Sunflower Records was a Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

-based 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,...

 founded by 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...

 Mack David

Mack David

Mack David was an American lyricist and songwriter, best known for his work in film and television, with a career spanning from the early 1940s through the early 1970s. Mack was credited with writing lyrics and/or music for over one thousand songs...

 and music industry veteran Danny Kessler that operated from 1970

1970 in music

- Events :*January 3**Davy Jones announces he is leaving the Monkees**Former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett releases his first solo album The Madcap Laughs....

 to 1972

1972 in music

-Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...

. The label was distributed by MGM Records

MGM Records

MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...

. Sunflower issued less than 30 singles

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, and the album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 output was limited to fewer than a dozen items.

Albums

Early in its operation, Sunflower obtained the rights to some 1966 vintage

Vintage

Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product . A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and...

 concert recordings

Live album

A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 by the Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

. They issued these as the albums Vintage Dead

Vintage Dead

Vintage Dead is a live album by the rock group the Grateful Dead. It was recorded at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, California in the autumn of 1966, and released in October 1970....

(SUN-5001) and Historic Dead

Historic Dead

Historic Dead is a live album by the rock group the Grateful Dead. It was recorded at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, California in the autumn of 1966, and released in June 1971....

(SNF-5004), both of which made the record chart

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

s. They followed the first Grateful Dead LP with another live set, ("Live At The Family Dog") (SUN-5002) from popular performer Danny Cox, who reminded listeners of the folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 era. Another artist was Randy Edelman

Randy Edelman

Randy Edelman is an American film and TV score composer.-Life and career:Edelman was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, the son of a first-grade teacher and an accountant. He attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before heading to New York where he played...

, who would later find success in writing songs picked up by more famous artists such as Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...

. Edelman's debut album, Sunflower SNF-5005, was released in 1971.

Singles

Sunflower Records' first single, "Song Of A Thousand Voices"/ "You Can Cry If You Want To" (Sunflower 101), was by Fearless Fradkin a/k/a/ Les Fradkin

Les Fradkin

Les Fradkin is a guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known for being a member of the original cast of the hit Broadway show Beatlemania...

 and the third (Sunflower 103) was "Hippie Lady" / "Patty Cake" by the Yummies, both of which surfaced as regional hits in various sections of the USA in fall 1970.. By the time they reached #105, they came up with a fictitious artist called Daddy Dewdrop

Daddy Dewdrop

Daddy Dewdrop is a pseudonym for an American songwriter named Dick Monda , backed up by some studio musicians, including Tom Hensley who later became the musical director for Neil Diamond, and Butch Rillera who later became a member of the group Redbone...

, who coupled "Chick-A-Boom" with the children's tune

Children's music

Children's music is used here to refer to music composed and performed for children by adults. In European influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment...

 "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith,". Surprisingly, the song "Chick-A-Boom," a wry sexual fantasy

Sexual fantasy

A sexual fantasy, also called an erotic fantasy, is a fantasy or pattern of thoughts with the effect of creating or enhancing sexual feelings; in short, it is "almost any mental imagery that is sexually arousing or erotic to [an] individual"...

 put to music, jumped into the national top-10, the biggest hit the label ever had. The Daddy Dewdrop album, which followed the successful single, was a light-hearted, if not lightweight, effort that sealed the fate of Daddy Dewdrop as a one-hit wonder

One-hit wonder

A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.-Characteristics:...

, never to be heard from again. The follow-up single, "The March of the White Corpuscles"/"Fox Huntin'" (Sunflower 111), sank without a trace.

Other Artists

Other notable artists on the label included Jasper Wrath

Jasper Wrath

Jasper Wrath was a progressive rock band from New Haven, Connecticut that was active throughout the 1970s. They were founded by Jeff Cannata, who would later go on to form the 1980s band Arc Angel. The band also featured James Christian, who would later go on to front the notable glam metal band...

, Storm (featuring songwriter Larry Weiss), Tony Scotti

Tony Scotti

Anthony "Tony" Joseph Scotti is an American actor, television and film producer, and co-founder of Scotti Brothers Records.-Acting:...

, Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...

 and R.B. Greaves. The last single to make the charts was Sunflower 118, "Love Me, Love Me, Love Me" by pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 Frank Mills

Frank Mills

Frank Mills , is a Canadian pianist and recording artist, best known for his solo instrumental hit "Music Box Dancer"....

, which reached the top-50 in early 1972. Mills was to make a top-3 record, "Music Box Dancer," about seven years later on Polydor Records.