Collectables is a reissue

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 pr ...

founded in 1980 by Jerry Greene. Jerry Greene formed Lost Nite and

Crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, '' Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red co ...

record labels. Soul Survivors gained the hit "Expressway to Your Heart" (1967) while on Crimson Records.

History

It maintains a catalogue of over 3,400 active titles on compact disc, with thousands of additional titles available on vinyl. It has released hundreds of recordings from the vaults of major labels, such as

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, RCA, Capitol, Vee-Jay and others, making many available on CD for the first time. Genres found on Collectables include

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and b ...

, rock'n'roll, pop, rock,

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 mi ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

, and funk blues. Collectables released Johnny "Guitar" Watson, the Cleftones, and doo wop albums. Collectables publishes the ''Priceless Collection'' series of budget compilations. Many of the label's other releases combine the contents of two original LPs on a single CD. The company also manufactures multi-CD compilation box sets sold exclusively through retailers such as QVC,

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation ( doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costc ...

and

Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's C ...

. Collectables is one of a group of companies, including

Alpha Video Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ...

, Gotham Distributing Corporation and the e-commerce website OLDIES.com, owned and operated by Jerry Greene and the Greene family.

Quality of sound

Early LPs and CDs were often dubbed from scratchy records. ''Both Sides Now'' publisher Mike Callahan (in his book of CD reviews ''Oldies on CD''), regularly gave early Collectables' CDs low scores based on sound quality. Over the years, the sound quality has improved greatly on Collectables' releases. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Little Walter DeVenne remastered many of the label's reissues, and the company has also made extensive use of the in-house mastering and restoration services of the major labels from whom they license material.

Artists

The following artists have had at least one recording re-issued on the Collectables label. * 1910 Fruitgum Company * Gregory Abbott * Barbara Acklin *

Roy Acuff Roy Claxton Acuff (September 15, 1903 – November 23, 1992) was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the "King of Country Music", Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedow ...

Faye Adams Faye Adams (born Fanny Tuell, May 22, 1923) is an American singer who recorded and performed rhythm and blues and gospel from the late 1940s until the early 1960s. She had several chart hits in the early 1950s, before retiring from the music b ...

* Johnny Adams *

Cannonball Adderley Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered for the 1966 soul jazz single " Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", w ...

* The Addrisi Brothers * The Ad Libs *

Jewel Akens Jewel Eugene Akens (September 12, 1933 – March 1, 2013) was an American singer and record producer. Career He recorded with The Medallions on Dootone, with The Four Dots on Freedom, and then with singer Eddie Daniels as "Jewel and Eddie" on t ...

* Al B. Sure! *Alabama(group) *

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompan ...

Lee Allen Lee Allen may refer to: *Lee Allen (wrestler) (1934–2012), wrestler and coach *Lee Allen (baseball) (1915–1969), baseball historian * Lee Allen (musician) (1927–1994), saxophone player * Lee Allen (artist) (1910–2006), American artist and oc ...

* Mose Allison *

The Allman Brothers Band The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (founder, slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards, songwriting), as well as Dickey Betts (lead guita ...

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

The Ames Brothers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

* Ed Ames *

Ernestine Anderson Ernestine Anderson (November 11, 1928 – March 10, 2016) was an American jazz and blues singer. In a career spanning more than six decades, she recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award. She sang at Carnegie Hall, ...

* Lee Andrews & The Hearts *

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 ...

Blues Magoos The Blues Magoos are an American rock group from The Bronx, a borough of New York City, United States. They were at the forefront of the psychedelic music trend, beginning in 1966. They are best known for the hit song " (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet ...

*Brass Construction *

Brotherhood of Man Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with " Save Your Kisses for Me". Created in 1969 by songwriter and record producer Tony Hiller, Brotherhood of Man was initi ...

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

Anita Bryant Anita Jane Bryant (born March 25, 1940) is an American singer known for anti-gay activism. She scored four "Top 40" hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including " Paper Roses" which reached No. 5 on the charts. She was t ...

* B.T. Express *

The Buckinghams The Buckinghams are an American sunshine pop band from Chicago. They formed in 1966 and went on to become one of the top-selling acts of 1967, charting their only five top 40 hits in the U.S. that year. The band dissolved in 1970, but re-formed ...

* The Capris *The Clickettes *

Ray Conniff Joseph Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s. Biography Conniff was born November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, United St ...

