- Starday Records
Starday Records was a
record label producing traditionalcountry music during the1950s and1960s .History
The label was founded in
Beaumont, Texas , by local businessmen Jack Starnes (Lefty Frizzell 's manager) and Houston record distributor Harold W. Daily (better known as "Pappy"). The Starday name is a combination of Starnes' and Daily's names. [Tosches, Nick (2000). "The Nick Tosches Reader", pp. 366-67. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306809699.]Starday was the largest exclusively country label of the period and is renowned among record collectors for producing a level of pure, undiluted country music that was becoming increasingly rare on the major labels. Starday released the first major recordings of
George Jones and country stars like theWillis Brothers ,Dottie West ,Dave Dudley , andRoger Miller . ComedienneMinnie Pearl released a number of records for the label. Several veteran country stars were also on Starday, including three former King Records artists:Cowboy Copas ,Grandpa Jones , and longtimeGene Autry associateJohnny Bond . The label also featured several legendary country radio-based acts in the twilight of their careers, such asLulu Belle and Scotty ,Texas Ruby , andMoon Mullican , performers not likely of much interest to the big labels in the 1960s. The label may be best-known for the dozens of budget-priced compilation albums it released featuring artists on or at one time on the label.Starday's most successful artist was perhaps
Red Sovine , who scored a number of hits in the 1960s on the label. Starday also produced a series of classic anthologies of trucker records by various artists including Copas, Bond, Sovine, The Willis Brothers and bluegrass acts includingMoore & Napier andReno & Smiley . These LPs were renowned for their color covers shot at Nashville area truck stops with real rigs and shapely female models dressed as waitresses.When
Syd Nathan died in 1968, his label King Records was acquired byHal Neely 'sStarday Company . Neely relaunched the label as Starday and King Records. The legendary songwriter duo Leiber and Stoller bought the label in 1970 but sold it soon afterwards to Lin Broadcasting, which in turn sold it to Tennessee Recording and Publishing Company, owned by Freddy Bienstock, Hal Neely, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who sold it in 1974 toGusto Records . [Kennedy, Rick, and McNutt, Randy (1999). "Little Labels—Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music", pp. 70-71. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253335485.]By the end of the 1960s, Starday's new product was limited and most of its recordings were reissues, many of them originally recorded or released on other small labels. The Starday label briefly made a strong comeback in the mid 1970s when Gusto Records' Red Sovine took his
recitation song record "Teddy Bear" to number one on theBillboard country chart in 1976 using the Starday label, and even made the back of the pop chart. This record rose to #1 in seven weeks, the fastest rise to the #1 position for any 45rpm record released before or since.tarday's greatest hits
See also
*
List of record labels References
External links
* [http://www.bsnpubs.com/king/stardaystory.html Starday Records website with discography]
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