Defunct Record Label Socks
Description: Casablanca Records, Inc. was formed in 1973 by former Buddah Records executives Neil Bogart (who named the label as a homage to the classic film Casablanca), Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris and Buck Reingold. The label was initially distributed by Warner Bros. Records until September 1974, but Bogart decided to distribute the label independently after being disillusioned with the lack of success under Warners.
Description: Neptune Records was a record label founded by Philadelphia writer-producers, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in 1969. The label, distributed by Chess Records, lasted for only two years, releasing 20 singles and three albums. It was the precursor to the pair's Philadelphia International label, which they started in 1971 with Columbia Records. Neptune featured releases by artists such as Jeanette "Baby" Washington, The O'Jays, The Three Degrees and Billy Paul, all who later appeared on Philadelphia International. The biggest hit was the label's first release, "One Night Affair" by the O'Jays.
Description: Dolton Records was a record label based in Seattle that was originally known as Dolphin Records. It was initially owned by Bob Reisdorff and Bonnie Guitar. Success for the label came early with "Come Softly to Me" by the Fleetwoods, the first single to be released on that label. Reisdorf was soon informed that there was another Dolphin Records in circulation (which was a subsidiary of Laurie Records), so he changed the name to Dolton after the first release, the second release being an instrumental by the Frantics called "Straight Flush" b/w "Young Blues" (Dolton 2). The new label retained the fish symbols on the logo and the fonts associated with the Dolphin name.
Description: Wild Pitch Records was an American Golden age hip hop record label, started in 1987 by Stuart Fine, that was eventually distributed by EMI. Artists who released records on the label included Gang Starr, Chill Rob G, Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth, Main Source, The U.M.C.'s, Hard Knocks, Brokin English Klik, Street Military, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, The Coup, Ultramagnetic MCs, O.C., as well as Latee, Jamose, and female rapper N-Tyce.
Description: De Luxe Records (later DeLuxe Records) was a record company and label formed in 1944 by brothers David Braun (1908–1985) and Julius "Jules" Braun (1911–2002), the sons of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, in Linden, New Jersey. The label flourished in the 1940s and 1950s, notably for its rhythm and blues (R&B) and early rock and roll recordings.
Description: The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments from Germany for resale in the United States. Wurlitzer enjoyed initial success, largely due to defense contracts to provide musical instruments to the U.S. military. In 1880, the company began manufacturing pianos and eventually relocated to North Tonawanda, New York. It quickly expanded to make band organs, orchestrions, player pianos and pipe or theatre organs popular in theatres during the days of silent movies.
Description: Crown Records was a innovation of the California-based Bihari family (brothers Lester, Joe, Saul, Jules) who owned Modern, Flair and RPM , all great solid independent labels, as well as the budget label Custom, Kent, United Superior, and Riviera. It started in December, 1953 and continued until 1972, earning itself the reputation of the king of the junk record labels. Aside from endlessly reissuing and repackaging the legitimate Modern and RPM hits including the B.B. King material, what Crown had to offer was musical junk food on plastic plates .
Description: The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments from Germany for resale in the United States. Wurlitzer enjoyed initial success, largely due to defense contracts to provide musical instruments to the U.S. military. In 1880, the company began manufacturing pianos and eventually relocated to North Tonawanda, New York. It quickly expanded to make band organs, orchestrions, player pianos and pipe or theatre organs popular in theatres during the days of silent movies.
Description: Trustkill Records was an American independent record label that started as a hardcore punk fanzine in April 1993. It started releasing hardcore, metal and rock records and merchandise in 1994. In 2010, the president of Trustkill, Josh Grabelle, formed a new label called Bullet Tooth Records.
Description: Ariola Eurodisc GmbH was founded in 1958 as a music outlet of Bertelsmann. It set up several foreign subsidiaries. Leveraging acqusitions by its parent company, Ariola positioned itself to become a strong contender in the German record industry in the mid-1960s. It acquired both Arista Records and German rival label Hansa Records in 1979. It sold 50% of Arista to RCA Records in 1983; after a brief joint venture between RCA and Ariola, RCA (including its record division) was acquired by General Electric who promptly sold RCA's stake in the venture back to Ariola. Ariola America also had a sister label called Ocean Records, which included on its roster actress/entertainer Ann-Margret. It was active 1979 through 1980.
