Pickwick Records was an American record label and British record distributor known for its

budget album Budget albums (also known as unofficially by some collectors as either drugstore records or junk records) were low-priced vinyl LPs of popular and classical music released during the 1950s to 1970s consisting either of previously released material ...

releases of

sound-alike A sound-alike is a recording intended to imitate the sound of a popular record, the style of a popular recording artist, or a current musical trend; the term also refers to the artists who perform on such recordings. In the voice-over world, it ...

recordings,

bargain bin A bargain bin refers to an assorted selection of merchandise, particularly software, tools and CDs, which have been discounted in price. Reasons for the discount can range from the closure of a production company to a steep decline in an item's ...

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New audio formats Reco ...

s and repackagings under the brands Design, Bravo (later changing its name to International Award), Hurrah, Grand Prix, and children's records on the

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and Happy Time labels. The label is also known for distributing music by smaller labels like Sonny Lester's

Groove Merchant Groove Merchant was an American jazz and R&B record label during the 1970s. It was run by producer Sonny Lester and distributed by Pickwick Records. Notable artists included Chick Corea, O'Donel Levy, Buddy Rich, Jimmy McGriff, Lonnie Smith ...

, Gene Redd's De-Lite Records, Chart Records and the Swedish label

Sonet Records Sonet Records was a jazz, pop and rock record label operating as an imprint of Universal Music Sweden. It was founded in Sweden in 1956. Sonet Records was established by Sven Lindholm and Gunnar Bergström, who managed the label into the 1980s ...

(for which it distributed late-1960s recordings by

Bill Haley & His Comets Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band founded in 1947 that continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group record ...

in Canada and the US). They also issued records from Britain's

Hallmark Records Hallmark Records is a British record label. History Hallmark Records was founded in the 1960s and was the first budget label in the United Kingdom. The revived company has since become a major publisher of budget CDs in the UK, issuing both pub ...

label.

History

Pickwick Records (originally formed as Pickwick Sales Corporation, later Pickwick International) was founded in 1950 by Cy Leslie, whose first business was a prerecorded greeting-card service that in 1946 turned into Voco Records, a label of children's records. In 1957, after successfully marketing its Cricket children's label of 78- and 45rpm records, Pickwick entered the LP market with low-priced records, beginning with its Design label. The albums from the 1960s into the early 1970s bore the "Pickwick/33" imprint. Singer-songwriter

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

once worked as a staff songwriter for Pickwick Records, and gained experience in its small recording studio. Several of Pickwick's soundalike albums from 1964 to 1965 feature Reed as an uncredited

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a t ...

. Two of his songs, "Cycle Annie" (credited to The Beachnuts) and "You're Driving Me Insane" (as The Roughnecks), both appeared on the ''Soundsville!'' compilation in 1965. "The Ostrich" and "Sneaky Pete", two earlier songs by Reed, united him with

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various sty ...

, leading to their founding of the

Velvet Underground Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short pile, giving it a distinctive soft feel. By extension, the word ''velvety'' means ...

. Amos Heilicher and his brother Daniel Heilicher merged their

Musicland The Musicland Group, Inc. was an entertainment company that ran Musicland, Sam Goody, Discount Records, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, On Cue, and the Media Play Superstore Chains. The Musicland Group was purchased by Best Buy in 2001 at the hei ...

retail chain with Pickwick International in the late 1960s.

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

had an early interest in Pickwick, and many Capitol artists including

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their ...

and

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...

