George Paxton George Paxton (March 24, 1914 – April 19, 1989) was an American big band leader, saxophonist, arranger, and publisher during the 1930s and 1940s. He was president of Coed Records and a producer for the label. Early career He was born in Jacks ...

and Marvin Cane formed Coed Records, Inc. in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1958, and had offices at 1619 Broadway in the

Brill Building The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It was built in 1931 as t ...

. George Paxton produced many of the songs on this label, most of which were of the East Coast

Doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

group style, and some of these became hit songs of the day. Between 1958 and 1965, Coed's biggest acts included

the Crests The Crests were an American doo-wop group, formed by bass vocalist J.T. Carter in the mid 1950s. The group had several Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s on Coed Records. Their most popular song, "16 Candles", rose to #2 on the ''Bi ...

, the Rivieras,

the Duprees The Duprees are an American musical group of doo-wop style who had a series of top-ten singles in the early 1960s. Their highest-charting single, " You Belong to Me" reached No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1962. In 1970, they recorded as T ...

, the Harptones,

Trade Martin Trade Martin is an American musician, songwriter and producer. Martin worked with Johnny Power in the late 1950s, recording as Johnny & the Jokers and together launching the label Rome Records, active from 1960 to 1962. The label signed the ...

and Adam Wade, among others. Frequently working with

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

& songwriter Fred Weismantel, Paxton's big-band background came in particularly handy with

, who combined group vocals with deliberately nostalgic swing orchestra backing on hits like " You Belong to Me" and "

Why Don't You Believe Me "Why Don't You Believe Me?" is a popular song written by Lew Douglas, King Laney, and Roy Rodde and published in 1952. A recording by Joni James ( MGM Records catalog number 11333) reached No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' charts for four weeks in ...

." allmusic ((( The Best of Coed Records > Overview )))/ref> Other highlights include

The Crests The Crests were an American doo-wop group, formed by bass vocalist J.T. Carter in the mid 1950s. The group had several Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s on Coed Records. Their most popular song, "16 Candles", rose to #2 on the ''Bi ...

' "

16 Candles ''Sixteen Candles'' is a 1984 American coming-of-age story, coming-of-age comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes (filmmaker), John Hughes in his List of directorial ...

" and three songs from the group's so-called "angel series," "The Angels Listened In," "Pretty Little Angel," and "Trouble In Paradise". Coed Records' final singles were released in 1965. Future co-founder of

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

, Jerry Moss, began his music career promoting

' "

" record for Coed. In April 2010, the Coed Records catalogue was acquired by Los Angeles-based rights-management firm Beach Road Music, LLC.Baptista, Todd (March 2011). “Lost and Found”, '' Goldmine'', Volume 37, Issue 797, Page 97. In January 2011, Beach Road released the album ''From The Vault: The Coed Records Lost Master Tapes Volume 1.''

References

{{Authority control 1958 establishments in New York City American record labels Defunct record labels of the United States Doo-wop Record labels established in 1958 Record labels disestablished in 1965 Rhythm and blues record labels

See also

References