Sidewalk Records

Sidewalk Records was a record label based in Hollywood, California that operated in 1963 .

In 1963, a "boy wonder" in business, at the age of eighteen named Mike Curb, started his own record company, Sidewalk Records. The company was first formed as Sidewalk Productions. The production company later became Sidewalk Records, and was considered to be a subsidiary label of Capitol Records. Many recordings by Sidewalk Productions also appeared on the related label Tower Records (not affiliated with the record store chain of the same name, which started out in Sacramento, California), also a subsidiary of Capitol Records.

Most of the LPs released on Sidewalk Records were soundtrack albums, mainly those of films released by American International Pictures. Most of these were B-movies having to with motorcycle, auto racing and psychedelic movies exploitation movies. These included Thunder Alley, The Wild Racers, Psych-Out, The Trip and Peter Fonda's the Wild Angels.

Guitarist Davie Allan and his group Davie Allan and The Arrows made several appearances on Sidewalk Records, though his main releases were on Tower Records. Curb signed Burbank based group The Riptides and released a Curb penned Sally Ann b/w April (Sidewalk 904) in spring of 1966. The Riptides went on to record Last Wave of The Day for the movie Mondo Hollywood (Tower DT-5083) in 1967. Other notable releases on the Sidewalk label were the first single by Linda Ronstadt and a novelty album by hippie street singer and health food advocate Gypsy Boots, sort of Sidewalk's answer to Tiny Tim. Allan and several other studio musicians also recorded many sessions that were released on 45 RPM singles under a wide variety of group names. Several singles were issued under Mike Curb's name. Songwriter Harley Hatcher was also a frequent contributor to the Sidewalk oeuvre. The label also released the first single by the Electric Flag featuring Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles.

The label released about 20 LPs and several dozen 45 RPM singles. Mike sold the company out for a large amount of money, and was then appointed head of MGM Records in 1969. The related Tower Records label ceased operations around the same time. Mike Curb went on to run MGM Records throughout the 1970s, where he was instrumental in promoting the career of The Osmonds, Eric Burdon and War, Solomon Burke, Lou Rawls, and Sammy Davis Jr.. He later formed Curb Records, which still exists today. Curb Records operates out of Nashville and has major recording arstists such as Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes, Wynonna Judd, Hank Williams Jr., Rodney Atkins, Heidi Newfield, Jo Dee Messina and Lyle Lovett.

Hank Williams III's new album, "Damn Right, Rebel Proud" is listed as being released on Sidewalk.cite web |url=http://wc10.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:axfwxz9hldae |title="Damn Right, Rebel Proud" overview |accessdate=2007-12-06 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=Allmusic]

References

ee also

* [http://forbiddeneye.com/labels/sidewalk.html Sidewalk Records Discography]
* List of record labels