Gateway Records
| Gateway Records | |
|---|---|
| Active years | 1952 to 1958 |
| founder | Carl Burckhardt |
| Seat | Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Genre (s) | Country , rockabilly , rock 'n' roll , pop |
Gateway Records was an American record label founded in 1952 by Carl Burckhardt. Gateway, like Burckhardt's other label, specialized in releasing covers of current hits.
history
founding
Carl Burckhardt founded Rite Record Productions in 1950 with the aim of making hits available to financially weaker customers. In 1952 he founded three different labels, Gateway, Kentucky and Big 4 Hits . There were also other smaller distributors, but they only had relatively small production numbers. Gateway released his first record in 1952 with I Wouldn't Hurt You For The World / Violins (Gateway 1001) by the Al Gracia Quartet, a pop group. In contrast to other independent labels, not all releases were arranged in a catalog number system, but in five different series depending on the genre. The 1000 series consisted exclusively of pop records, the 3000 series country music, the 4000 series children's music, the 5000 series blues and the 9000 series polka , Dixieland , rock and roll , country and other folk music.
Gateway Top Tune
In 1953, Gateway Top Tune was introduced alongside the main gateway series . All releases in this series were cover versions of current hits. The repertoire comprised mainly pop and country, from 1955 rockabilly and rock'n'roll were added. The first Top Tune single was released with Del Brinks covers by Richochet and Changing Partners (Gateway 1051). Number 1050 was pressed, but probably never released commercially. The plan was Rags To Riches / Many Times Bud novel.
In 1955, Gateway Extended Play was entertaining and only released EPs. However, this series was sorted into the catalog of the Big 4 Hits label.
One Gateway artist in particular achieved fame as the “King of the Custom Labels” when compared to other musicians. Delbert Barker was a country musician and had already released his first records in 1953 in the Gateway Hillbilly series. He then switched to Top Tune and interpreted current country hits. Many of his country recordings are no longer commercially available today. The situation is different with his rockabilly titles, which he added to his repertoire from 1955. Among other things, a cover of Johnny Cash's number 4 hit So Doggone Lonesome , Carl Perkins ' number one hit Blue Suede Shoes and Elvis Presley's number one hit Heartbreak Hotel became famous .
Some of Gateway's other Rock'n'Roll covers are also available - especially on the compilations of the series Rock & Roll Covers: Hot Steamy Lovers by Collector Records - such as Rex Masters version of Too Much (original artist: Elvis Presley) or Gootch Jackson's versions of Oh Boy (Original Artist : Buddy Holly ) and Johnny B. Goode (Original Artist : Chuck Berry ).
The End
1957 Carl Burckhard sold Gateway along with Big 4 Hits and Kentucky to a company from Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . This had further recordings pressed by Rite Music under the name Gateway until 1958, but production finally stopped in 1958. In the past two years the master recordings had been given to other similar record labels such as Worthmore and Tops .
Discography
see Gateway Records / Discography
Web links
- Information on Rite Record Productions
- Discography with audio samples (Top Tune - Rockabilly only)