Custom Records was a budget record label owned by the

Bihari Brothers The Bihari brothers, Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe, were American businessmen of Hungarian Jewish origins. They were the founders of Modern Records in Los Angeles and its subsidiaries, such as Meteor Records, based in Memphis. The Bihari brothers w ...

Background

The label was a subsidiary of Modern Records.Both Sides Now Publication
''Custom Album Discography'' By David Edwards and Mike Callahan
/ref> It was formed some time prior to March 1965 and according to an article in '' Billboard'', it was a new label that already had 31 LPs in its catalogue. The records were to sell at $1.98 as opposed to the other budget LPs that retailed at 98 cents and 99 cents. Saul Bihari recognized the value of the

rack jobber A rack jobber (also known as a rack merchandiser) is a company or trader that has an agreement with a retailer to display and sell products in a store. The outlets for the products would be ones that traditionally do not stock such products such as ...

for these types of records. Some of the records were re-releases of previous Crown releases and the covers often featured a female in some pose designed to attract attention.

Trends

Covering artists

One artist that was covered by Custom was Hank Williams. The album ''Your Cheatin' Heart and other Hank Williams Favorites'' Custom CM 1023, CS 1023 featured a singer called Johnny Williams who was really Curley Williams. Later the ''It's Happening'' album by The Dave Clark Five And The Playbacks was released on Custom CS 1098. The album only had 2 tracks by the Dave Clark Five with The Playbacks covering the remainder. It was also released on Crown CST 473 in 1964. The Playbacks appear to be just studio musicians.

Exploiting the Psychedelic trend

In 1967, the label released ''More Psychedellic Guitars'' CS-1096 (with 2 LLs), an album that featured the tracks "Another Trip", "Really Got It Bad", "Out Of Touch", The Letdown" "Psychedelic A-Go-Go" Flower Power", "Flower Power/Can You Dig It", "Sit- In", "Lost In Space", and "Psychedelic Venture". This like the earlier release ''Psychedellic Guitars'' CM 2078, appears to be reissues of earlier

Jerry Cole Jerald Edward Kolbrak (September 23, 1939 – May 28, 2008), known professionally as Jerry Cole, was an American guitarist who recorded under his own name, under various budget album pseudonyms and as an uncredited session musician. Biograph ...

albums with the titles changed. This music however wasn't quite Psychedelic. One

Exploito Exploito is a term generally given to describe cover version or sound-alike recordings that capitalize on the official recordings of artists. Typically they are of the budget release type of album. Often the buying public would think they are buyin ...

album that was a bit more in the psych mode was ''Are You Experienced'' by T. Swift & The Electric Bag. This also featured Cole.

Later years

In 1978, the company appeared to be still in operation with a large section of the page in the January 7 issue of ''Billboard'' magazine, offering congratulations to fellow Los Angeles label Laff Records for their ten-year anniversary.''Billboard'' January 7, 197
Page 38 A Company Built On Laughter
/ref>

List of artists

* Stan Getz *

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

* Don Lee *

Jimmy McCracklin James David Walker Jr. (August 13, 1921 – December 20, 2012), better known by his stage name Jimmy McCracklin, was an American pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. His style contained West Coast blues, Jump blues, and R&B. Over a career tha ...

* Jimmy Smith * Curley Williams

References

{{Authority control Custom Records Budget record labels