Description: White Whale Records was an American independent record label, founded in 1965 by Ted Feigin and Lee Lasseff in Los Angeles, California, and probably best known as the record label of The Turtles and a handful of one-hit wonder bands. White Whale, in addition to releasing almost all of The Turtles' discography, also released Nino Tempo & April Stevens's single "All Strung Out (On You)", a hit single by Rene y Rene titled "Lo Mucho Que Ti Quiero", an album by Liz Damon's Orient Express, and the only album by Texas band The Clique. Warren Zevon was a staff songwriter for the label, and they issued some of his earliest recordings (as part of the duo Lyme & Cybele).
Description: Blue Goose Records was an American independent record label set up in the early 1970s by Nick Perls. While on Blue Goose's sister label, Yazoo Records, Perls compiled rare 78 rpm recordings from the 1920s by Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell, Memphis Jug Band, Blind Blake, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. On Blue Goose Records he recorded not only 'rediscovered' black blues artists like Sam Chatmon, Son House, Yank Rachell, Shirley Griffith and Thomas Shaw, but also younger blues and jazz performers, including Larry Johnson, Jo Ann Kelly, Woody Mann, John Lewis, Roy Book Binder, R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders, Rory Block, Roger Hubbard, Alan Seidler, and Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts' member Graham Hine.
Description: Honest Don's Records was a subsidiary label based in San Francisco, California, set up along with Pink & Black Records by Fat Wreck Chords to release material by bands that didn't fit within the roster at Fat. The label ceased trading around 2003 with the Nerf Herder EP "My E.P.". Some of the bands were absorbed into the Fat roster, whilst others moved on.
Description: Zonophone (early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone) was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey, by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company but was applied to records and machines sold by Seaman's Universal Talking Machine Company from 1899 to 1903. The name was subsequently acquired by Columbia Records, the Victor Talking Machine Company, and finally the Gramophone Company/EMI Records. It has been used for a number of record publishing labels by these companies.
Description: Prelude Records was a New York–based independent record label that was active from 1976 to 1986. At one time, François Kevorkian held an A&R position at Prelude. The label's owner was Marvin Schlachter. Prelude was first launched in 1976, renamed from Pye International Records, a US division of UK-based Pye Records which had begun in 1974. The name was derived from the music group Prelude, which recorded for Pye at the time.
Description: Black Swan Records was an American jazz and blues record label founded in 1921 in Harlem, New York. It was the first widely distributed label to be owned, operated, and marketed to African Americans. Founded by Harry Pace with W.C. Handy, Black Swan Records was established to give African Americans more creative liberties. Eighteen months earlier, in 1919, the Broome Special Phonograph Records was the earliest label owned and operated by African American George W. Broome in Medford, Massachusetts, featuring Black classical musicians including Harry T. Burleigh and Edward Boatner. Black Swan was revived in the 1990s for CD reissues of its historic jazz and blues recordings.
Description: Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City whose labels had a picture of a metronome. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952. Cadence also launched a short-lived jazz subsidiary, Candid Records.The first recording star for Cadence was a Godfrey alumnus, Julius La Rosa. Other Godfrey alumni signed to the label included the Chordettes. Bleyer had written a few hit songs in 1932–34 (Fletcher Henderson's "Business in F" is a good example) and had a band that recorded for ARC in 1934 and 1935 (his records were issued on Vocalion, Melotone, Perfect and Romeo).
Description: 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. After Grand Award Records, the company focused on producing records targeted at audiophiles. Light and sound engineer Bob Fine handled the recording and engineering responsibilities, employing the technique of multiple microphone pickups.
Description: Radioactive Records was an American record label. It was formed as a joint venture between talent manager Gary Kurfirst (who managed such acts as the Ramones, Big Audio Dynamite, Deee-Lite and Deborah Harry) and MCA Records, and it is now out of business. Its catalogue is now owned by Geffen Records and licensed through Universal Music Enterprises.
