Fraternity Records
Fraternity Records was an American record company that existed between 1954 and 2008. She was based in Cincinnati , Ohio . The company was then taken over by Undercover Brother Entertainment on Long Island .
history
The record company was founded in Cincinnati in 1954 by composer and orchestra director Harry Carlson when he was already 50 years old. With Fraternity he wanted to produce pop music and jazz and thus differentiate himself from the record company King Records , also based in Cincinnati , which had specialized in country music and blues . He appointed his brother Paul Carlson as manager.
The first single records were unsuccessful recordings with the previously unknown singer Dick Noel. Noel was held in the following years, although none of his records made it into the Billboard Hot 100 . It was two years before a Fraternity record was rated by the US music magazine Billbord . In early 1956, the young singer Cathy Carr recorded the title Ivory Tower , which made it to number 2 on the Hot 100. It was Carr's third Fraternity single after joining Fraternity from Coral Records in 1955 . The successor title Heart Hideaway also made it into the Hot-100, where it reached number 67. She recorded a total of nine singles with Fraternity, after which she went to Roulette Records in 1958 .
Also in 1956 the orchestra leader Jimmy Dorsey , who had been successful since the 1930s, was signed. With the title So Rare , Dorsey's first production at Fraternity, another great success was achieved in 1957, the rhythm and blues instrumental also took second place. Dorsey's follow-up record also sold well, because both sides with the instrumentles June Night and Jay-Dee's Boogie Woogie made it into the Hot 100 (21./77.). It was a grave loss to Fraternity when Dorsey died of throat cancer in 1957.
In 1958, the country singer Bobby Bare was signed. There were various difficulties with his first production, as he was still under contract with Capitol Records and because he was drafted into the army while the title The All American Boy was being edited . Fraternity had the demo version of Bare published in October 1958 under the name of the completely unknown singer Bill Parsons, who actually only sang the B-side of the single. The All American Boy was added to the Hot 100 by Billboard and rose to number 2, always under the name Bill Parsons, although Fraternity had already pressed the same catalog number (835) again in November 1958 with Bobby Bare performing All American Boy and the original B-side with Bill Parsons. Bobby Bare released another eight singles by 1961, but they remained just as unsuccessful as the two singles that were released with the original voice of Bill Parsons. Bare joined RCA Victor in 1962 .
From 1959 to 1962, Fraternity was unable to place any productions on the Hot 100. This only succeeded again with the engagement of guitarist Lonnie Mack and his debut single with the guitar version of the Chuck Berry composition Memphis . This rose to fifth place in the Hot 100. By 1965, three more recordings with Lonnie Mack had been listed on the Hot 100. It then took another year for Fraternity productions to be successful again. In 1967 it was the Cincinnati-based rock group The Casinos that was considered with two titles by Billboard. Under contract since 1965, their song Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye came in 6th on the Hot 100 in January 1967 , three months later It's All Over reached 65th.
It was the final Hot 100 success for Fraternity. After more than 100 single pressings and nearly twenty long-playing records produced, Harry Carlson sold the record company in 1975 for $ 25,000 to the entertainer Shad O'Shea from Cincinnati. He also used Fraternity to market his own records. Under his aegis, Fraternity records could no longer achieve success. In 2008 O'Shea sold the Fraternity label to Victor Piagneri on condition that the brand be continued. Piagneri, owner of Undercover Brother Entertainment on Long Island , combined Fraternity with a number of other labels under the Fraternity Music Group. Records continued to be produced under the Fraternity label. The last known production is the vinyl single Doon-Chang / Gee, How I Miss You with the 4 Jades, catalog no. F 4502 from 2012. The plate label still bears the Fraternity logo introduced in 1955.
Title in the Hot 100
| entry | title | Performers | Catalog no. | space |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1956 | Ivory Tower | Cathy Carr | 734 | 2. |
| 7.1956 | Heart hideaway | Cathy Carr | 743 | 67. |
| 2.1957 | So rare | Jimmy Dorsey | 755 | 2. |
| 8.1957 | June Night | Jimmy Dorsey | 777 | 21st |
| 8.1957 | Jay-Dee's Boogie Woogie | Jimmy Dorsey | 777 | 77. |
| 12.1958 | The All American Boy | Bill Parsons ( Bobby Bare ) | 835 | 2. |
| 6.1963 | Memphis | Lonnie Mack | 906 | 5. |
| 8.1963 | Wham! | Lonnie Mack | 912 | 24. |
| 11.1963 | Baby what's wrong | Lonnie Mack | 918 | 93. |
| 10.1965 | Honky Tonk '65 | Lonnie Mack | 951 | 78. |
| 1.1967 | Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye | The casinos | 977 | 6th |
| 4.1967 | It's All Over by The Casinos | The casinos | 985 | 65. |
Singer with the most singles
- Lonnie Mack (18)
- The Casinos (12)
- Bobby Bare (10)
- Mouse and the Traps (10)
- Dick Noel (10)
- Cathy Carr (9)
- Albert Washington (9)
- Dan Belloc (7)
- John Gary (7)
- Jack Larson (5)
- The Charmaines (5)
LPs
| Performers | title | Catalog no. | year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerri Winters | Winter's Here | 1001 | 1955 |
| Tommy Wolf | Wolf at your door | 1002 | 1956 |
| Margie Meinert | Organ Moods in the Margie Meinert Manner | 1003 | 1956 |
| Dan Belloc | Dapper Dan Swings | 1004 | 1956 |
| Cathy Carr | Ivory Tower | 1005 | 1957 |
| Gene Austin | and His Lonesome Road | 1006 | 1957 |
| Margie Meinert | Crazy Calliope Music | 1007 | 1957 |
| Jimmy Dosey | The Fabulous Jimmy Dorsey | 1008 | 1957 |
| Margie Meinert | Magnificence | 1009 | 1958 |
| Tommy Wolf | Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most | 1010 | 1958 |
| Herbie Fields | Fields In Clover | 1011 | 1959 |
| Dale Stevens & Jack Clements | The Weird And The Beard | 1012 | 1961 |
| Lonnie Mack | The Wham Of That Memphis Man! | 1014 | 1963 |
| Ronnie Speeks | Specially for you | 1015 | |
| John Gary | Collector's Items | 1016 | |
| Cal Starr & Guitar | In Nashville (Music City USA) | 1018 | |
| Casinos | Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye | 1019 | 1967 |
| Joey Welz | American Made Rock and Roll | 1028 |