Bigtop Records was an American

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 prod ...

started by music executive Johnny Bienstock (brother of Freddy Bienstock) and the major music publisher Hill & Range Music and was co-owned along with Big Top Record Distributors (sic). Hit artists included

Del Shannon Charles Weedon Westover (December 30, 1934 – February 8, 1990), better known by his stage name Del Shannon, was an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known for his 1961 number-one ''Billboard'' hit " Runaway". In 1999, he was indu ...

Johnny and the Hurricanes Johnny and the Hurricanes were an American instrumental rock band from Toledo, Ohio, United States. They specialized in adapting popular traditional melodies into the rock idiom, using organ and saxophone as their featured instruments. Betwee ...

Lou Johnson Louis Brown Johnson (September 22, 1934 – October 1, 2020), nicknamed Sweet Lou, was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. Johnson's professional baseball career lasted for 17 seasons, and included 8 years in the majors: parts of 1960� ...

Sammy Turner Sammy Turner (born Samuel Black, June 2, 1932, Paterson, New Jersey) is an American singer, who was popular at the end of the 1950s. Career He was born and grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, developing an early interest in singing and songwritin ...

Don Covay Donald James Randolph (March 24, 1936 – January 31, 2015), better known by the stage name Don Covay, was an American R&B, rock and roll, and soul singer-songwriter most active from the 1950s to the 1970s. His most successful recordings in ...

Don and Juan Don and Juan were an American R&B vocal duo from Long Beach, New York, United States, consisting of Roland "Don" Trone (July 2, 1936 – May 1982) and Claude "Juan" (aka "Sonny") Johnson (November 24, 1934 – October 31, 2002). Johnson had previ ...

and

Toni Fisher Toni Fisher (born Marion Colleen Nolan; December 4, 1924 – January 11, 1999), also billed on her records as Miss Toni Fisher, was an American pop singer. She was known for her recordings of "The Big Hurt", "West of the Wall", "Maybe (He'l ...

. Big Top Record Distributors also distributed Paul Case's Dunes Records label in the early 60's, which had hits from

Ray Peterson Ray Peterson (April 23, 1935 – January 25, 2005) was an American pop singer who is best remembered for singing "Tell Laura I Love Her". He also scored numerous other hits, including " Corrine, Corrina" which was composed especially for C ...

("Corrina, Corrina") and

Curtis Lee Curtis Edwin Lee (October 28, 1939 – January 8, 2015) was an American singer of the early 1960s, who was twice a beneficiary of Phil Spector's productions in 1961. These were " Pretty Little Angel Eyes" ( US #7) and "Under the Moon of Love ...

("Pretty Little Angel Eyes"), both records produced by

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

Bell Records Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 in New York City by Arthur Shimkin, the owner of the children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benn ...

briefly distributed Bigtop prior to the label closing, around 1966. Bigtop also released two ''Mad'' magazine music parody themed albums; ''Mad Twists Rock 'n' Roll'' and ''Fink Along with Mad'' in 1963. In the UK, Bigtop licensed its records to

London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...

. Its current UK licensees are Ace Records (United Kingdom). There was a subsidiary, Big Hill Records, which only issued a few singles by Lou Johnson after Bigtop closed.

References

External links

Bigtop DiscographyBigtop singles discography
Defunct record labels of the United States Record labels established in 1958 Record labels disestablished in 1966 1958 establishments in the United States {{US-record-label-stub

See also

References

External links