, had recordings issued on Pickwick; however, Capitol sold its share in the company in 1970. In the 1970s, the label changed direction, and began reissuing LPs that had been deleted from catalogues of the major record labels, especially the

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Ari ...

budget reissue label

RCA Camden The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

. Most notable in the RCA Camden catalogue, Pickwick obtained the rights in the mid-1970s to reissue Camden albums featuring recordings by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

. The company also put out an edited reissue of Presley's soundtrack album of '' Frankie and Johnny'', and a two-LP set of mostly movie songs titled ''Double Dynamite''. After Presley died in August 1977, sales of his recordings increased dramatically and RCA reclaimed the rights to Presley's Camden releases from Pickwick. Pickwick also reissued numerous LPs from the

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...

catalogue during the 1970s. On many of these albums, the cover art was changed, and/or the track listing was altered (with two or more songs deleted). In the early 1980s Motown began re-releasing its own catalogue albums, thus ending Pickwick's series. The company also started the subsidiary label P.I.P and started distributing Gene Redd's De-Lite Records, to issue original material. De-Lite hit it big in 1974 and 1975 with million-selling singles & albums by funk band

Kool & The Gang Kool & the Gang is an American R&B/soul/funk band formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1964 by brothers Robert "Kool" Bell and Ronald Bell, with Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas, Robert "Spike" Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown, and Ricky West. T ...

. P.I.P had a couple of big dance club hits with "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)" and "Drive My Car" by Gary Toms Empire in 1975. In 1977, Pickwick was sold to the

American Can Company The American Can Company was a manufacturer of tin cans. It was a member of the Tin Can Trust, that controlled a "large percentage of business in the United States in tin cans, containers, and packages of tin." American Can Company ranked 97th amon ...

, which relocated its corporate headquarters from Long Island City, New York to Minneapolis, Minnesota, then subsequently sold its assets to

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be ...

in the same year. PolyGram maintained the De-Lite Records label for releases by Kool & the Gang who experienced a second wave of success after the addition of new lead singer, J.T. Taylor, beginning with the group's 1979 album, '' Ladies Night''. PolyGram later did away with the De-lite imprint, and subsequent Kool & The Gang records were issued by PolyGram's Mercury label, while De-Lite Records was acquired by

Unidisc Unidisc Music is a Canadian independent record label. The label is known for releasing rare music, that was made between the mid-1960s and late 1980s. Genres include rock, electronic, funk, soul, hip hop, jazz, reggae, Latin, disco and a cap ...

. After the purchase by PolyGram, Pickwick started putting out new material again, but this time it was "Sound-Alike" albums which featured covers of a certain artist or group on one album, and Disco Christmas albums. Most of those albums were performed by session musicians and singers dubbed Mirror Image; Pickwick also issued a few records from groups such as The Young Lovers and Kings Road in earlier years. This lasted until 1983 when PolyGram folded Pickwick. The Hallmark name has since been revived as a budget record label owned by the Pickwick Group.

Current ownership

Pickwick's catalogue (including the entire De-lite/Mercury catalogue of Kool & The Gang) is now owned by

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

, which was formed by the merger of the MCA and PolyGram families of labels in 1999.

Criticism

In the early 1980s, Pickwick manufactured so-called "audiophile" pressings on heavy vinyl (usually 180–240 grams). However, some audio aficionados found the sound quality in these pressings inferior to that of normal vinyl. These LPs were quickly deleted and some record collectors are now willing to pay extremely high prices for these records. In 2003, a copy of ''The Beach Boys Greatest Hits'' sold for just over $2,500 at auction, and in 2008 a sealed copy of ''James Bond—The Themes'' (which was a purely soundalike record) sold for $4,000. Pickwick was well known for its "soundalike" records which often implied to be the original artists, but actually featured

in-house Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

bands or singers. When Pickwick issued ''The Everly's'' in 1984, all the songs were in fact covered by a singing duo called "Twice Divided".LA Garage Scene 69–89, Galaxy Books 1994

References in popular culture

Pickwick was the record label to which the fictional band Crème Brulée, from British sitcom ''

The League of Gentlemen ''The League of Gentlemen'' is a surreal British comedy horror sitcom that premiered on BBC Two in 1999. The programme is set in Royston Vasey, a fictional town in northern England, originally based on Alston, Cumbria, and follows the lives ...

'', was nearly signed to during its 1970s heyday. This came from a running gag about the market-stall sales that Pickwick enjoyed in England. Thes One, from the hip-hop group People Under The Stairs, mentions the label in the track "43 Labels I Like" (from its 2000 album '' Question in the Form of an Answer'').

References

External links