Roulette Records
Encyclopedia
Roulette Records is an American
record label
, which was founded in late 1956, by George Goldner
, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy
and Phil Khals, with creative control given to producers
and songwriter
s Hugo Peretti
and Luigi Creatore
. Levy was appointed as director. Goldner subsequently bowed out of his partnership interest in Roulette, and sold his labels Tico, Rama, End, Gone and Gee record labels to Morris Levy to cover his gambling debts. Peretti and Creatore later left Roulette Records and worked as freelance producers for RCA Records
throughout the 1960s. At the end of the decade, they co-founded Avco Records
in 1969. Levy grouped Gee
, Rama
and Tico
into Roulette Records. Some years later, Levy also bought Gone Records
and End Records
from Goldner. In 1958, Roost Records
was purchased. In 1971, Roulette took over the catalog of Jubilee Records
.
, Jimmy Bowen
, The Playmates
, Jimmie Rodgers
, Ronnie Hawkins
as well as albums by Pearl Bailey
, Dinah Washington
and Count Basie
.
During the early 1960s, Roulette scored a number of hits connected to the twist dance
craze, most notably by releasing "Peppermint Twist
" by Joey Dee and the Starliters
. They also released a rare album of "Twist songs" by Bill Haley & His Comets
, Twistin' Knights at the Roundtable. Other major 1960s hits for the label include "Two Faces Have I" by Lou Christie
, "Mony Mony
", "Hanky Panky", "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Crimson and Clover
" by Tommy James and the Shondells, among others. It was also on the Roulette label that, in 1964, Stephen Stills
and Richie Furay
first recorded together while in the nine-member A Go Go Singers, house band for the Cafe A Go Go in New York
. Also a group of United States Marines called The Essex
recorded the hit "Easier Said Than Done
" while based at Camp LeJeune in the 1960s. It should also be noted that the label was a front business
for the Genovese crime family
, per Tommy James of Tommy James and the Shondells, during the time their above songs were hits. The label owes them $30 to $40 million dollars but would not pay them.
In April 1965, the British
music magazine, NME
reported that Roulette had agreed to offer a sponsored show to the UK
's pirate radio
station
, Radio Caroline
. The hour-long show, recorded in the U.S. by DJ
Jack Spector was to be broadcast five evenings a week. The contract covered a two year period and was worth over £10,000 to the station.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Roulette was one of the major distributors, handling records for many major firms.
Although founded by husband and wife Joe
and Sylvia Robinson
, Morris Levy would be the key financial founder for another project, the rap music label, Sugar Hill Records
in 1974. The rap label would create the first Top 40 rap single, "Rapper's Delight
," in 1979. In the early 1980s, the Robinsons bought Levy out.
In 1981, Henry Stone
turned to Levy to help salvage the demise of TK Records
, so they set up Sunnyview Records under the Roulette umbrella. In 1986, Levy was exposed and convicted for extorting money from an FBI informant, John LaMonte. Levy was tried and convicted on charges of extortion but died in Ghent, New York
before serving any time in prison. In 1989, Roulette Records was sold to a consortium
of EMI
and Rhino Records, which later were acquired by The WEA Group (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic). Warner Music Group now has the rights to the Roulette pop
/R&B catalogue in North America
, while EMI has the rights in the rest of the world. EMI has the global rights to the jazz
catalogue and the "Roulette" name.
It was at this point that Rhino and EMI began issuing large royalty checks to former Roulette artists. Tommy James recalled that his checks were in amounts in six or seven digits. Roulette was notorious for not paying royalties to their artists who had to rely on their gigs for their income.
Today, EMI uses the "Roulette" name for the reissue of old Roulette label material. In the United States
, Blue Note Records
handles the Roulette jazz catalogue for release on the Roulette Jazz label.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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,...
