SAM Records was a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

-based independent

record company "Big Three" music labels 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 t ...

active between 1977–1983 and 1989–1991. The label was operated by Sam Weiss and Daniel Glass, who worked as a vice president. In the late 1970s, Columbia, as a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

subsidiary, had a distribution deal with SAM for about 18 months. The most successful artists of SAM include

John Davis and the Monster Orchestra John Davis and the Monster Orchestra were an American disco band, noted for their lead member (John "the Monster" Davis), who lent his name to the band as well as producing all of their output. History The ensemble released its first album, ...

, Glen Adams Affair, Gary's Gang and Komiko.

History

Founder's biography

SAM Records was founded in 1976 by Sam Weiss. He was born on September 19, 1926, in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and together with his brother

Hy Weiss Hyman Y. "Hy" Weiss (February 12, 1923 – March 20, 2007) was an American record producer of pop and rhythm and blues music in the 1950s and 1960s, and the founder of Old Town Records. Biography Born to a Jewish family in Cuca, Argeș Count ...

he became involved in record label business throughout the 1950s; the highlight of

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre 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, ...

and

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

music. Somewhere around the year 1950, Weiss was accused of plagiarism over the parts of his song called " Sam's Song" he presumably copied from Elmer Albrecht's "Elmer's Tune". In the 1990s, Weiss helped his son, Mike Weiss, to found Nervous Records. SAM Records catalog was later brought into Nervous Records.

Description

In the late 1970s, Weiss jumped on the

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

bandwagon therefore SAM Records was born. Weiss hired his son-in-law Daniel Glass to run the label with him. Glass later joined

EMI Music EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), c ...

and for record companies like

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British independent record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ell ...

and

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...

. As of November 1980, the label mostly included dance music artists of different popular formats such as

, R&B and even

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

. Sam Records was technically a division of Win Records, Inc. which was headed by Sam Weiss.

Moderate success

During the late 1970s, SAM Records artists enjoyed some success especially on ''Billboard'' Disco charts. Artists that crossed over to different charts mostly include

boogie Boogie is a repetition (music), repetitive, swung note, swung note or shuffle rhythm,Burrows, Terry (1995). ''Play Country Guitar'', p.42. Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. . groove (music), "groove" or pattern used in blues which was origina ...

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

compositions like "Don't Let Go of Me" (1982, Mike & Brenda Sutton) peaked at #82 R&B, "Rock Shock" (1982, B.B.C.S. & A.) peaked at #82 R&B, and "Feel Alright" (1982, Komiko) peaked at #83 R&B.

Selected discography

References

{{Authority control Defunct record labels of the United States Post-disco record labels House music record labels Record labels established in 1976 Record labels disestablished in 1991 1976 establishments in New York City