Imperial Records

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Imperial Records
Logo of the label
Logo of the label
Parent company Liberty Records (1964–1970)
EMI (since 2006)
Active years 1947–1970, since 2006
founder Lew Chudd
Seat los Angeles
Website http://www.imperialrecords.com/
Label code LC 01763
Genre (s) Rhythm and blues , rock 'n' roll , blues , jazz

Imperial Records is an American record label that was active as an independent company from 1947 to 1964, was a sub-label of Liberty Records from 1964 to 1970 and was revived in 2006 as the label of the music major EMI .

history

Imperial Records as an independent record company

The pre-rock'n'roll era 1947–1955

Imperial was founded in 1946 by Lew Chudd in Los Angeles / California. After the record company had initially released Mexican music groups from the southwestern United States and folklore, Chudd began in August 1947 to release a record series that featured R&B performers.

During a guest performance by Dave Bartholomew's band at the "Bronze Peacock Club" in Houston, Chudd met Bartholomew by chance in 1949, was enthusiastic about his music and decided to let Bartholomew produce some records with artists from New Orleans for Imperial. The first two recordings produced by Bartholomew were from the blues singer Jewel King ( Don't Marry Too Soon / 3 X 7 = 21 , Imperial 5055) and the blues ballad singer Tommy Ridgley ( Early Dawn Boogie / Shrewsbury Blues , Imperial 5054). The single 3 × 7 = 21 made it into the R&B charts in March 1950 and reached number 15.

In New Orleans in November 1949, Bartholomew discovered a 22-year-old stocky pianist and singer named Antoine Domino, with whom he recorded the title The Fat Man (Imperial 5058) on December 10, 1949 in the J&M studios of Cosimo Matassa , the song reached in April 1950 entered the R&B charts and reached number 6, staying in the top ten for only three weeks, but sold so well on the R&B market in the long term that the single was awarded a "Golden Record" in 1953, and Imperial Records had its star in the R&B market: Fats Domino .

In the same year Domino reached number 5 in the R&B charts with Every Night About This Time (Imperial 6099). From then on, "Imperial Records" had a permanent guest in the Top 10 of the R&B charts with Fats Domino: 1951 Rockin 'Chair # 9 - 1952 Going Home # 1 and How Long # 9 - 1953 Goin' Down The River # 2, Please Don't Leave Me # 5, Rose Mary # 10, Something Wrong # 6; 1954 You Done Me Wrong # 10.

On April 14, 1955 the single was released with the Imperial order number 5348, on the A side of the title "Ain't That A Shame" was, a cover version of a song that had previously been released on record by Gene Autry and Glenn Miller . The track was produced - like most other Fats Domino tracks - by Dave Bartholomew. The song stayed at the top of the R&B charts for eleven weeks, reached number 16 in the Top 100 and was the first of 59 cross-over hits for Domino on the Imperial Label between 1955 and 1962, including 16 top 20 hits.

The second successful artist Imperials in the 1950s came from the field of country music and had recorded a few singles for RCA Records in 1949 and 1950: Slim Whitman . Of the RCA recordings, only I'm Casting My Lasso Toward The Sky had caught the country's attention. In 1951 Lew Chudd signed the yodelling country singer for Imperial, and Whitman stayed with Imperial or the later owners of the label until the late 1970s. His first release, Love Song Of The Waterfall (Imperial 8134), which appeared in January 1952, was a country hit. The success of the same year was even greater with Indian Love Call (Imperial 8156), which reached number 10 in the pop charts. After Cattle Call , which reached number 11 in the country charts in 1955, he did not get into the Country Top 20 again until 1965 and 1968. Whitman celebrated his really great successes in Great Britain: On July 16, 1955, the song Rose Marie was first featured in noted in the British charts, it should be the most successful track of 1955 in Great Britain: Already on July 20, 1955 the song reached the top position and stayed there for eleven weeks until October 8, 1955. Between July 1955 and June 1957, seven were placed Whitman singles in the UK in the top 20, the last track I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen , which was the only song after Indian Love Call that made Whitman the Hot 100 and only a humble one 93rd place. Despite the lack of success from 1957, Imperial published at least three singles by Whitman per year until 1969.

The best-known and most successful performers on Imperial before 1955 were, besides Fats Domino and Slim Whitman, especially Dave Bartholomew, Smiley Lewis , Erroll Garner , T-Bone Walker , Big Joe Turner , Guitar Slim and The Spiders .

In the first half of the 1950s, Imperial managed to establish itself in the R&B market: Among the 30 most successful R&B records of 1954 was an Imperial single, Didn't Want To Do It by the Doo-Wop group The Spiders, represented. In 1955, three singles made it to the top 25 R&B hits of the year: by Fats Domino Ain't That A Shame and All By Myself, and I Hear You Knockin ' by Smiley Lewis. In 1956 Imperial made seven records, all of them recordings by Fats Domino, of the fifty most successful R&B hits of the year and was thus next to Atlantic Records , the company achieved eight placements, the most important independent label on the R&B market.

On the country market, Imperial has seen a rather downward trend: while two recordings by Slim Whitman made it into the 30 most successful country records of the year in 1954, Imperial was only represented with one recording in 1956, tellingly with the title Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino .

As early as the first half of the 1950s, the central problem of Imperial Records became apparent: In addition to an unusually high number of single releases, there was an extremely high economic dependence of the company on the sales success of a few performers.

Rock 'n' Roll era 1956–1963

In the 1950s, the label was best known for its rhythm and blues , rockabilly and early rock 'n' roll recordings. During this time, Ricky Nelson , Bob Luman , Lew Williams , Dennis Herrold , Fats Domino , Charline Arthur and Laura Lee Perkins were under contract. Between 1955 and 1957 some jazz musicians also recorded with Imperial, such as Charlie Mariano , Sonny Criss and Warne Marsh . Imperial had Dave Bartholomew , Cosimo Matassa and Earl King as producers . In 1960 Aladdin Records and three years later Minit Records were bought. In England the records were sold by London Records . After Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson left for other labels, Imperial lost a lot of economic power.

Imperial Records as a sub-label

In 1964, Chudd sold Imperial to Avnet, which had already bought Liberty Records in 1963 . The new owners made Imperial a sub-label of Liberty, which with musicians such as Cher , Johnny Rivers and Irma Thomas could again record success on the label. "Sunset" was founded in 1966 as a further sub-label.

In 1968 Avnet sold "Liberty-Imperial" to the insurance company "Transamerica Corporation", which was already owned by United Artists Records and in 1970 merged the labels into one company under the umbrella of United Artists. 1971 record releases under the label "Imperial" were stopped.

In February 1979 United Artists was taken over by the record company EMI , which revived Imperial's catalog from 2006 and relaunched the label.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The single series with the order numbers 5000ff - The company policy in the early years seems to have been to produce as many records as possible in order to be able to achieve at least individual successes in regional markets. In the 8000 series, which ran parallel to the 5000 series from 1949, 65 singles were released within the first year, and not a single artist ever appears in a hit parade.
  2. ↑ John Broven: Rhythm & Blues In New Orleans . Gretna / Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 1983, pp. 26-28 and p. 234
  3. ↑ on the importance of the Mississippi Delta for the development of rock music see: Tom Aswell: Louisiana Rock! The True Genesis Of Rock And Roll . Gretna / Louisiana: Pelican Books, 2009
  4. ↑ for the musical analysis of the songs by Fats Domino see Tibor Kneif: Rockmusik. A manual for critical understanding . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1982, p. 119f
  5. ↑ John Broven: Rhythm & Blues In New Orleans . Gretna / Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 1983, pp. 29-31 and p. 230
  6. ↑ cf. John Broven: Walking To New Orleans. Rhythm And Blues In New Orleans . Gretna / Louisiana: Pelican Publ. Co, 1978
  7. ^ Peter Guralnick: Fats Domino . In: Jim Miller (ed.): The Rolling Stone Illustrated History Of Rock & Roll . New York: Rolling Stone Press & Random House, 1978, p. 51
  8. ↑ Faulstich interprets the song as an "ironic distancing from the infinite grief over the loss of a loved one" and as a "protest against Tin Pan Alley Pop". Werner Faulstich: From rock 'n' roll to Bob Dylan. Tübingen lectures on rock history. Part 1: 1955-1963 . Gelsenkirchen: Rockpaed Verlag, 1983, p. 48
  9. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls / Wisconsin: Record Research Inc., 1994, p. 174; Often it can be read in the literature that the title reached number 10; this position refers to the juke box charts, not the Billboard Hot 100
  10. ↑ Counting from: Stephen Nugent / Annie Fowler / Pete Fowler: Chart Log Of American / British Top 20 Hits 1955 - 1974 In: Charlie Gillett / Simon Frith (eds.): Rock File 4 . Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books, 1976, pp. 144f
  11. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Records 1940-1955 . Record Research, Menomonee Falls / Wisconsin 1973, p. 48
  12. ↑ Dafydd Rees / Barry Lazell / Roger Osborne: 40 Years Of NME Charts . Boxtree, London 1992, pp. 25-27
  13. ↑ Stephen Nugent / Annie Fowler / Pete Fowler: Chart Log Of American / British Top 20 Hits 1955-1974 . In: Charlie Gillett / Simon Frith (eds.): Rock File 4 . Panther Books, Frogmore, St. Albans 1976, p. 359
  14. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Record Research Inc., Menomonee Falls / Wisconsin 1994, p. 645
  15. ↑ 1954's Top R&B Records . In: Billboard , December 25, 1954 issue, p. 17
  16. ↑ 1955's Top R&B Records . In: Billboard , January 7, 1956 issue, p. 20
  17. ↑ 1956's Top Rhythm And Blues Records . In: Billboard , January 26, 1957 issue, p. 70
  18. ↑ 1954's Top C&W Records . In: Billboard , December 25, 1954 issue, p. 17
  19. ↑ 1956's Top Country And Western Records . In: Billboard , January 26, 1957 issue, p. 64

Artist

literature

  • Charlie Gillett: The Sound Of The City. The history of rock music . German by Teja Schwaner. Zweiausendeins Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979, pp. 123–125

Web links