Waldorf Music Hall Records

Last updated
Waldorf Music Hall 4535, a 45rpm EP issued in 1955 WMH 4535 3.jpg
Waldorf Music Hall 4535, a 45rpm EP issued in 1955

Waldorf Music Hall Records was a budget record label exclusively sold in Woolworth stores from 1954 to 1959. Waldorf was headed by Enoch Light and based in Harrison, New Jersey. Light's business partners in this venture were Casper Pinsker and Dick Davemos. [1] The business model for Waldorf Music Hall appears to have been inspired by the popularity of the Your Hit Parade television program. In the 1950s it was common to refer to Waldorf Music Hall, and other labels like it, as 'Hit Parader Records.'

Contents

History

Although many sources give 1953 as the establishment date for Waldorf Music Hall, none of their releases appears to predate 1954. [2] Light's promotional literature identifies Waldorf Music Hall as the first record label he began on his own, [3] with Light's Project 3 label debuting in 1967. Therefore, the Waldorf label was "Project 1" whilst Grand Award Records and its later subsidiary Command Records became "Project 2". It was begun as a generic, "soundalike" label, with Light's stable of artists—Loren Becker, Artie Malvin, Lois Winter, Dottie Evans and others—reproducing the hits of the day. Some have regarded Waldorf Music Hall as the first such label, but it appears that Big 4 Hits, a label based out of Cincinnati and headed by Carl Burkhardt, was established in 1952 and is therefore earlier. [4] Emblazoned with the diamond-shaped logo "FDR"—meaning "Full Dynamic Range," signifying high fidelity, but also invoking an acronym for a popular American president—Waldorf Music Hall was primarily a 10" LP label with 8 hits apiece; 48 releases in the 3300 series appeared between January 1954 and December 1957. [5] Waldorf Music Hall also issued 45 rpm EPs of the same material; [6] 78 rpm releases were issued on a plain label simply called "Waldorf" and on subsidiary labels 18 Top Hits and Rock N Roll. [7] The 10" Lps sold for 99 cents, and the singles for 69 cents apiece.

As mainstream pop vocals in the hit market began to give way to rock n' roll hits, Hit Parader type versions of these began to sound considerably more quaint and old-fashioned compared to the originals. Fortunately, Waldorf Music Hall had begun to diversify its offerings already through a $1.49 12" album program that featured coherent offerings ranging from classical and opera to children's records, jazz, dance music and gospel. [1] In 1955, Light had begun his higher profile Grand Award label and this drew some attention away from Waldorf Music Hall; the Hit Parader issues stopped at the end of 1957. However, at the same time Waldorf gained a budget subsidiary, Colortone Records. [8] In 1959, Enoch Light sold all of his labels to AM-PAR and became part of their organization. Grand Award continued, but at this point Waldorf Music Hall became dormant, having served its short-lived purpose.

Legacy

Many collectors view the Waldorf Music Hall records as "junk," and they are relatively common in second hand shops, though it took one collector more than thirty years to locate copies of all 48 albums in the 10" 3300 series. [5] Nevertheless, some of the 12" albums—for example,those by the gospel group Deep River Boys and the traditional jazz band The Royal Playboys—remain desirable and are unique to Waldorf Music Hall. [1] Moreover, the label also issued recordings by pianists Pauline Alpert and Dick Hyman (as "Knuckles O'Toole" and "Puddin' Head Smith"), bandleaders Will Bradley, Bobby Byrne and Peanuts Hucko and other significant artists under-utilized or not employed by the major labels. Waldorf Music Hall also released some novelty songs performed by TV comedian/actor Wally Cox. In keeping with Light's reputation as an audiophile, Waldorf Music Hall issues do on the whole sound better than average for Hit Parader records, and the performances are of professional caliber even if the idiom of rock 'n roll is not comfortably realized.

Notable Releases

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decca Records</span> British record label

Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its US label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president too. In 1937, anticipating Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca, and the link between the UK and US Decca label was broken for several decades. The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre.

RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coral Records</span> American record company

Coral Records was a subsidiary of Decca Records that was formed in 1949. Coral released music by Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, the McGuire Sisters and Teresa Brewer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MGM Records</span> Defunct American record label

MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the 1970s. The company also released soundtrack albums of the music for some of their non-musical films as well, and on rare occasions, cast albums of off-Broadway musicals such as The Fantasticks and the 1954 revival of The Threepenny Opera. In one instance, MGM Records released the highly successful soundtrack album of a film made by another studio, Columbia Pictures's Born Free (1966).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Command Records</span> American record label, 1959–1970

Command Records was a record label founded by Enoch Light in 1959 and, in October that year, was acquired by ABC-Paramount Records. Light produced a majority of the releases in the label's catalog.

