Ace Records was a record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 that was started in August 1955

1955 in music

-Events:*January 1 – RCA Victor announces a marketing plan called "Operation TNT." The label drops the list price on LPs from $5.95 to $3.98, EPs from $4.95 to $2.98, 45 EPs from $1.58 to $1.49 and 45's from $1.16 to $.89...

 in Jackson, Mississippi by Johnny Vincent, with Teem Records

Teem Records

Teem Records was the budget sub-label of Ace Records....

 as its budget subsidiary. Ace also had the Vin label. Its records were distributed independently until 1962 when a distribution arrangement was set up with Vee-Jay Records

Vee-Jay Records

Vee-Jay Records is a record label founded in the 1950s, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.-History:...

. Ace Records stopped when Vee-Jay went broke. The label was relaunched in 1971 and sold in 1997 to the Demon Music Group

Demon Music Group

Demon Records is a United Kingdom record label founded in 1980 by former United Artists A&R executive Andrew Lauder and Jake Riviera who had previously started Stiff Records...

 in the UK, see Ace Records (UK)

Ace Records (UK)

Ace Records Ltd. was started in 1978. Initially the company only gained permission from the label based in Mississippi to use the name in the UK, but eventually also acquired the rights to publish their recordings. When Chiswick's pop side was licensed to EMI in 1984, Ace switched to more licensing...

.

Ace recorded such artists as Earl King

Earl King

This article is about the musical artist. For the Earl King convicted of murdering a ship's officer, see Earl King, Ernest Ramsay, and Frank Conner...

, Frankie Ford

Frankie Ford

Frankie Ford is an American rock and roll and rhythm and blues singer.He is the adopted son of Vincent and Anna Guzzo, who named him Francis Guzzo. He was born in Gretna, Louisiana, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, where he still lives...

, Jimmy Clanton

Jimmy Clanton

Jimmy Clanton is an American singer who became known as the "swamp pop R&B teenage idol". His band recorded a hit song "Just A Dream" which Clanton had written in 1958 for the Ace Records label. It reached number four on the Billboard chart and sold a million copies...

, Huey "Piano" Smith, Joe Tex

Joe Tex

Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...

, Scotty McKay and Bobby Marchan

Bobby Marchan

Bobby Marchan was a well-respected American rhythm and blues bandleader, MC, singer-performer, recording artist, and female impersonator, who initially began performing in New Orleans nightclubs, specifically the Dew Drop Inn and the Club Tijuana in the mid 1950s.Marchan also toured with the band of...

.

Ace had a handful of major, influential hits during their time in business, including:

• "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu" by Huey "Piano" Smith and The Clowns (1957)
• "Don't You Just Know It" by Huey "Piano" Smith and The Clowns (1958)
• "Just A Dream" by Jimmy Clanton (1958)
• "Sea Cruise" by Frankie Ford (1958)
• "Go, Jimmy, Go" by Jimmy Clanton (1959)
• "Pop-Eye" by Huey "Piano" Smith and The Clowns (1962)
• "Venus In Blue Jeans" by Jimmy Clanton (1962)

Ace Records has received a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail

Mississippi Blues Trail

The Mississippi Blues Trail, created by the Mississippi Blues Commission, is a project to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the growth of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. The trail extends from the border of Louisiana in southern Mississippi...

.

See also

• Ace Records (UK)
  Ace Records (UK)
  Ace Records Ltd. was started in 1978. Initially the company only gained permission from the label based in Mississippi to use the name in the UK, but eventually also acquired the rights to publish their recordings. When Chiswick's pop side was licensed to EMI in 1984, Ace switched to more licensing...
  
  
• List of record labels

Ace Records artists with Wikipedia pages

• Donald J. Mabry, "The Rise and Fall of Ace Records: A Case Study in the Independent Record Business," Business History Review (Autumn, 1990), 411-450.

External links

• Album discography
• Singles discography
• {http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=174/ Rock 'n Roll: An Interview with Johnny Vincent of Ace Records ]