Autumn Records was a 1960s
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
-based
pop record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
. Among the notable acts on its roster was
The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels was an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino (lead vocals), Ron Elliott (lead guitar), Ron Meagher (bass guitar), Declan Mulligan (rhythm guitar, bass, harmo ...
, a band who released a pair of top 20 singles, "
Laugh, Laugh
"Laugh, Laugh" is a song by American rock group The Beau Brummels, written by guitarist Ron Elliott and produced by Sylvester Stewart, later known as Sly Stone. Released in December 1964 as the band's debut single, the song reached number 15 on ...
" and "
Just a Little".
Also on the Autumn Records roster was
The Great Society, a short-lived
Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
group that recorded the first version of "
Somebody to Love" on Autumn's short-lived North Beach label, which became a 1967 hit for
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ac ...
.
The label dissolved in 1966.
Tom Donahue Thomas or Tom Donahue may refer to:
* Thomas R. Donahue (born 1928), American trade union leader
* Thomas Michael Donahue (1921–2004), American physicist, astronomer, and space and planetary scientist
* Tom Donahue (DJ) (1928–1975), pioneerin ...
, a San Francisco DJ who worked for KYA radio, owned the record label. He subsequently invented the genre "underground radio." On KMPX and later, KSAN
[History of Rock n Roll The Golden Decade 1954 - 196]
Tom Donahue
/ref>
History
Rock producer/DJ Sly Stone
Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the ...
was a producer for the label, producing 's "C'mon and Swim
"C'mon and Swim" is a song by Bobby Freeman, written by Thomas Coman and Sylvester Stewart (later known as Sly Stone) and produced by Stewart. It reached #5 on the U.S. pop chart in 1964. It was featured on Freeman's 1964 album ''C'mon and Swim'' ...
"/"Do The Swim," a hit on the national and regional charts in 1964. Freeman had had some hits on Jubilee
A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...
in 1958-60 and on King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
in the early 1960s, but became the first artist on Autumn to have any big-selling hits. Stone produced the Psyrcle's 45 on Lorna, which did not sell well regionally or nationally. The Psyrcle took a hiatus, rehearsed and regrouped before becoming The Rockets (later Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by wh ...
, Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
's backing band), a band with eight members.
After Freeman, Autumn's next signing and biggest success was with The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels was an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino (lead vocals), Ron Elliott (lead guitar), Ron Meagher (bass guitar), Declan Mulligan (rhythm guitar, bass, harmo ...
, who had two big hits, "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little". Autumn also had two subsidiary labels. The Great Society recorded for its North Beach label. An early version of "Somebody to Love" (as "Someone to Love") appeared on this label as the "B" side to "Free Advice". The Psyrcle (actually The Rockets) recorded "Don't Leave Me" for its subsidiary label Lorna Records.
Stone produced a 45 by The Great Society—then known as ''The! Great!! Society!!!''—for Autumn's subsidiary North Beach. Members included Grace Slick
Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, s ...
's then-husband Jerry and his brother Darby, author of "White Rabbit", but felt they had no talent because it took 45 takes for them to "get it right." There is a 45 by a group called The Tikis (later renamed Harpers Bizarre
Harpers Bizarre was an American sunshine pop band of the 1960s, best known for their Broadway/sunshine pop sound and their cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)."
Career
Harpers Bizarre was formed out of th ...
) which cut a 45 entitled "Bye, Bye, Bye" on Autumn. This song was later featured on their 1969 W.B. album ''Harper's Bizarre'' #4. Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
bought out Autumn Records' assets in 1966. Many of the groups became Warner-Reprise recording artists. These included such minor Autumn artists as The Mojo Men
The Mojo Men was an American rock band based in San Francisco. Formed in 1965, the group underwent several name and personnel changes until their 1969 breakup. Their highest-charting ''Billboard'' Hot 100 single was a cover of Buffalo Springfie ...
and The Vejtables
The Vejtables were an American rock band from Millbrae, California, United States. They recorded for the Autumn label and found limited success with such songs as " I Still Love You" and a cover version of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind ...
. In 1965, Autumn records released the single sung by later Manson family member Catherine Share
Catherine Louise "Gypsy" Share (born December 10, 1942) is known as a former member of the Manson Family; she was convicted of witness intimidation in relation to the 1970 trial of the Tate-LaBianca murders. In 1971 she was convicted of armed r ...
aka "Gypsy", recorded & released under the name of "Charity Shayne" - produced and written by Marty Cooper.
Stone cut one solo 45 before he became famous with The Family Stone, but it had little chart impact. The Beau Brummels continued recording for Warner Bros., but were less commercially successful than they had been for Autumn.
The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
(then known as The Emergency Crew) were almost signed to Autumn in 1966, but the label was running out of money, so their 45 was issued by Scorpio, a Fantasy Records subsidiary. The band was renamed The Warlocks.
The Charlatans, another San Francisco area '60s-era psychedelic group which had Dan Hicks as a member, was also almost signed. The problem was that the label was headed toward bankruptcy and didn't have the necessary money on hand to sign either band.
Autumn was probably one of the most successful independent record labels in the mid-1960s, but changes in the record-buying public's tastes and major marketing by already established bigger labels (nearly every major record company signed a heavy psychedelic band in the late 1960s) led to the demise of Autumn in 1966. Most of the recording contracts were sold to Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
and the catalog was sold to Vault Records. The owner of Vault was later a partner of JAS Records, which reissued the Autumn catalog.
Staff
* Tom Donahue - (head of label / president / producer)
* Bobby Mitchell - (head of label / president / producer)
* Sylvester Stewart
Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the ...
- (principal producer)
* Leo De Gar Kulka
Leo De Gar Kulka (February 17, 1921 – March 17, 1998) was a Czech-born American record producer, recording engineer and educator. Starting in Los Angeles at Autumn Records in the 1960s, he later founded the San Francisco studio Golden State Re ...
aka "The Baron" - (engineer)[Museum of Magnetic Sound Recordin]
''Ampex 200A - 1947-1948'' ''Ampex 300 - 1949''
/ref>
See also
* List of record labels
File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg
File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
File:Bingola1011b.jpg
Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, b ...
References
{{Authority control
American record labels
Record labels based in California
Record labels disestablished in 1969
Pop record labels