Grand Award Records was a pop, jazz, and gospel music record label founded by violinist and conductor Enoch Light in Harrison, New Jersey in 1955.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Checker Records</span> American record label

Checker Records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary of Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded Tape (GRT) in 1969, shortly before Leonard's death.

Riverside Records was an American jazz record company and label. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr, under his firm Bill Grauer Productions in 1953, the label played an important role in the jazz record industry for a decade. Riverside headquarters were located in New York City, at 553 West 51st Street.

RPM Records was an American Los Angeles–based record label launched in 1950. This is not the same RPM used by Tony Bennett, nor is it related to labels in the UK and South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Clayton-Thomas</span> British-Canadian musician

David Clayton-Thomas is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the U. S. band Blood, Sweat & Tears. Clayton-Thomas has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and in 2007 his jazz/rock composition "Spinning Wheel" was enshrined in the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame. In 2010, Clayton-Thomas received his star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

Jubilee Records was an American independent record label, specializing in rhythm and blues and novelty records. It was founded in New York City in 1946 by Herb Abramson. His partner was Jerry Blaine. Blaine bought Abramson's half of the company in 1947, when Abramson went on to co-found Atlantic Records with Ahmet Ertegun. The company name was Jay-Gee Recording Company, a subsidiary of the Cosnat Corporation. Cosnat was a wholesale record distributor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sh-Boom</span> 1954 song by The Chords

"Sh-Boom" is an early doo-wop song by the R&B vocal group The Chords. It was written by James Keyes, Claude Feaster, Carl Feaster, Floyd F. McRae, and William Edwards, members of The Chords, and published in 1954. It is sometimes considered the first doo-wop or rock 'n' roll record to reach the top ten on the pop charts, as it was a top-10 hit that year for both the Chords and The Crew-Cuts. In 2004, it was ranked No. 215 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enoch Light</span> American recording engineer (1907–1978)

Enoch Henry Light was an American classically trained violinist, danceband leader, and recording engineer. As the leader of various dance bands that recorded as early as March 1927 and continuing through at least 1940, Light and his band primarily worked in various hotels in New York. For a time in 1928 he also led a band in Paris. In the 1930s Light also studied conducting with the French conductor Maurice Frigara in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vann "Piano Man" Walls</span> Musical artist

Vann "Piano Man" Walls was an American rhythm and blues piano player, songwriter, studio musician and professional recording artist. He was a long-standing session player for Atlantic Records, appearing on hits by artists including Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown and The Clovers. Walls performed under a number of different names and is variously credited as Van Walls, Harry Van Walls and Captain Van. He led the Harry Van Walls Orchestra and also performed with Doc Starkes and His Nite Riders and as Le Capitaine Van.

William Everett Justis Jr. was an American pioneer rock and roll musician, composer, and musical arranger, best known for his 1957 Grammy Hall of Fame song, "Raunchy". As a songwriter, he was also often credited as Bill Everette.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merrilee Rush</span> American singer (born 1944)

Merrilee Rush is an American singer, best known for her recording of the song "Angel of the Morning", a top-10 hit which earned her a Grammy nomination for female vocalist of the year in 1968.

| image = Charlie Christian .jpg

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apollo Records (1944)</span> American record company and label

Apollo Records was a record company and label founded in New York City by Hy Siegel and Ted Gottlieb in 1944. A year later it was sold to Ike and Bess Berman. Apollo was known for blues, doo-wop, gospel, jazz, and rock and roll.

Budget albums were low-priced vinyl LPs of popular and classical music released during the 1950s to 1970s consisting either of previously released material or material recorded especially for the line. Prices ranged from as low as 59 U.S. cents to $2.98. In the UK Pickwick Records' Top of the Pops record series, which operated between 1968 and 1985, was the most successful budget album range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie</span> 1955 single by Bill Haley & His Comets

"Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie" is a 1952 song composed by Bill Haley and first recorded by the Esquire Boys in 1952. Bill Haley and the Comets recorded the song in 1955 for Decca. The song was featured in the 1956 movie Rock Around the Clock.

References

  1. 1 2 3 David Edwards, Patrice Eyries, and Mike Callahan, "Waldorf Music Hall Album Discography"
  2. ↑ Discogs.com entry for Waldorf Music Hall
  3. ↑ Anonymous, "Sound and Light," Billboard February 18, 1967, pg. 66
  4. ↑ Rite Records Big 4 Hits Discography
  5. 1 2 Bronk, Bill, "Hunting Waldorf Music Hall Dime Store Vinyl Records a Satisfying Quest," reprinted from Goldmine, antiquetrader.com
  6. ↑ Discogs.com's Waldorf Music Hall Discography
  7. ↑ Great 78 Project: Jenny, Jenny; Little Darlin'; Bye Bye Love; Come Go With Me
  8. ↑ Anonymous, "Waldorf Debs New Low Price Album Line, " Billboard December 30, 1957, pg. 13
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.