, which was founded in late 1956, by George Goldner
George Goldner
George Goldner was an American record label owner and promoter. He worked, amongst others, with The Crows, The Flamingos, The Cleftones, The Shangri-Las, The Teenagers, The Chantels, Little Richard and Lou Christie. He had a son named Cary and a wife named Grace...
, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy
Morris Levy
Morris Levy was an American music industry executive, best known as the founder and owner of Roulette Records...
and Phil Khals, with creative control given to producers
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
s Hugo Peretti
Hugo Peretti
Hugo E. Peretti was an American songwriter and record producer.Born in New York City, Hugo Peretti began his career as a teenager, playing the trumpet in the Borscht Belt in upstate New York...
and Luigi Creatore
Luigi Creatore
Luigi Creatore is a American songwriter and record producer.From a musical family, Creatore began his career as a writer. After serving with the United States military during World War II, in the 1950s he became a writer then partnered with his cousin Hugo Peretti to form the songwriting team of...
. Levy was appointed as director. Goldner subsequently bowed out of his partnership interest in Roulette, and sold his labels Tico, Rama, End, Gone and Gee record labels to Morris Levy to cover his gambling debts. Peretti and Creatore later left Roulette Records and worked as freelance producers for RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
throughout the 1960s. At the end of the decade, they co-founded Avco Records
Avco Records
Avco Records was a record label started in 1968 by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and Joseph E. Levine as Avco Embassy Records. In the late 1960s, they released a psychedelic rock album by the group Bead Game, titled Welcome. The Embassy name was dropped in 1971 making the label Avco Records...
in 1969. Levy grouped Gee
Gee Records
Gee Records began in 1953 in New York as a subsidiary to George Goldner's Tico Records and Rama Records labels. Sometime in 1955 Goldner sold 50% of Gee to Joe Kolsky who was a business partner of Morris Levy....
, Rama
Rama Records
Rama Records was a record label founded by George Goldner in 1953 in New York City. It recorded doo-wop groups such as The Crows and The Harptones....
and Tico
Tico Records
Tico Records was a New York record label that was founded in 1948. It was originally owned by George Goldner and later acquired by Morris Levy and incorporated into Roulette Records. It specialized in Latin music and was significant for introducing artists such as Ray Barretto and Tito Puente...
into Roulette Records. Some years later, Levy also bought Gone Records
Gone Records
Gone Records was a record label founded by George Goldner that was active in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was founded in 1957. Among the artists that recorded for the label were Bill Haley & His Comets, Ral Donner, Jo-Ann Campbell, and Johnny Rivers. It was acquired by Morris Levy and...
and End Records
End Records
End Records was a record label founded in 1957 by George Goldner. In 1962 the label was acquired by Morris Levy and incorporated into Roulette Records. Among its more successful recording acts were The Flamingos, The Chantels, and Little Anthony and the Imperials...
from Goldner. In 1958, Roost Records
Roost Records
Roost Records was a record label established in 1949, primarily to record jazz, taking its secondary name from the New York club with which it was associated...
was purchased. In 1971, Roulette took over the catalog of Jubilee Records
Jubilee Records
Jubilee Records was a record label specializing in rhythm and blues along with novelty records. It was founded in New York City in 1946 by Herb Abramson. Jerry Blaine became Abramson's partner. Blaine bought out Abramson's half of the company in 1947. The company name was Jay-Gee Recording...
.
History
During the late 1950s, Roulette scored hits by Buddy KnoxBuddy Knox
Buddy Knox was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1957 rockabilly hit song, "Party Doll".-Biography:...
, Jimmy Bowen
Jimmy Bowen
Jimmy Bowen is an American record producer and former pop music performer.Bowen was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico. He began as a teenage recording star in 1957 with "I'm Stickin' With You," originally the flip side of the hit record "Party Doll" by Buddy Knox, but ultimately a Top 20 recording...
, The Playmates
The Playmates
The Playmates were a late 1950s vocal group, led by the pianist Chic Hetti , drummer; Donny Conn ; and Morey Carr , all from Waterbury, Connecticut.-Career:The Playmates, Donald Claps drummer and lyricist, Carl Cicchetti...
, Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer)
James Frederick "Jimmie" Rodgers is an American singer. He is not related to the country singer of the same name.-Career:...
, Ronnie Hawkins
Ronnie Hawkins
Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life...
as well as albums by Pearl Bailey
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
, Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
and Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
.
During the early 1960s, Roulette scored a number of hits connected to the twist dance
Twist (dance)
The Twist was a dance inspired by rock and roll music. It became the first worldwide dance craze in the early 1960s, enjoying immense popularity among young people and drawing fire from critics who felt it was too provocative. It inspired dances such as the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi, the Mashed...
craze, most notably by releasing "Peppermint Twist
Peppermint Twist
"Peppermint Twist" is a song written by Joey Dee and Henry Glover, recorded and released by Joey Dee and the Starliters in 1961. Capitalizing on the Twist dance craze and the nightclub in which Dee performed , the song hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in early 1962...
" by Joey Dee and the Starliters
Joey Dee and the Starliters
Joey Dee and The Starliters is an American popular music team. Best known for their successful million-selling recording "Peppermint Twist" , the group was initiated by Joey Dee.-Early singles:...
. They also released a rare album of "Twist songs" by Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...
, Twistin' Knights at the Roundtable. Other major 1960s hits for the label include "Two Faces Have I" by Lou Christie
Lou Christie
Luigi Alfredo Giovanni Sacco , known professionally as Lou Christie, is an American singer-songwriter best known for three separate strings of pop hits in the 1960s , including his 1966 smash, "Lightnin' Strikes" and his incredible 3 octave vocal range.-Biography:Sacco was born in Glenwillard,...
, "Mony Mony
Mony Mony
"Mony Mony" is a 1968 single by Tommy James & the Shondells, that reached #1 in the UK charts.-History:"Mony Mony" was credited to Tommy James, Bo Gentry, Ritchie Cordell, and Bobby Bloom. The hook in the song is said to have been inspired by James' view of a MONY sign atop the Mutual of New York...
", "Hanky Panky", "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Crimson and Clover
Crimson and Clover
"Crimson and Clover" is a 1968 song by American rock band Tommy James and the Shondells. Written by the duo of Tommy James and drummer Peter Lucia Jr., it was intended as a change in direction of the group's sound and composition....
" by Tommy James and the Shondells, among others. It was also on the Roulette label that, in 1964, Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
and Richie Furay
Richie Furay
Richie Furay is an American singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member who is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin, and Poco with Jim Messina, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner...
first recorded together while in the nine-member A Go Go Singers, house band for the Cafe A Go Go in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Also a group of United States Marines called The Essex
The Essex
The Essex was an American R&B vocal group formed in 1962. They are best known for their 1963 chart-topper and million selling track, "Easier Said Than Done".-Career:...
recorded the hit "Easier Said Than Done
Easier Said Than Done
"Easier Said Than Done" is a popular song sung by The Essex that was a number-one song in the United States during the year 1963. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on July 6, 1963 and remained there for two weeks...
" while based at Camp LeJeune in the 1960s. It should also be noted that the label was a front business
Front organization
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations...
for the Genovese crime family
Genovese crime family
The Genovese crime family , is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the "Ivy League" and "Rolls Royce" of organized crime...
, per Tommy James of Tommy James and the Shondells, during the time their above songs were hits. The label owes them $30 to $40 million dollars but would not pay them.
In April 1965, the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
music magazine, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
reported that Roulette had agreed to offer a sponsored show to the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
, Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is an English radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly...
. The hour-long show, recorded in the U.S. by DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
Jack Spector was to be broadcast five evenings a week. The contract covered a two year period and was worth over £10,000 to the station.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Roulette was one of the major distributors, handling records for many major firms.
