Smash 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 produ ...
founded in 1961 as a subsidiary of
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...
by Mercury executive
Shelby Singleton
Shelby Sumpter Singleton, Jr. (December 16, 1931 – October 7, 2009) was an American record producer and record label owner.
Early life
He was born Shelby Sumpter Singleton, Jr. in Waskom, Texas. His parents were Shelby Sumpter Singleton, Sr. and ...
and run by Singleton with Charlie Fach. Fach took over after Singleton left Mercury in 1966. Its recording artists included
Frankie Valli
Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice.
...
,
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
,
Bruce Channel
Bruce Channel ( ; born November 28, 1940) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his 1962 million-selling number-one hit record, " Hey! Baby".
Career
Channel performed originally for the radio program '' Louisiana Hayride'' and t ...
,
Roger Miller
Roger Dean Miller Sr. (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs and his chart-topping Country music, country and pop hits "King of the Road (song), Ki ...
,
The Left Banke
The Left Banke was an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina". The band often used what the music press referred to as "baroqu ...
,
Bill Justis
William Everett Justis Jr. (October 14, 1926 – July 16, 1982) was an American pioneer rock and roll musician, composer, and musical arranger, best known for his 1957 Grammy Hall of Fame song, " Raunchy". As a songwriter, he was also often credi ...
, and
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made ...
.
History
A dispute with
King Records led Brown to release all of his band's instrumental recordings between
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...
and
1967 on Smash. Smash also released three of Brown's vocal recordings, including his 1964 proto-
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
"
Out of Sight
''Out of Sight'' is a 1998 American crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Frank, adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1996 novel of the same name. The first of several collaborations between Soderbergh and actor Georg ...
".
Smash shared the numbering system for their singles with other labels that they distributed. The most important of these was
Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label that was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. The independent label distributor Fontana Distribution takes its name from the label.
History
Fontana started in the 1950s as a subs ...
. Mercury discontinued the Smash label in 1970.
Mercury label owner
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 a ...
used the Smash imprint for reissues in the 1980s. PolyGram revived Smash in 1991 as an
R&B/
dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
label with its offices located in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. It was first under the PolyGram Label Group (PLG) umbrella, then under the
Independent Label Sales (ILS) umbrella, then under
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
until the imprint was retired in 1996. One of the hits Smash saw during this period was "
People Are Still Having Sex" by house music producer
LaTour
Latour may refer to:
People
* LaTour, American musician
Surname
* House of Baillet
** Alfred de Baillet Latour (1901–1980),
**Henri de Baillet-Latour (1876–1942), Belgian aristocrat and the third president of the International Olympic Comm ...
. Another successful artist on the dance charts was
Jamie Principle
Jamie Principle (born 5 July 1960) is an American house music artist and producer born in Chicago, Illinois. _Biography_))).html" ;"title="allmusic ((( Jamie Principle > Biography )))">allmusic ((( Jamie Principle > Biography )))/ref>
Biography
J ...
.
Artists
*
The Angels
*
The Asylum Choir The Asylum Choir was an American rock duo active in the late 1960s. It was composed of keyboardist Leon Russell and guitarist Marc Benno.
History
Essentially a studio musician gathering, the Asylum Choir was formed around 1967 and the group's debu ...
*
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
*
The Caravelles
The Caravelles, Lois Wilkinson (born 3 April 1944 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England) and Andrea Simpson (born 9 September 1946 in Finchley, London),Larkin C, ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) p95 were a British fem ...
*
Mother Maybelle Carter
*
Jimmy Castor
James Walter Castor (January 23, 1940 – January 16, 2012) was an American funk, R&B, and soul musician. He is credited with vocals, saxophone and composition. He is best known for songs such as "It's Just Begun", " The Bertha Butt Boogie", an ...
*
Bruce Channel
Bruce Channel ( ; born November 28, 1940) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his 1962 million-selling number-one hit record, " Hey! Baby".
Career
Channel performed originally for the radio program '' Louisiana Hayride'' and t ...
*
Crunch-O-Matic
*
D'Bora
*
Dee Jay & The Runaways (see also
Iowa Great Lakes Recording Company)
*
Joe Dowell
Joe Dowell (January 23, 1940 – February 4, 2016) was an American pop singer.
Career
He was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, and moved to Bloomington, Illinois as a child. He first performed at a ninth-grade talent show and later at ...
*
Pete Drake
Roddis Franklin "Pete" Drake (October 8, 1932 – July 29, 1988), was a Nashville-based American record producer and pedal steel guitar player. One of the most sought-after backup musicians of the 1960s, Drake played on such hits as Lynn Anderson' ...
(and his talking steel guitar)
*
Jay & the Techniques
Jay & the Techniques was an American pop group formed in Allentown, Pennsylvania during the mid-1960s. Their song "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie", released in 1967 on the Smash label, reached the Top 10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Biogra ...
