John Vincent Imbragulio (October 3, 1927 – February 4, 2000), known as Johnny Vincent, was an American

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

for

Art Rupe Arthur Newton Rupe (born Arthur Goldberg; September 5, 1917 – April 15, 2022) was an American music executive and record producer. He founded Specialty Records, known for its rhythm and blues, blues, gospel and early rock and roll music reco ...

Specialty Records Specialty Records was an American record label founded in Los Angeles in 1945 by Art Rupe. It was known for rhythm and blues, gospel, and early rock and roll, and recorded artists such as Little Richard, Guitar Slim, Percy Mayfield, and Lloyd P ...

. He founded Ace Records in 1955 in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...

, 165 miles away from

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. Although Vincent started out recording local blues musicians, in 1956 he branched out into New Orleans

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 ...

and

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

. He signed

Huey "Piano" Smith Huey Pierce "Piano" Smith (January 26, 1934 – February 13, 2023) was an American R&B pianist and session musician whose sound was influential in the development of rock and roll. His piano playing incorporated the boogie-woogie styles of P ...

and his group, who were able to develop a New Orleans shuffle style distinct from the

Fats Domino Antoine Caliste Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orl ...

jumping

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 ...

rhythm.

Biography

Vincent was born in

Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and most populous city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The ci ...

, United States and died in

. He had moved to Jackson in the late 1940s and opened a record shop and started the short-lived Champion Records label in the early 1950s. Then

offered him a job as A&R man at Specialty Records where Johnny worked with

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...

Earl King Earl Silas Johnson IV (February 7, 1934 – April 17, 2003),
known as Earl King, was an American singer, guita ...

, and

. His greatest hit was with

Guitar Slim Eddie Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959), known as Guitar Slim, was an American guitarist in the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song " The Things That I Used to Do", for Specialty Records. It is listed in the Roc ...

's "

The Things That I Used to Do "The Things That I Used to Do" is a blues standard written by Guitar Slim. He recorded it at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Recording Studio in New Orleans, where the young Ray Charles arranged and produced the session. Specialty Records released the ...

" an R&B # 1 in 1954. He left Specialty to found Ace. Ace enjoyed several national hits in the late 1950s, such as

's "Rockin' Pneumonia & Boogie Woogie Flu," and

Frankie Ford Frankie Ford (born Vincent Francis Guzzo, Jr.; August 4, 1939 – September 28, 2015) was an American rock and roll and rhythm and blues singer, best known for his 1959 hit "Sea Cruise". Biography He was born in Gretna, Louisiana, across the Mis ...

's "

Sea Cruise "Sea Cruise" is a song written and originally recorded by Huey "Piano" Smith and His Clowns in 1958, but this version was not released until 1971. The best known version was recorded by Frankie Ford and released in December 1958, with Ford’s ...

"; both of which Vincent produced. In addition, the label had a series of

Jimmy Clanton Jimmy Clanton (born September 2, 1938) is an American singer who became known as the " swamp pop R&B teenage idol". His band recorded a hit song " Just a Dream" which Clanton had written in 1958 for the Ace Records label. It reached number fo ...

hits, but by 1962 the difficulties in distribution for a small

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

forced Vincent to close down the label. Vincent reactivated the label in 1971 to produce some new music and reissue the treasures from the label's vault and by leasing the masters to other labels. In 1997 he sold the label to Music Collection International, a British label.
Vincent died in February 2000 in Jackson of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

at the age of 72.

Discography

*''The Ace Story, Vol. 1-5'' (Ace CD 2031-2035)

References

External links

Johnny Vincent
1927 births 2000 deaths Record producers from Mississippi People from Hattiesburg, Mississippi 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-music-bio-stub