Although founded by husband and wife Joe
Joe Robinson
Joe Robinson is an English actor and stuntman born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His brother is also a stuntman and actor, Doug Robinson The Robinson's were a famous family of wrestlers, Joe's father and grandfather were world champions....
and Sylvia Robinson
Sylvia Robinson
Sylvia Robinson was an American singer, musician, record producer, and record label executive, most notably known for her work as founder/CEO of the hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. She is credited as the driving force behind two landmark singles in the genre...
, Morris Levy would be the key financial founder for another project, the rap music label, Sugar Hill Records
Sugar Hill Records (rap)
Sugar Hill Records was the name of a rap music record label that was founded in 1979 by husband and wife Joe and Sylvia Robinson with Milton Malden and financial funding of Morris Levy, the owner of Roulette Records.-History:...
in 1974. The rap label would create the first Top 40 rap single, "Rapper's Delight
Rapper's Delight
"Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song's opening lyric "I said a hip hop, a...
," in 1979. In the early 1980s, the Robinsons bought Levy out.
In 1981, Henry Stone
Henry Stone
Henry Stone is an American record company executive and producer whose career spans the era from R&B in the early 1950s through the disco boom of the 1970s to the present day. He is best known as co-owner and president of TK Records....
turned to Levy to help salvage the demise of TK Records
TK Records
TK Records was an American record label started by record distributor, Henry Stone in Miami, Florida, one of several labels that he founded in the 1960s and 1970s...
, so they set up Sunnyview Records under the Roulette umbrella. In 1986, Levy was exposed and convicted for extorting money from an FBI informant, John LaMonte. Levy was tried and convicted on charges of extortion but died in Ghent, New York
Ghent, New York
Ghent is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States, with a ZIP code of 12075. The population was 5,276 at the 2000 census. 2004 estimates put the population at 5,316.The Town of Ghent is centrally located in the county...
before serving any time in prison. In 1989, Roulette Records was sold to a consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
of EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
and Rhino Records, which later were acquired by The WEA Group (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic). Warner Music Group now has the rights to the Roulette pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
/R&B catalogue in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, while EMI has the rights in the rest of the world. EMI has the global rights to the jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
catalogue and the "Roulette" name.
It was at this point that Rhino and EMI began issuing large royalty checks to former Roulette artists. Tommy James recalled that his checks were in amounts in six or seven digits. Roulette was notorious for not paying royalties to their artists who had to rely on their gigs for their income.
Today, EMI uses the "Roulette" name for the reissue of old Roulette label material. In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
handles the Roulette jazz catalogue for release on the Roulette Jazz label.
Roulette Records artists
- Alive N Kickin'Alive N Kickin'Alive N Kickin’ is a Brooklyn band, led by singers Pepe Cardona and Sandy Toder, known mainly for their 1970 hit single "Tighter, Tighter" which reached #7 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart...
- Pearl BaileyPearl BaileyPearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
- Count BasieCount BasieWilliam "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
- Jimmy BowenJimmy BowenJimmy Bowen is an American record producer and former pop music performer.Bowen was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico. He began as a teenage recording star in 1957 with "I'm Stickin' With You," originally the flip side of the hit record "Party Doll" by Buddy Knox, but ultimately a Top 20 recording...
- Joanne CampbellJoanne CampbellJoanne Campbell was a British actress and drama therapist best known for playing Liz in the 1980s sitcom Me and My Girl and Josephine Baker on stage in This Is My Dream.-Career:...
- Cathy CarrCathy CarrAngelina Helen Catherine Cordovano , known professionally as Cathy Carr, was an American pop singer.She was born in the New York borough of The Bronx...
- The ChoirThe Choir (garage rock)The Choir was a garage rock band largely active in the greater Cleveland area from the mid 1960s into the early 1970s. Originally called The Mods, their largest commercial success came with the release of their first single "It's Cold Outside" in December 1966...
- Lou ChristieLou ChristieLuigi Alfredo Giovanni Sacco , known professionally as Lou Christie, is an American singer-songwriter best known for three separate strings of pop hits in the 1960s , including his 1966 smash, "Lightnin' Strikes" and his incredible 3 octave vocal range.-Biography:Sacco was born in Glenwillard,...
