In the summer of 1947, the 1000 series was launched, in which pop and jazz music was published. Shortly after the introduction of this series, Bullet Records had a number one hit with Near You (Bullet # 1001) by Francis Craig in 1947, which stayed at the top of the US charts for 17 weeks, becoming the most successful record of the year 1947. The single after that by Craig Beg Your Pardon (Bullet # 1012) also reached a top ten position in early 1948. Bullet signed Craig because Francis Craig And His Orchestra was Nashville's premier dance orchestra from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. The orchestra played at all major events in Nashville and was the Vanderbilt Hotel's house band for years . In the 1920s, Craig had his own local radio show, which was broadcast nationwide on NBC more frequently, albeit mostly in the late evening hours. Craig had already retired in the mid-1940s and was no longer making music full-time when Bullet had him record two songs composed by Craig in the "Castle Recording Studios" founded in Nashville at the beginning of 1947: Auf the A-side of the single came Red Rose , the signature tune of the Francis Craig Orchestra from the 1930s, on the B-side Near You , a song that Craig wrote with songwriter Kermit Goell. Bob Lamm took over the vocal part on both recordings.

The second area in which Bullet Records was active was the "Race" market, as it was officially called at the time and was later renamed R&B. Bullet Records produced the 200 series on which the rhythm and blues recordings appeared, " Called Sepia Series ". The series began in June 1946 with order number 250, the single "Nashville Jumps" / "Loose As A Goose" by Cecil Gant. The second and third single ("My Baby's Barrel House" / "Drinkin 'By Myself", Bullet # 252) were recordings by Wynonie Harris or - as the record cover put it - "Wynonie (The Blues) Harris". In total, the company released around one hundred R&B singles (order numbers 250 to 350), including recordings by Wynonie Harris and BB King , but only these two performers - besides Red Miller - achieved success in the R&B market. BB King's first record was released in 1949 on the Bullet Label: Miss Martha King . In 1948 Bullet Records achieved number one in the R&B charts with the single from "Bewildered" / "Nobility Boogie" (Bullet # 295) by the Red Miller Trio. The single came in at number 23 in the annual ranking of "Billboard" magazine. Records. In the rhythm & blues area in particular, the Nashville-based and country-oriented company showed little expertise, which may be one reason for the fact that the company - despite important performers - was only able to achieve few sales successes in the rhythm & blues area.

Many of the later successful country singers and musicians started their careers with Bullet Records, such as Minnie Pearl , Chet Atkins , Ray Price , Bradley Kincaid , Pee Wee King , Leon Payne , Ken Curtis , Roy Hall and The York Brothers . The country recordings appeared on Bullet in the 600 series and included the order numbers 600 to 754, which were published between 1946 and 1952. The first record of the country series with the order number Bullet 600 was by Owen Bradley And His Tennesseans with the titles Zeb's Mountain Boogie and Wave To My My lady . 1946 published on Bullet Singles a. a. von Minnie Pearl: I'm Looking For A Fellow / Jealous Hearted Me (Bullet # 613), Pee Wee King And The Golden West Cowboys: That Cheap Look In Your Eye / You Were The Cause Of It All (Bullet # 614) and Bradley Kincaid And The Kentucky Mountain Boys: Ain't We Crazy / Now The Table's Turned On You (Bullet # 615). The first record Chet Atkins released under the name "Chester Atkins And The All-Star Hillbillies" was the 1946 Bullett single Guitar Blues / Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain (Bullet # 617). It was his only single on the Bullet label, from early 1947 Atkins was under contract with RCA Victor . The later successful country singer Ray Price also released his first single on Bullet Records, Your Wedding Corsage / Jealous Lies (1949, Bullet # 701), but migrated to the major label Columbia Records in 1950 . Despite the numerous successful country singers in the 1950s and 1960s who were initially under contract with Bullet, Bullet did not manage to achieve greater success in the country market. With the exception of Leon Payne, who released four singles on Bullet, the others were signed after the first single - mostly from major labels. An exception was Johnny Lee Wills , the younger brother of Bob Wills . As "Johnny Lee Wills And His Boys" he published numerous singles on Bullet from 1949, including Rag Mop / Near Me (Bullet # 696), the single became a crossover hit and in 1950 made it to number 10 on the pop charts.

