Queen Records (Ohio)
Queen Records was a short-lived independent label founded by Syd Nathan in 1945 , which had taken over the American rhythm & blues music and gospel division as a subsidiary of King Records .
history
Foundation phase
Queen Records was founded in August 1945 by Nathan in the "Queen City" of Cincinnati , Ohio , as a subsidiary of King Records, which was created exactly one year earlier. The first recordings for Queen were made a year earlier on July 1, 1944, when the Chubby Jackson sextet recorded a total of four tracks. Presumably they were planned for the King Records catalog and then transferred to Queen.
Nathan brought in Henry Glover, who played trumpet in the Lucky Millinder Orchestra, as the producer . Glover celebrated his first success as a producer with Benjamin "Bull Moose" Jackson. The cover version of Joe Liggins ' Honey Dripper / Hold Him Joe (Queen # 4100) was released as the first record of the newly founded subsidiary label Queen in August 1945, but without a chart note because the original and three other versions were released in 1945 and 1946 the renewed cover version left no chance of success. Producer Glover managed to get Jackson from Lucky Millinder's band to help with the recording. Only then did the titles of the Chubby Jackson sextet, divided into two singles, appear, also without any response.
successes
But already Bull Moose Jackson's I Know Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well received on 19 December 1945, New York City and published in February 1946 (Queen # 4116), was able to number four of the independent rhythm and blues charts penetrate. It should remain the most successful title of the Queen label in terms of the hit parade. With the line-up Harold "Money" Johnson ( trumpet ), Bernie Peacock ( alto saxophone ), Clarence "Bullmoose" Jackson and Sam "The Man" Taylor (tenor saxophone), "Sir" Charles Thompson ( piano ), Bernard Mackey ( guitar ), Beverly Peer ( bass ) and Dave "Panama" Francis ( drums ) wrote two more songs in this session in New York, of which the slow blues Bull Moose Jackson Blues was paired with We Ain't Got Nothin 'But the Blues as a single and when Queen # 4102 appeared again in the same month under the band name Bull Moose Jackson And His Buffalo Bearcats without hit parade resonance. A total of eight recordings remained unpublished thereafter.
Glover saw sufficient hit potential only in I Love You, Yes I Do / Sneaky Pete , which were released in October 1947. His instinct proved him right, because the blues ballad reached the top position of the R&B charts for three weeks on February 21, 1948 and developed, not as John Hartley Fox writes, to the first R&B million seller , but to the second because Joe Liggins ' Honeydripper was the first ever R&B millionaire. Since the copyrights were already administered by another music publisher, label boss Nathan had to pay damages to Decca Records . Jackson consistently released eight singles on Queen records, his last single here being Going Back to Cleveland Ohio , which was released in July 1947. Then he switched to the mother label King Records.
In early 1947 Queen Records acquired 20 master recordings from Southern Records and some of Earl Bostic's tracks , which he had recorded for Gotham Records . It was this alto saxophonist, Bostic, whose single That's the Groovy Thing Pt. , Which was recorded in July 1946 . 1 & 2 was released as Queen # 4174 as the last record of the short-lived label in August 1947.
closure
On August 21, 1947 Queen Records was discontinued after only two years of activity, and its catalog of 75 records in the range of Slim Gaillard (Slim & Slam), Annisteen Allen , Tab Smith , Deacon Lem Johnson ( Walkin 'the Boogie ) and established gospel Performers such as The Southern Harps , Wings Over Jordan and The Harmoneers were transferred to King Records ("King Race Series"). Jackson's I Love You, Yes I Do had also appeared in the King Records catalog under # 4181. The merger with King Records took place officially on September 1, 1947, Henry Glover now took over an extremely successful production activity at the mother label King Records.
Individual evidence
- ↑ all four cover versions were at least third place on the R&B charts
- ^ Steven C. Tracy, Going to Cincinnati - A History of the Blues in the Queen City , 1998, p. 119
- ^ John Hartley Fox / Dave Alvin, King of the Queen City - The Story of King Records , 2009, p. 32
- ↑ Steven C. Tracy 1998, p. 120