The Capitols The Capitols were an American, Detroit, Michigan-based soul trio, widely known in 1966 for their ''Billboard'' hit single "Cool Jerk". Formation and disbandment The R&B trio formed in 1962 as "The Three Caps," with Samuel George as the lead voc ...

* Bruce Channel * The Channels *

Chubby Checker Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans; October 3, 1941) is an American rock and roll singer and dancer. He is widely known for popularizing many dance styles, including The Twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard & The Midnight ...

* The Checkmates * Don Cherry * Dee Clark *

The Classics The Classics were an American vocal group formed in 1958 in Brooklyn. The Classics first sang together in high school; two of them had previously sung in a group called The Del-Rays. In 1959, under the auspices of manager Jim Gribble, they record ...

* The Cleftones *

The Crests The Crests were an American doo-wop group, formed by bass vocalist J.T. Carter in the mid 1950s. The group had several Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s on Coed Records. Their most popular song, "16 Candles", rose to #2 on the '' ...

The Cyrkle The Cyrkle was an American rock band active in the early and mid-1960s. The group charted two Top 40 hits, "Red Rubber Ball" and " Turn-Down Day". Career The band was formed by guitarists and lead singers Don Dannemann and Tom Dawes (who also p ...

The Danleers The Danleers were an American doo-wop group formed in Brooklyn, New York in 1958. The group's original and most famous lineup consisted of Jimmy Weston, Johnny Lee, Willie Ephraim, Nat McCune, and Roosevelt Mays. One of many streetcorner vocal ...

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...

Jimmy Dean Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010) was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV commercials. He became ...

* The Dell Vikings *

Devo Devo (, originally ) is an American Rock music, rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark Mothersbaugh, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, Bob) and the Casales (Gerald ...

* Dion *

Dion and the Belmonts Dion and the Belmonts were an American vocal trio prominent throughout the 1950s. All of its members were from the Bronx, New York City. In 1957, Dion DiMucci joined the vocal group the Belmonts. The established trio of Angelo D'Aleo, Carlo ...

* Ronnie Dove *Al Downing & The Poe Cats *

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/ soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, formed i ...

* Sheena Easton * The Edsels * Ray Ellis *

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...

* The Emotions * Preston Epps * The Fabulaires * Percy Faith *

Fancy Fancy may refer to: Places * Fancy, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a settlement * Fancy River, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Music Albums * ''Fancy'' (Bobbie Gentry album), 1970 * ''Fancy'' (Idiot Flesh album), 1997 * ''Fancy'' (video ...

*The Five Discs *

The 5 Royales ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

The Five Satins The Five Satins are an American doo-wop group, best known for their 1956 million-selling song, " In the Still of the Night." They were formed in 1954 and continued performing until 1994. When it was formed, the group consisted of six members, ...

* John Fred & His Playboy Band *

Stan Freberg Stan Freberg (born Stanley Friberg; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director. His best-known works include "St. George and the Dragonet" ...

The Harptones The Harptones are an American doo-wop group, which formed in Manhattan in 1953. The group never had a top forty pop hit, or a record on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart, yet they are known for both their lead singer Willie Winfield and their pi ...

* The Hi-Lo's *

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...

* Billy Idol * The Islanders *

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...

* J.J. Jackson * Wanda Jackson *

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

The Jive Five The Jive Five are an American doo-wop group. They are best known for their debut hit single, " My True Story" (1961), the Nickelodeon bumper jingles in the 1980s and 1990s, and the fact that they outlasted most of their musical peers by re-mod ...

Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge (also known as The Bridge and as Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge since the 1980s) is an American musical group, best known for their million-selling rendition of Jimmy Webb's " Worst That Could Happen" (1968). History N ...

*The Kodaks *

Buddy Knox Buddy Wayne Knox (July 20, 1933 – February 14, 1999) was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1957 rock hit song, " Party Doll". Biography Knox was born in the tiny farming community of Happy, Texas, United States, and lear ...

* Andre Kostelanetz * Mark Lindsay * Little Joe Blue *Lewis Lymon & The Teenchords *The Mandrake Memorial *The Marcells *

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

*Gene McDaniels *The Mods *

Lou Monte Lou Monte (born Louis Scaglione; April 2, 1917 – June 12, 1989) was an Italian American singer best known for a number of best-selling, Italian-themed novelty records which he recorded for both RCA Victor and Reprise Records in the late 195 ...