- Dave "Baby" Cortez
- Sammy Davis, Jr.Sammy Davis, Jr.Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
- Joey Dee and the StarlitersJoey Dee and the StarlitersJoey Dee and The Starliters is an American popular music team. Best known for their successful million-selling recording "Peppermint Twist" , the group was initiated by Joey Dee.-Early singles:...
- The DetergentsThe DetergentsThe Detergents were an American music group consisting of Ronnie Dante, Danny Jordan, and Tommy Wynn. The group's speciality was parody songs, as with their first and best-known hit record, "Leader of the Laundromat", written and produced by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss...
- The DevotionsThe DevotionsThe Devotions were an American vocal group from Astoria, Queens, New York, formed in 1960. They released a single of a novelty song called "Rip Van Winkle" in 1961 on Delta Records; the tune was re-released on Roulette Records in 1962 and again on Roulette in 1964. The tune became a hit on the...
- Duane EddyDuane EddyDuane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
- Harry "Sweets" Edison
- The EssexThe EssexThe Essex was an American R&B vocal group formed in 1962. They are best known for their 1963 chart-topper and million selling track, "Easier Said Than Done".-Career:...
- Maynard FergusonMaynard FergusonMaynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
- Bill Haley & His CometsBill Haley & His CometsBill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...
- Ronnie HawkinsRonnie HawkinsRonald "Ronnie" Hawkins is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life...
- Tommy JamesTommy JamesTommy James is an American pop-rock musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as leader of the 1960s rock band Tommy James and the Shondells.-Early life and career:...
- Tommy James & the ShondellsTommy James & the ShondellsTommy James and the Shondells are an American rock and roll group whose period of greatest success came in the late 1960s. They had two No. 1 singles in the U.S. — "Hanky Panky" and "Crimson and Clover" — and also charted 12 other Top 40 hits, including five in the top ten: "Crystal...
- Buddy KnoxBuddy KnoxBuddy Knox was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1957 rockabilly hit song, "Party Doll".-Biography:...
- Frankie LymonFrankie LymonFranklin Joseph "Frankie" Lymon was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of a New York City-based early rock and roll group, The Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid teens...
- Deidre McCallaDeidre McCallaDeidre McCalla is an American singer-songwriter from New York City.McCalla was raised around the folk music scene of McDougal Street in New York, where she began her career. In the 1990s she moved to northern California. She has released several albums on women's music label Olivia Records, and has...
- Lou MonteLou MonteLou Monte born Louis Scaglione, was an Italian American singer best known for a number of best-selling, Italian-themed novelty records which he recorded for both RCA Records and Reprise Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
- The PlaymatesThe PlaymatesThe Playmates were a late 1950s vocal group, led by the pianist Chic Hetti , drummer; Donny Conn ; and Morey Carr , all from Waterbury, Connecticut.-Career:The Playmates, Donald Claps drummer and lyricist, Carl Cicchetti...
- The Rock-A-TeensThe Rock-A-TeensThe Rock-A-Teens were an American rockabilly group from Richmond, Virginia, active in the late 1950s.They are best known for their 1959 single "Woo Hoo", backed with "Untrue", released on Roulette Records. The song hit #16 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it proved to be their only hit.-External...
- Jimmie RodgersJimmie Rodgers (pop singer)James Frederick "Jimmie" Rodgers is an American singer. He is not related to the country singer of the same name.-Career:...
- The Three DegreesThe Three DegreesThe Three Degrees are an American female vocal group. Formed in 1963 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,, the group has always been a trio though there have been a number of personnel changes and a total of fourteen women have represented the group so far. The original members were Fayette Pinkney,...
- Sarah VaughanSarah VaughanSarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
- Dinah WashingtonDinah WashingtonDinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
- Joe WilliamsJoe Williams (jazz singer)Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...