Bally Records was a small 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,...

 located at 203 N. Wabash Ave. in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. Proper name was Bally Recording Corporation and it was a subsidiary of the pinball and slot machine manufacturer of the same name. The parent Company (at the time named Bally Manufacturing Corporation) saw and filled a need to supply records to the coin operated phonograph (Juke Box) industry. The record division was launched in 1955 with much publicity, in such publications as Billboard Magazine but it was short-lived and the last records were produced in 1957. Records were issued in three speeds: 33 1/3, 45, and 78 rpm. The best known record issued on Bally is "I Dreamed" by Betty Johnson

Betty Johnson

Betty Johnson is an American traditional pop and cabaret singer.-Biography:Johnson was born in Guilford County, North Carolina. Her professional debut was in a family group, The Johnson Family Singers, including her parents and three brothers, singing a repertoire primarily of religious material...

 (Bally 1020), which peaked on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 at #9 early in 1957.

Artists

• Betty Johnson
  Betty Johnson
  Betty Johnson is an American traditional pop and cabaret singer.-Biography:Johnson was born in Guilford County, North Carolina. Her professional debut was in a family group, The Johnson Family Singers, including her parents and three brothers, singing a repertoire primarily of religious material...
  
  
• Bob Carroll
  Bob Carroll
  Bob Carroll may refer to:*Bob Carroll , sports author and historian*Bob Carroll, Jr., television writer*Bob Carroll , singer and stage, television, and film actor...
  
  
• Caesar Giovannini
• Claude Bolling
  Claude Bolling
  Claude Bolling , is a renowned French jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and occasional actor.He was born in Cannes, studied at the Nice Conservatory, then in Paris. A child prodigy, by age 14 he was playing jazz piano professionally, with Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge, and Kenny Clarke...
  
  
• David Bee & His Orchestra
• Ike Cole
  Ike Cole
  Isaac "Ike" Cole was an American jazz pianist and composer.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Cole was the younger brother of Nat "King" Cole and the older brother of Freddy Cole, and played drums as a youth. He played bass drum in a U.S. Army band during the Korean War, and moved back to Chicago after...
  
  
• Ted Weems
  Ted Weems
  Wilfred Theodore Weems was an American bandleader and musician. Weems' work in music was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.- Biography :...
  
  
• Thurl Ravenscroft
  Thurl Ravenscroft
  Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American voice actor and singer best known as the deep voice behind Tony the Tiger's "They're grrreat!" in Frosted Flakes television commercials for more than five decades. Ravenscroft was also known, however uncredited, as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean...
  
  
• Win Stracke
  Win Stracke
  Winfred “Win” J. Stracke was an American Folk Musician and Co-Founder of the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, Illinois. Stracke was a Chicago fixture in music, theater, and television in the 1940s and was known for his booming bass voice...
  
  

Sources

• Johnson, Betty, In Her Own Words, (2007) Bliss Tavern Productions, ISBN 978-1-931953-54-2
• Billboard Magazine, Dec. 17, 1955, p. 40
• Billboard Magazine, Oct. 14, 1957, p. 22