*New York City * The Nutmegs *The Outcasts (Manhasset, NY) * The Outcasts (Texas, USA) *The Paragons(USA, doo wop) *

Carl Perkins Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...

Dan Pickett Daniel T. Pickett III (born July 27, 1968) is an American technology entrepreneur, and private equity investor. Pickett is the co-founder, president and CEO of , a digital behavioral health company. He is the former CEO of Hudson River Capital Ho ...

* ? and the Mysterians *

The Raindrops The Raindrops were an American pop group from New York, United States, associated with the Brill Building style of 1960s pop. The group existed from 1963 to 1965 and consisted of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, both of whom worked as writer/pr ...

* Randy & the Rainbows *

Eddie Rambeau Eddie Rambeau (born Edward Cletus Fluri; June 30, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. Career While performing in a high-school musical he had written, Rambeau met songwriter and musician Bud Rehak, who went on to become his ...

* Genya Ravan *

The Ravens ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

Lou Rawls Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American record producer, singer, composer and actor. Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his s ...

Johnnie Ray John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and bl ...

* Red Crayola *

Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentlem ...

* Johnny Rivers *

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted mo ...

* The Royal Guardsmen * Joey Scarbury * Marlena Shaw *

The Shells The Shells were an American doo wop ensemble formed in Brooklyn, New York, United States, in 1957. The group scored a US pop hit in 1957 with the song "Baby Oh Baby", released on Johnson Records; the song cracked the Top 30. Further singles p ...

*The Sheppards * Dinah Shore * Bobby Short *

The Silhouettes The Silhouettes were an American doo wop/ R&B group, whose single " Get a Job" was a number 1 hit on the ''Billboard'' R&B singles chart and pop singles chart in 1958. The doo-wop revival group Sha Na Na derived their name from the song's lyri ...

* Ginny Simms *

Joe Simon Joseph Henry Simon (October 11, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the ...

* Warren Smith * The Spaniels *

Benny Spellman Benny Spellman (December 11, 1931 – June 3, 2011) was an American R&B singer, best known for the 1962 single " Lipstick Traces (on a Cigarette)" and its B-side "Fortune Teller", both written by Allen Toussaint (credited as Naomi Neville). "Lip ...

* Crispian St. Peters * Jo Stafford *

Terry Stafford Terry LaVerne Stafford (November 22, 1941 – March 17, 1996) was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1964 US Top 10 hit " Suspicion", and the 1973 country music hit " Amarillo by Morning". Stafford was also known for his Elvi ...

* The Staple Singers *

Kay Starr Katherine Laverne Starks (July 21, 1922 – November 3, 2016), known professionally as Kay Starr, was an American singer who enjoyed considerable success in the late 1940s and 1950s. She was of Iroquois and Irish heritage. Starr performed multip ...

* Ray Stevens *

Al Stewart Alastair Ian Stewart (born 5 September 1945) is a Scottish born singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock so ...

* Enzo Stuarti * Sugarloaf * Gene Summers * The Styles * The Sunrays *The Super Disco Band *

The Swallows The Swallows were an American R&B group. They are best known for their 1951 recording of "Will You Be Mine", which appeared in the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart. History Founded in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, in 1946 as "The Oakaleers" ...

Billy Swan William Lance Swan (born May 12, 1942) is an American country singer-songwriter, best known for his 1974 single, "I Can Help". Biography Swan was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States. As a child, he learned drums, piano and guita ...

Bettye Swann Betty Barton (born Betty Jean Champion, October 24, 1944), better known by the stage name Bettye Swann, is a retired American soul singer. She is best known for her 1967 hit song " Make Me Yours". Career Swann was born in Shreveport, Louisiana ...

* 13th Floor Elevators *

The Tokens The Tokens were an American doo-wop band and record production company group from Brooklyn, New York City. The group has had four top 40 hits on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, all in the 1960s, their biggest being the chart-topping 1961 hit si ...

* Kenny Vance * Jimmy Velvit *Johnny "Guitar" Watson *

We The People The Preamble to the United States Constitution, beginning with the words We the People, is a brief introductory statement of the Constitution's fundamental purposes and guiding principles. Courts have referred to it as reliable evidence o ...

* Roger Whittaker *The Willows *

Joe Zawinul Josef Erich Zawinul ( '; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to bec ...

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Companies based in Philadelphia American independent record labels Reissue record labels Jazz record labels Record labels established in 1981 Rock record labels Blues record labels

History

Quality of sound

Artists

See also

References

External links