Description: Tofu Records was a US record label of Sony Music Entertainment Japan that was launched in 2003 to distribute Japanese Sony artists in the United States, and that closed in 2007. Their first signed artist was T.M.Revolution, and they used the anime fandom community to spread the word. T.M.Revolution's U.S. concert debut at Otakon 2003 was successful, drawing an audience of over 5,000. In March 2007, Tofu Records closed. Releases on Sony Music Japan now appear on Columbia or Epic Records through a new deal.
Description: Roto Records was a record label based in Lincoln, Nebraska. The name "Roto" was chosen simply because "it goes round and round." The label's first releases were in 1956 by local artists Bobby Lowell and The Rock-a-Boogie Boys. The label continued releasing recordings by Lowell and other local artists through the mid-1980s.
Description: Kicking Mule Records was an American independent record label, founded in Berkeley, California in 1971 by guitarist Stefan Grossman and Eugene "ED" Denson, formerly co-owner of Takoma Records. The company's name comes from the country blues sexual two-timing allegory "there's another mule kicking in your stall". During the 1970s, the company did much to popularize solo fingerpicking guitar, expanding the style with recordings of Scott Joplin rags, Beatles hits, big band tunes, and Turlough Carolan harp tunes. The label also released several similarly-styled banjo records.
Description: Buddah Records (later known as Buddha 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 (the Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Company), folk rock (Melanie), experimental music (Captain Beefheart), and soul (Gladys Knight & the Pips).
Description: Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some small degree of independence within a larger parent company, in this case the larger company being Interscope Records.
Description: Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Sherman Oaks, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label currently is distributed in the US by The Orchard, and internationally by Sony Music Entertainment. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Records in the United States from 1988 to 1993.
Description: Kama Sutra Records was started in 1964 by Arthur "Artie" Ripp, Hy Mizrahi and Phil Steinberg as Kama Sutra Productions, a production house. The "Kama Sutra" is an ancient Sanskrit text. In 1965, the company was joined by Art Kass and the record label itself was started. A distribution deal with MGM Records was later signed, which lasted from 1965 until 1969. From 1969 onward, distribution was then handled by co-owned Buddah Records.
Description: Kindercore Vinyl is a vinyl record pressing plant based in Athens, Georgia. It began as an independent record label, founded in 1996 by Ryan Lewis and Daniel Geller to help create a unified music scene of Athens. After the dissolution of the record label, Lewis and Geller partnered with Cash Carter and Bill Fortenberry to revive Kindercore as a vinyl pressing plant. Kindercore Vinyl is the only vinyl pressing plant in the state of Georgia. As of 2023, the plant operates as Classic City Vinyl Works under different ownership.
Description: Soma Records was an American record label, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and owned by wholesale record distributor Amos Heilicher. The Soma name was "Amos" spelled backwards. Heilicher, along with his brother Danny, was also in the jukebox and wholesale record distribution businesses, and owned the Musicland chain of retail music stores.
Description: Uncle Jam Records was a record label formed by Parliament-Funkadelic leader George Clinton and his personal manager Archie Ivy. The label was distributed nationally by CBS Records. Uncle Jam Records debuted in 1980 with the release of Sweat Band, the self-titled debut of that band, and Wynne Jammin' by Philippé Wynne, the former lead singer for The Spinners. Other acts that were signed to the label included singer Jessica Cleaves, Trey Lewd (Clinton's son Tracey Lewis), Sterling Silver Starship, and Gary Fabulous and the Black Slack.
Description: Nashville, United States, which was started in 1946 by Jim Bulleit and C.V. Hitchcock. Bulleit was an early partner in Sun Records. Its only national hits were by orchestra leader Francis Craig. The pop hit "Near You" made in early 1947 was a monster, topping the charts for seventeen weeks and having a chart run of twenty-five weeks. Craig also made the charts at #3 with "Beg Your Pardon", but no further hits were forthcoming. Despite these hits, the label was known for country music artists such as Boots Woodall's Radio Wranglers, who also recorded for Capitol Records, and Southern Gospel artists such as the Rangers Quartet and Speer Family.