*
Bill Justis
William Everett Justis Jr. (October 14, 1926 – July 16, 1982) was an American pioneer rock and roll musician, composer, and musical arranger, best known for his 1957 Grammy Hall of Fame song, " Raunchy". As a songwriter, he was also often credi ...
*
Dickie Lee
Royden Dickey Lipscomb (born September 21, 1936), known professionally as Dickey Lee (sometimes misspelled Dickie or Dicky), is an American pop/country singer and songwriter, best known for the 1960s teenage tragedy songs " Patches" and "Laurie ( ...
*
Hudsen Bay Co.
*
Left Banke
The Left Banke was an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina". The band often used what the music press referred to as "baroque ...
*
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made ...
*
Linda Gail Lewis
Linda Gail Lewis (born July 18, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. She has recorded with Stephen Ackles, Van Morrison, and with her brother, Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an A ...
*
Jamie Loring
*
LaTour
Latour may refer to:
People
* LaTour, American musician
Surname
* House of Baillet
** Alfred de Baillet Latour (1901–1980),
**Henri de Baillet-Latour (1876–1942), Belgian aristocrat and the third president of the International Olympic Comm ...
*
Chris Mars
Chris Mars (born April 26, 1961) is an American painter and musician. He was the percussionist, drummer for the seminal Minneapolis based alternative-rock band The Replacements (band), The Replacements from 1979 to 1990, and later joined the inf ...
*
M-Doc
M-Doc is a rap artist and producer who was signed to RCA Records and Smash Records in the 1990s. He scored minor chart success with the singles "Free" and " It's a Summer Thang" featuring Chantay Savage. He is currently the president of Indasoul ...
*
The Mesmerizing Eye
*
Luke "Long Gone" Miles
Luke "Long Gone" Miles (May 8, 1925 – November 22, 1987) was an American Texas blues and electric blues singer and songwriter. He was a protégé of Lightnin' Hopkins and variously recorded or performed with Hopkins, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGh ...
*
Roger Miller
Roger Dean Miller Sr. (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs and his chart-topping Country music, country and pop hits "King of the Road (song), Ki ...
*
The Millions
''The Millions'' is an online literary magazine created by C. Max Magee in 2003. It contains articles about literary topics and book reviews.
''The Millions'' has several regular contributors as well as frequent guest appearances by literary not ...
*The Nouns
*
Jamie Principle
Jamie Principle (born 5 July 1960) is an American house music artist and producer born in Chicago, Illinois. _Biography_))).html" ;"title="allmusic ((( Jamie Principle > Biography )))">allmusic ((( Jamie Principle > Biography )))/ref>
Biography
J ...
*
Charlie Rich
Charles Allan Rich (December 14, 1932July 25, 1995) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. His eclectic style of music was often difficult to classify, encompassing the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country music, country, sou ...
*
Sir Douglas Quintet
The Sir Douglas Quintet was an American rock band, formed in San Antonio in 1964. With their first hits, they were acclaimed in their home state. When their career was established (subsequent to working with Texas record producer Huey Meaux), t ...
*
Millie Small
Millicent Dolly May Small CD (6 October 1947 – 5 May 2020) was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who is best known for her 1964 hit " My Boy Lollipop". The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million ...
*
Swingin' Medallions
*
Pleasure Game
*
Presence
*
Sheep on Drugs
Sheep on Drugs are a British techno/industrial music group, formed by Duncan X ( King Duncan) (vocals) and Lee Fraser (a.k.a. Dead Lee) (guitar/keyboards), and currently composed of Fraser and Johnny Borden (vocals/keyboards).
Biography
Dunca ...
* The Tempests
*
Ten Tray
*
Frankie Valli
Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice.
...
*
Eric Von Schmidt
Eric Von Schmidt (May 28, 1931 – February 2, 2007) was an American singer and guitarist, songwriter, painter and illustrator, and Grammy Award recipient. He was associated with the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s and a key part o ...
*
The Walker Brothers
The Walker Brothers were an United States, American pop music, pop musical ensemble, group of the 1960s and 1970s which included Noel Scott Engel (eventually known professionally as Scott Walker (singer), Scott Walker), John Walker (musician), Jo ...
*
Scott Walker
*
Cookie Watkins
*
Yello
Yello is a Swiss electronic music band, which formed in Zürich in 1979. For most of the band's history, Yello has been a duo consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank; founding member Carlos Perón left in 1983.
Their sound is often charac ...
See also
*
List of record labels
File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg
File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
File:Bingola1011b.jpg
Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, b ...
References
External links
The Smash Records Story from BSN PubsA discography of Smash albumsA biography of Pete Drake{{Authority control
American record labels
Record labels established in 1961
Record labels disestablished in 1970
Record labels established in 1991
Record labels disestablished in 1996
Re-established companies
1961 establishments in the United States
Philips