Lightning Records was a London-based
record label
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 trademarks, coordinates the prod ...
founded in the 1970s. It specialised in
disco,
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...
and
dub music
Dub is an electronic musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style.Dub: soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican r ...
but also released music from other genres such as
punk rock. It was a subsidiary of
WEA
The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami.
Today, the descendants of the W ...
.
Amongst its artists and titles are
Althia & Donna with "
Uptown Top Ranking
"Uptown Top Ranking" is a song by Jamaican teenage singers Althea Forrest and Donna Reid, recorded when they were 17 and 18 years old respectively. Released in 1977, the song comprises the girls ad-libbing to deejay track "Three Piece Suit" by T ...
",
Janet Kay
Janet Kay Bogle (born 17 January 1958) is an English actor and vocalist, best known for her 1979 lovers rock hit " Silly Games".
Biography
Janet Kay Bogle was born in Willesden, North West London. She was discovered singing impromptu at a reh ...
with "
Silly Games
Silly may refer to:
Places
* Silly, Belgium, a town
* Silly Department, a department or commune of Sissili Province in southern Burkina Faso
Music
* Silly (band), an East German rock group from the 1970s
* The Sillies, an American punk rock ...
",
Dennis Brown
Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD (1 February 1957 – 1 July 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lo ...
with "Money in My Pocket", and
Errol Dunkley
Errol Dunkley (born 6 February 1951), sometimes spelled Erroll Dunkley, is a Jamaican reggae musician, born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1951.
Biography
Dunkley's recording career began in 1965, when he was 14, with "Gypsy" (a duet with Roy Shirle ...
with "
OK Fred
"OK Fred" is a song by Jamaican singer-songwriter John Holt. It was first released as a single in 1971.
Background
Errol Dunkley stated that the song is about an up-town girl who falls for a down-town guy who is a non-conformist in the way h ...
". The Old Gold Label was subsequently set up from here and featured many original classics licensed from other labels, for example
Clifford T. Ward
Clifford Thomas Ward (10 February 1944 – 18 December 2001) was an English singer-songwriter, best known for his career as a solo artist. Ward's 1973 album '' Home Thoughts'' remains his best known recording and he had hit singles with "G ...
's song "Gaye",
Python Lee Jackson
Python Lee Jackson were an Australian rock band active from 1965 to 1968, before a brief sojourn in the United Kingdom from late 1968 to mid-1969. The group had recorded a single, " In a Broken Dream" (October 1970), featuring Rod Stewart as gue ...
's "
In a Broken Dream
"In a Broken Dream" is a song and single by Australian rock band Python Lee Jackson featuring vocals from Rod Stewart.
Released in 1972 it entered the UK chart in September, reaching number 3 in October. Stewart's vocals are not credited o ...
", and re-releases by
the Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 193 ...
,
the Equals
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
,
Trini Lopez
Trinidad López III (May 15, 1937 – August 11, 2020) was an American singer, guitarist, and actor. His first album included a cover version of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer", which earned a Golden Disc for him. His other hits included ...
and
Ketty Lester
Ketty Lester (born Revoyda Frierson; August 16, 1934) is an American singer and actress known for her 1961 hit single " Love Letters", which reached the top 5 of the charts in the U.S. and the UK. She is also known for her role as Hester-Sue Ter ...
.
References
{{Authority control
Record labels based in London
Reggae record labels
Punk record labels