Diamond Records was a record label, based in

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 ...

, which was founded in 1961 by former

Roulette Records Roulette Records was an American record company and label founded in 1957 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Kahl, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed ...

executive Joe Kolsky. Another Roulette exec, Kolsky's brother Phil Kahl, joined Kolsky in the venture the following year.

History

Success for the label was slow but they got their first big hit in 1962 with " Loop de Loop" by

Johnny Thunder Johnny Thunder is the name of three superheroes appearing in comics published by DC Comics. A fourth character has the variant name Jonni Thunder. The character appeared in the second season of '' Stargirl'' on The CW network played by Ethan E ...

. That record led to a distribution deal with

EMI 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 conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

to distribute Diamond recordings on

Stateside Records Stateside Records, styled as $tateside Records, is a British record label, owned by Warner Music Group and operates through its Parlophone and Warner Records imprints. Upon creation, it initially released licensed American recordings and is n ...

in the UK. Diamond recordings were issued in Canada by

Apex Records Apex Records was a Canadian record label owned by the Compo Company which lasted as late as 1980. Compo established the Apex label in July 1921 in Toronto. It released American recordings from Okeh Records and Gennett Records, among others. It al ...

until roughly 1967, when a Canadian version of Diamond was set up. All releases after that had the same logo design as the U.S. releases. In September 1962, Phil Kahl purchased 36 master recordings of

Dave "Baby" Cortez David Cortez Clowney (born August 13, 1938), known by the stage name Dave "Baby" Cortez, is an American pop and R&B organist and pianist, best known for his 1959 hit, "The Happy Organ". He is the oldest living performer to have a solo #1 hit o ...

from his former label, Clock Records. Kahl then set up the ''Emit'' label to release these recordings, with Diamond distributing the records. However, the label folded after only four single releases. In August 1963,

Del Shannon Charles Weedon Westover (December 30, 1934 – February 8, 1990), better known by his stage name Del Shannon, was an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known for his 1961 number-one ''Billboard'' hit " Runaway", which was covered la ...

's relationship with his managers and Bigtop Records had soured, so he formed his own label, Berlee Records, named after his parents, distributed by Diamond Records. Two singles were issued: the apparently Four Seasons–inspired "Sue's Gotta Be Mine" was a moderate hit, reaching number 71 in the U.S. and number 21 in the UK (where Shannon's records continued on the London Records label). The second single, "That's the Way Love Is", did not chart, and Shannon patched things up with his managers soon after. In early 1964, he was placed on Amy Records' (Stateside label in the UK), and the Berlee label disappeared. In addition to this label, Diamond also distributed the short-lived ''Inette'' label, scoring a minor hit with Kirby St. Romain's 1963 single "Summer's Comin'", which reached number 49. The only consistent hit maker for the label was

Ronnie Dove Ronald Eugene Dove (born September 7, 1935) is an American pop music, pop and country music singer who had a string of hit pop records in the mid to late 1960s and several country chart records in the 1970s and 1980s. Early life Ronnie Dove, th ...

who had a string of pop and easy listening hits for Diamond from 1964 to 1969, mostly produced by Kahl. Kolsky and Kahl sold their interest in Diamond Records in 1968 to the Edwin H. Morris Corporation which sold it in 1970 to Certron Corporation. The Certron label folded by 1972. The fate of the Diamond catalog is unknown, but Ronnie Dove's recordings are widely available on CD. In 1987 Dove revived the label to release a couple of singles and another album. He owns all of his recordings made for the label, and has reissued them through Ronnie Dove Music and Real Gone Music.

Partial artist roster

* Johnny Thunder *

Bobby Vinton Stanley Robert Vinton (born April 16, 1935) is an American singer and actor, who hosted his own self-titled TV show in the late 1970s. As a teen idol, he became known as "The Polish Prince", as his music paid tribute to his Polish heritage. One ...

* Gary Criss *

Dickie Goodman Richard Dorian Goodman (April 19, 1934 – November 6, 1989), was an American musician and record producer. He is best known for inventing and using the technique of the " break-in", an early precursor to sampling, that used brief clips of popul ...

Mitch Miller Mitchell William Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor ...

Dickey Lee Royden Dickey Lipscomb (born September 21, 1936), known professionally as Dickey Lee (sometimes misspelled Dickie or Dicky), is an American pop/country singer and songwriter, best known for the 1960s teenage tragedy songs " Patches" and "Laurie ( ...

Russell Morris Russell Norman Morris (born 31 July 1948) is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist who had five Australian Top 10 singles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) reco ...

* The Bobbettes * The Bleus * Ruby Winters * Don Varner * Kevin McQuinn (Eddie Quinn of

The Mello-Kings The Mello-Kings were an American doo-wop group, who became popular in the late 1950s with their song, "Tonite, Tonite" (1957). The group consisted of brothers Jerry and Bob Scholl, Eddie Quinn, Neil Arena and Larry Esposito. The quintet was forme ...

) * Kirby St. Romain

Album discography

The label released a total of eight albums in its entire history. The first album was by Johnny Thunder and the remaining albums were all by Ronnie Dove. *“Loop De Loop” (S)D-5001 –

(1963) *“ Right or Wrong” (S)D-5002 –

(1964) *” One Kiss for Old Times' Sake” (S)D-5003 –

(1965) *” I'll Make All Your Dreams Come True” (S)D-5004 –

(1965) *” The Best of Ronnie Dove” (S)D-5005 –

(1966) *” Ronnie Dove Sings the Hits for You” (S)D-5006 –

(1966) *” Cry” (S)D-5007 –

(1967) *” The Best of Ronnie Dove Volume 2” (S)D-5008) –

(1967) Related Release: *”From the Heart” D-380 –

(1988)

References

External links

Diamond Records story from BSN Pubs

{{Authority control Mass media companies based in New York City Record labels based in New York (state) Record labels established in 1961 Record labels disestablished in 1972 Record labels established in 1987 Re-established companies