Fraternity Records is a small

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 ...

based in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It was started by Harry Carlson and silent partner Dr. Ashton Welsh in 1954. The first recording to be released on Fraternity was

Jerri Winters Jerri Winters is an American jazz singer. She worked with Stan Kenton's orchestra from 15 February until 15 June 1952, recording several titles for Capitol Records, including "Adios," "All Because of You," and "She's a Comely Wench."Easton, Carol ...

' "Winter's Here". The first hit was Cathy Carr's rendition of a

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

song, "

Ivory Tower An ivory tower is a metaphorical place—or an atmosphere—where people are happily cut off from the rest of the world in favor of their own pursuits, usually mental and esoteric ones. From the 19th century, it has been used to designate an e ...

" in 1956. It made #2, besting a cover version by Otis Williams & the Charms. A year later came the

Jimmy Dorsey James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards "I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People ...

#2 charting instrumental "

So Rare "So Rare" is a popular song published in 1937 by composer Jerry Herst and lyricist Jack Sharpe. It became a hit for Jimmy Dorsey in 1957. The version by Carl Ravell and his Orchestra, from a session on 4 June 1937, was the earliest recording of ...

", the famous bandleader's final hit before his death. 1959 saw another big hit, Bill Parsons' "

The All American Boy "The All American Boy" is a 1958 talking blues song written and sung by Bobby Bare, but credited by Fraternity Records to Bill Parsons, with songwriting credit to Bill Parsons and Orville Lunsford. While Bare was in the army, Parsons lip synced ...

", which also peaked at #2 on the ''Billboard'' pop charts. Parsons was a friend of country singer

Bobby Bare Robert Joseph Bare Sr. (born April 7, 1935) is an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for the songs "Marie Laveau", " Detroit City" and "500 Miles Away from Home". He is the father of Bobby Bare Jr., also a musician. Early ca ...

and it was actually Bare's voice heard on the hit record. Parsons sang on the B-side. Fraternity also leased songs from smaller labels, including one track by Jackie Shannon (later

Jackie DeShannon Jackie DeShannon (born Sharon Lee Myers, August 21, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and radio broadcaster with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards, as both singer and composer. She was one of the first female singer-songwr ...

). Fraternity's biggest-selling hit was

Lonnie Mack Lonnie McIntosh (July 18, 1941 – April 21, 2016), known as Lonnie Mack, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was an influential trailblazer of blues rock music and rock guitar soloing. Mack emerged in 1963 with his breakthroug ...

's 1963 guitar instrumental cover of the

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

song "

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

", which rose to #5 on ''Billboard''′s Pop chart and #4 on ''Billboard''′s R&B chart. The final national Top 40 hit for the label was "

Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" is a song written by John D. Loudermilk. It was first released in 1962 by Don Cherry, as a country song and again as a doo-wop in 1967 by the group The Casinos on its album of the same name, and was a number 6 pop ...

" by

The Casinos The Casinos was a nine-member doo-wop group from Cincinnati, Ohio, led by Gene Hughes and which included Bob Armstrong, Ray White, Mickey Denton, and Pete Bolton. Ken Brady performed with the group, taking over for Hughes from 1962 to 1965 as lea ...

, which reached #6 on the ''Billboard'' pop chart in 1967. Shad O'Shea purchased the company from Carlson in 1975. Applegate Recording Society was also a subsidiary label of Fraternity. UK reissue label Ace Records Ltd. currently makes a large handful of Fraternity recordings available on compact disc albums and digital downloads, including the original big hits mentioned here.

References

External links

Official website

Fraternity Records
on the Internet Archive'
Great 78 Project
Record labels established in 1954 Music of Cincinnati {{US-record-label-stub

See also

References

External links