Vee-Jay Records
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Vee-Jay Records was a record label, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.
Vee-Jay was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a husband-and-wife team who used their initials for the label’s name. Vivian's brother, Calvin Carter, was the label's A&R man. Ewart Abner, formerly of Chance Records, joined the label in 1955, first as manager, then as vice president, and ultimately, as president.
The label quickly became a major R&B label, with the first song recorded making it to the top ten on the national R&B charts. Vee-Jay Records filed for bankruptcy in August 1966. The assets were subsequently purchased by label executives Betty Chiapetta and Randy Wood.
Major acts on the label in the 1950s included blues singers Jimmy Reed, Memphis Slim,and John Lee Hooker, and rhythm and blues vocal groups Spaniels, Dells, and El Dorados.The 1960s saw the label became a major soul label with Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler, Betty Everett putting records on both the R&B and pop charts.
Vee-Jay had significant success with rock and roll acts, notably The Four Seasons and The Beatles. The company even ventured into folk music with Hoyt Axtonand New Wine Singers. The label also picked up Little Richard (who re-recorded his Specialty Records hits; and, before he became successful, Billy Preston.
Vee-Jay's jazz releases formed a small portion of the company's releases, but include releases by Wynton Kelly, Lee Morgan, Eddie Harris, and Wayne Shorter. The A&R for the jazz releases was Sid McCoy.
The company also had a major gospel line, recording such acts as the Staple Singers, the Argo Singers, Swan Silvertones, and Maceo Woods.
Vee-Jay's biggest success was with the early Beatles material ("Please Please Me", "From Me to You" via Vee-Jay and "Love Me Do" via its subsidiary Tollie Records), because EMI's autonomous United States company Capitol initially refused to release Beatles records. Vee-Jay's releases were at first unsuccessful, but quickly became huge once the British Invasion took off in early 1964, selling 2.6 million Beatles singles in a single month. Cash flow problems caused by the leasing of the British act's records are generally given as an explanation of the company's demise.
Three other Vee-Jay subsidiary labels included Interphon (which yielded the Top 5 hit "Have I The Right" by another British group, The Honeycombs), Champion (featuring Gloria Jones' original version of "Tainted Love", a smash hit for Soft Cell in 1981), and Oldies 45 for reissues.
The post-bankruptcy Vee-Jay is not active in producing new recordings, but continues to license the back catalog. The current primary distributors are P-Vine/Blues Interactions in Japan, and Rhino Records in North America. U.S. based record label Collectables Records, a Rhino sublicensee, has been remastering and reissuing Vee-Jay albums on audio CD since 2000.
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