Twinight Records was a minor American recording label, founded in Chicago 1967 by Howard Bedno and Peter Wright, who later added E. Rodney Jones as a partner. Specializing in R&B and

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...

, for a few months the label was called Twilight Records until it was discovered that another company already owned the Twilight name. Over five years, the label released (or at least recorded) 55 singles and charted seven times. The label’s star was

Syl Johnson Sylvester Johnson (born Sylvester Thompson; July 1, 1936 – February 6, 2022) was an American blues and soul singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. His most successful records included "Different Strokes" (1967), " Is It Because I' ...

, an established R&B performer who had had a number of hits for King Records and who would have his biggest hits for

Hi Records Hi Records is an American soul music and rockabilly label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1957 by singer Ray Harris, record store owner Joe Cuoghi, Bill Cantrell and Quinton Claunch (formerly producers for Sun Records), and three silent partn ...

in the 1970s. Johnson’s hits at Twinight included "Come on Sock it to Me" (1967), "Sorry ‘Bout Dat", "Different Strokes", " Is It Because I'm Black" (1969), and "Concrete Reservation". Some of these songs were recorded with Willie Mitchell in Memphis, which would later prove the undoing for the company, as Mitchell eventually lured Johnson away to Hi Records in 1971. The success of Johnson's music permitted the company to scout and record local Chicago talent, making numerous recordings of varying quality. Johnson proved to be an able producer as well as performer, and he often produced the songs on behalf of the company. While many of the artists never went on to later fame, some standout material was produced including singles by Nate Evans (who later joined

The Impressions The Impressions were an American music group originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes gospel, doo-wop, R&B, and soul. The group was founded as the Roosters by Chattanooga, Tennessee natives Sam Gooden, Richard Brooks and Arthur Bro ...

), The Perfections, Velma Perkins (later charting as Vee Allen), Krystal Generation, Johnny Williams, The Notations, The Radiants, and Annette Poindexter. The house band was called Pieces of Peace.

Donny Hathaway Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and arranger whom ''Rolling Stone'' described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include " The Ghetto", "This Christmas ...

got his start at Twinight, penning songs for other artists on the roster before moving on to better things. Except for Johnson’s hits, the only other artists to chart were The Notations ("I'm Still Here") and

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

Renaldo Domino, whose “Not Too Cool to Cry” reached Number 7 on the Chicago R&B charts in 1970. As a rule, the Twinight singles were all relegated to the “ lunar rotation” of late night radio, which virtually guaranteed them a place in everlasting obscurity. Within a few months of Johnson’s defection, the label folded early in 1972. The Twinight name was recently revitalized by Syl Johnson's daughter, the vocalist and songwriter

Syleena Johnson Syleena Johnson ( Thompson; September 2, 1976) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter from Chicago, Illinois. Personal life Johnson is the daughter of 1960s R&B Hi Records singer Syl Johnson and Brenda Thompson, wh ...

, who used the label for some of her early releases. In 2006,

The Numero Group The Numero Group is an archival record label that creates compilations of previously released music, reissues original albums, and creates album reconstructions from a variety of musical genres. The label, known as Numero, was founded in 2003 b ...

issued a compilation of Twinight recordings. In 2012, the song "Powerful Love", recorded by Chuck & Mac in 1970, is featured several times in the film ''

Looper Looper may refer to: Animals * Cabbage looper (''Trichoplusia ni''), a member of the moth family Noctuidae * Inchworm, of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies People * Looper (surname), a Dutch-language surname with the mean ...

''.

References

* Based on liner notes for the Numero reissue compilation, ''Numero 013: Eccentric Soul: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation'', December 2006.

References

External links