Abbey Records
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Abbey Records was a
record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
active in the United States from roughly
1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...
until
1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...
.


History

Abbey was founded by Pete Doraine and originally operated in the
Forest Hills, Queens Forest Hills is a neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast and Flushing ...
, section of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
but soon moved to 10th Avenue in the
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
borough in mid-1949 with Doraine serving as president. In 1950 Abbey's experienced its first (and biggest) hit in a recording of ''The Old Piano Roll Blues'' by J. Lawrence Cook. This disc, catalog number 15003, reached a peak position of 13, and had staying power for eleven weeks. Cook had recorded it in 1949, and then sold it to Abbey. Billboard had reviewed this record in its "Billboard Picks" as "spontaneous" and "rollicking" with "guts and drive," and evidently the public agreed. Abbey's next issue in the 15000-series was a Country hit. '' Slippin' Around With Jole Blon'' by Bud Messner and His Skyline Boys reached number 7 on the Country juke box charts in June 1950. By mid-year they had again moved headquarters, this time to 49th street, and had added two distributors to handle increased demand for their records. The year 1951 saw another hit by Cook, although minor, a cover of
Down Yonder Down Yonder is a popular American song with music and lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert. It was first published in 1921, and was introduced in the same year at the Orpheum Theater, New Orleans. Gilbert had written the lyrics for the 1912 song " Waiti ...
(catalog number 15053) that placed a position #22 on Billboard's charts. In 1951 the company located an operational nickelodeon in
Richmond Hill, Queens Richmond Hill is a commercial and residential neighborhood located in the southeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. The area borders Kew Gardens and Forest Park to the north, Jamaica and South Jamaica to the east, South Ozo ...
on the advice of Cook, and signed a contract to record the machine. Because there was no extant rolls for the nickelodeon, Cook hand-produced rolls of two songs written specifically for the record. Executive Don Reed left for Europe in the summer of 1951 to acquire recordings for issue in the LP format. By 1952 Abbey was producing
LP record The LP (from long playing or long play) is an Analog recording, analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of  revolutions per minute, rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use ...
s, including a history of the newly crowned
Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
. Not entirely content with standard sales channels, Abbey signed a deal with the Pacquin company to record songs subtly promoting a
hand cream Lotion is a low-viscosity topical preparation intended for application to the skin. By contrast, creams and gels have higher viscosity, typically due to lower water content. Lotions are applied to external skin with bare hands, a brush, a clean ...
product without directly naming the brand. Besides Doraine, other executives of the company were Carlton "Kelly" Camarata (who was part-owner) as vice-president of Sales and Promotion, and
Rudolph Toombs Rudolph Toombs (1914 – November 28, 1962) was an American performer and songwriter. He wrote " Teardrops from My Eyes", Ruth Brown's first number one R&B song, and other hit songs for her, including "5-10-15 Hours". He also wrote "One Mint ...
and
Gus Statiras Gus P. Statiras (July 6, 1922April 2, 2004) was a music dealer, record producer, and briefly a New York radio disc jockey under the moniker "Gus Grant." The founder of Progressive Records, Statiras produced and distributed jazz records in the 1950s ...
as A&R men. Camarata left in late 1950 to join
MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...
.


Repertoire

Abbey issued records in many genres, including popular, country, gospel, R&B, jazz, and classical. The label dedicated numerical sequences to "Rhythm and Blues" (3000), Jazz (5000), "Spiritual" (7000), and Calypso (9000).


Lawrence (Piano Roll) Cook

Abbey's best-selling artist was Lawrence Cook, who did not directly record for the label, but through an arrangement with QRS Piano Rolls would make rolls by "cutting" the roll while playing the song, and then punching extra holes in the paper producing sounds not possible from a single pianist. These rolls would then be recorded, sometimes as a solo instrument, and often with other instruments such as a
saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...
or with a vocal group dubbed the "Jim Dandies".


Other Artists

Other artists who appeared on Abbey include: *
Charlie Barnet Charles Daly Barnet (October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Nagasaki", "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "South ...
*
Stuart Foster Stuart may refer to: People *Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) * Clan Stuart of Bute, a Scottish clan *House of Stuart, a royal house of Scotland and England Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, ...
* Nellie Hill * Bob Howard * King Odum * Jesse Perry * Ben Smith *
Charlie Spivak Charlie Spivak (c. February 17, 1904 – March 1, 1982) was an American trumpeter and bandleader, best known for his big band in the 1940s. Early life According to his immigration record, Sender Spivakovsky was born around 1904 in the village ...


Related operations

Abbey Records also had a music publishing arm named Margold Music Corp. In Canada, several Abbey recordings were released on the
Quality Records Quality Records was a Canadian entertainment company which released music albums in Canada on behalf of American record labels. They also released recordings by Canadian artists. The company operated between 1950 and 1985 with offices in Toron ...
label.


References


External links


Zaydes Turntable - Lawrence Cook: "Mason-Dixon Boogie" and "San Antonio RoseGallery of Abbey 78rpm record labelsAbbey Records
on the Internet Archive'
Great 78 Project
{{Authority control Record labels established in 1949 Record labels disestablished in 1953 Defunct record labels of the United States