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Dial Records was a Nashville-based soul label established by music promoter, publisher and producer Buddy Killen in 1961. [1] [ verification needed ]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2006) |
Dial Records was a Nashville-based soul label established by music promoter, publisher and producer Buddy Killen in 1961. [1] [ verification needed ]
Dial Records was formed specifically so Buddy Killen could record perhaps his best-known discovery, soul singer Joe Tex. [2] After a few tries and misses, Tex came up with a song called "Hold What You've Got", a 1964 ballad that bridged traditional rhythm and blues with the emerging Southern soul style and also pointed toward a future of rap thanks to Tex's spoken, almost testifying homily midway through the song. (Tex, in fact, was actually nicknamed "The Rapper" in these years.") "Hold What You've Got" got Killen's Dial label a distribution deal with Atlantic Records. Joe Tex was the anchor star of this Dial label (he rolled up almost thirty soul hits, some of which hit the pop charts, especially "Skinny Legs and All" and "I Gotcha") until he all but retired from music in the 1970s and died of a heart attack at age 49.
Dial had a few distributors over the years including London Records, Atlantic Records, Mercury Records, Epic Records and T.K. Records. Killen shut down the label in 1979 to concentrate on his other music interests. He owned Tree International Publishing.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing owns the Dial Records catalogue today. [3]
Dial Records had the distinction of going through four different distributors:
Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwide success over time, with the success of platinum performers Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Devo, Tangerine Dream, Genesis, Phil Collins, OMD, the Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, Lenny Kravitz, the Sex Pistols, and Mike Oldfield among others, meaning that by the time it was sold, it was regarded as a major label, alongside other large international independents such as A&M and Island Records.
Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was originally headquartered.
Monument Records is an American record label in Washington, D.C. named for the Washington Monument, founded in 1958 by Fred Foster, Buddy Deane, and business manager Jack Kirby. Buddy Deane soon left the company, and in the early '60s bought KOTN in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he lived in retirement until his death. Foster and Kirby relocated to the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Monument's releases include a variety of genres including rock and roll, country, jazz, and rhythm and blues.
Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records.
London Recordings is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London name — as London American Recordings, often shortened to London American — was also used by British Decca in the UK market, for releases taken from American labels, which British Decca licensed.
Yusuf Hazziez, known professionally as Joe Tex, was an American singer and musician who gained success in the 1960s and 1970s with his brand of Southern soul, which mixed the styles of funk, country, gospel, and rhythm and blues.
Fred Luther Foster was an American record producer, songwriter, and music business executive who founded Monument Records. As a record producer he was most closely associated with Roy Orbison, and was also involved in the early careers of Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. Foster suggested to Kris Kristofferson the title and theme of "Me and Bobby McGee", which became a hit for Kristofferson, Roger Miller, and Janis Joplin, and for which Foster received a co-writing credit.
ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels before ABC was sold to MCA Records in 1979. ABC produced music in a variety of genres: pop, rock, jazz, country, rhythm and blues, soundtrack, gospel, and polka. In addition to producing records, ABC licensed masters from independent record producers, and purchased regionally released records for national distribution.
Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhood of Man (1975–1979). The label changed its name to PRT Records in 1980, before being briefly reactivated as Pye Records in 2006.
Buddah Records was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's founding. Buddah handled a variety of music genres, including bubblegum pop, folk rock (Melanie), experimental music, and soul.
Rolling Stones Records was the record label formed by the Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman in 1970, after their recording contract with Decca Records expired. The label was initially headed by Marshall Chess, the son of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess. It was first distributed in the United States by Atlantic Records subsidiary Atco Records. On April 1, 1971, the band signed a distribution deal for five albums with Ahmet Ertegun, acting on behalf of Atlantic Records. In the US, the albums were distributed by Atlantic until 1984. In the UK, Rolling Stones Records was distributed by WEA from 1971 to 1977 and by EMI from 1978 to 1984. In 1986, Columbia Records started distributing it in the United States and CBS for the rest of the world until 1991. It was discontinued in 1992 when the band signed to Virgin Records, but the tongue and lips logo remains on all post-1970 Rolling Stones releases.
Hickory Records is an American record label founded in 1954 by Acuff-Rose Music, which operated the label up to 1979. Sony Music Publishing revived the label in 2007. Originally based in Nashville, and functioning as an independent label throughout its history, it has had several distributors.
Playboy Records was an American record label, based in Los Angeles, California, and a unit of Playboy Enterprises. Artists recording for the label included Al Wilson, Barbi Benton, Blue Ash, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, The Weapons of Peace, Brenda Patterson, Lois Fletcher, Jeanne French, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, Ivory, Greg Kihn, The Rubinoos, Wynn Stewart, Mickey Gilley and Joey Stec.
William Doyce “Buddy” Killen was an American record producer and music publisher, and a former owner of Trinity Broadcasting Network and Tree International Publishing, the largest country music publishing business, before he sold it to CBS Records in 1989. He was also the owner of Killen Music Group, involved with more diverse genres of music, such as pop and rap.
Paul Kelly is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known for the soul songs "Stealing in the Name of the Lord", which was a major hit in 1970, and "Hooked, Hogtied & Collared". He also wrote "Personally", which has been widely covered, and was a hit for soul singer Jackie Moore and singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff and country singer Ronnie McDowell. Other songs have been covered by gospel artists, including the Mighty Clouds of Joy and The Staple Singers.
FAME Studios is a recording studio located at 603 East Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, an area of northern Alabama known as the Shoals. Though small and distant from the main recording locations of the American music industry, FAME has produced many hit records and was instrumental in what came to be known as the Muscle Shoals sound. It was started in the 1950s by Rick Hall, known as the Founder of Muscle Shoals Music. The studio, owned by Hall until his death in 2018, is still actively operating. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on December 15, 1997, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. The 2013 award-winning documentary Muscle Shoals features Rick Hall, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and the Muscle Shoals sound originally popularized by FAME.
This article contains comprehensive discography information related to Joe Tex.
Annette Snell was an American rhythm and blues singer who recorded in the 1960s and 1970s. She died in the Southern Airways Flight 242 crash.
"Skinny Legs and All" is a song composed and recorded by soul singer Joe Tex and released in 1967 on the Dial label in 1967. The single was later featured on Tex's "live" album, Live and Lively a year later in 1968.
Bumps & Bruises is an album by the American R&B musician Joe Tex, released in 1977 via Epic Records.