After the initial success in the pop music market, Bulleit tried to stabilize the success by signing well-known pop singers, but no single played the guaranteed amount promised to the singers. The best known performer hired by Bullet was Bob Crosby , the younger brother of Bing Crosby . Bob Crosby had great success with his "Bob Cats" in the 1930s and early 1940s, and he also appeared in numerous films until 1946. In 1948 and 1949, Bullet released three Bob Crosby singles, but none of them were sales successes. In addition to Bob Crosby, Bullet Records signed a number of other big band and swing performers such as Russ Carlyle, who recorded a total of three singles in 1947 and 1948. Bandleaders such as Ray Pearl and Dean Hudson also released singles on the Bullet label, but the music no longer met the taste of the time and did not sell to the extent Bullet expected. The most successful performer of the label, Francis Craig, signed a contract with MGM Records in December 1948 and moved to Decca Records in early January 1952 together with his singer Bob Lamm . In 1953 the 1000 series with the order number 1107 was discontinued.

In 1953 Bullet Records went bankrupt. The attempt to establish an "all-round indie label" on the market in the long term failed, as did National Records, in contrast to the third "all-round indie" Dot Records, which even made it into the group of major labels in 1957 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Colin Escott: Bullet Records . In: Frank Hoffmann (Ed.): Encyclopedia Of Recorded Sound . 2nd revised and enlarged edition. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005, p. 144
  2. ↑ The record company's release series are named after the order number, so the 600 series begins with order number 600
  3. ^ Company advertisement in Billboard , issue of June 8, 1946, p. 39
  4. ↑ "Near You" by the Francis Craig Orchestra was the record that was the longest in the history of the American charts to stay at number 1 on the charts.
  5. ↑ When the company was founded, the year 1945 is often given, the order number "Bullet 1001" for the single Near You suggests a later founding date: The single was first listed on the Billboard charts on August 30, 1947; see. Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Records 1940-1955 . Menomonee Falls / Wisconsin: Record Research Inc., 1973, p. 16
  6. ↑ For Francis Craig and his orchestra see: George T. Simon: The Big Bands . Foreword by Frank Sinatra. 4th edition. New York: Schirmer Books, 1981, p. 504
  7. ^ Advertisement by Bullet Records in "Billboard", issue of June 22, 1946, p. 36
  8. ^ Billboard , January 1, 1949, p. 14
  9. ↑ cf. Götz Alsmann: Nothing but noise. The Independent Record Companies and the Development of American Popular Music 1943-1963 . Drensteinfurt: Huba, 1985, p. 73f; There is also a quote from Jim Bulleit from an interview with the magazine "Melody Maker": Without any advertising, we sold 30,000 of Wynonie Harris records. We couldn't understand a goddamn word of what the boy was singing. For us it was nothing but noise.
  10. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Records 1940-1955 . Menomonee Falls / Wisconsin: Record Research Inc., 1973, p. 48
  11. ↑ Götz Alsmann: Nothing but noise. The Independent Record Companies and the Development of American Popular Music 1943-1963 . Drensteinfurt: Huba Verlag, 1985, p. 74
  12. ↑ George T. Simon: The Big Bands . Foreword by Frank Sinatra. 4th edition. New York: Schirmer Books / London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1981, pp. 131-139
  13. ↑ It's Got To Be / You're My Everything (Bullet # 1020), My Donna Lee / Til We Meet Again (Bullet # 1045) and Saturday Night Mood / Gone Home (Bullet # 1066)
  14. ↑ George T. Simon: The Big Bands . Foreword by Frank Sinatra. 4th edition. New York: Schirmer Books / London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1981, pp. 491 and 513
  15. ↑ George T. Simon: The Big Bands . Foreword by Frank Sinatra. 4th edition. New York: Schirmer Books / London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1981, p. 510
  16. ↑ George T. Simon: The Big Bands . Foreword by Frank Sinatra. 4th edition. New York: Schirmer Books / London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1981, p. 507
  17. ^ Billboard, December 25, 1948, issue, p. 21
  18. ^ Decca Signs Francis Craig . In: Billboard , January 12, 1952 issue, p. 26
  19. ↑ Since I do not have the complete catalog of the 1000 series and some order numbers have not been published, it is still unclear how many singles were actually released in the 1000 series

literature

  • Götz Alsmann: Nothing but noise. The Independent Record Companies and the Development of American Popular Music 1943-1963 . Drensteinfurt: Huba Verlag, 1985, pp. 73f