Quinton Mavis Claunch (December 3, 1921 – April 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, record producer and record label owner, who was responsible with others for setting up Hi Records in the 1950s and Goldwax Records in the 1960s.

Biography

He was born in

Tishomingo, Mississippi Tishomingo is a town in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, Tishomingo County, Mississippi, United States. The population of the city of Tishomingo was 339 at the 2010 census. History Tishomingo is named for Tishomingo (Chickasaw leader), ''Ti ...

, and moved in the early 1940s to

Muscle Shoals, Alabama Muscle Shoals is the largest city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is located on the left bank of the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state and, as of the 2010 census, its population was 13,146. The estimated popula ...

. He played guitar in local

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groups and in 1943 formed a band, the Blue Seal Pals, with Edgar Clayton; one of the other band members was Bill Cantrell. The group had a regular slot on

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

WLAY in Muscle Shoals before moving to station

WJOI WJOI (1340 AM) is a commercial radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is known on-air as "Joy 1340/98.7". WJOI is owned by Saga Communications, and operates as part of its Milwaukee Radio Group, with radio studios and offices on Milwauke ...

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and then to WSM in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

where they became a staple of the ''

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...

''. After he married in 1948, Claunch moved to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, where he met up with old friend and former WLAY

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American disc jockey, songwriter and record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, R ...

. Claunch played guitar on some early

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

recordings, by

Carl Perkins Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...

, Charlie Feathers,

Wanda Jackson Wanda LaVonne Jackson (born October 20, 1937) is an American retired singer and songwriter. Since the 1950s, she has recorded and released music in the genres of Rock music, rock, Country music, country and Gospel music, gospel. She was among th ...

and others, as well as establishing a hardware company. In 1954, with Cantrell, he wrote the song "Daydreamin'" for singer Bud Deckelman; the song became a national

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

hit for Jimmy Newman. He and Cantrell then decided to form their own record label, Hi Records, in 1957, with Ray Harris and Joe Cuoghi.Broven, 2009, p. 520 Claunch was also responsible for record production, and for songwriting; in total, he is credited with over 200 original compositions at BMI, mostly in conjunction with other writers including George Jackson. After establishing Hi as a moderately successful local label, Claunch sold his interest in the company in 1959 and left the music industry, so as to develop his hardware business.Biography by Steve Kurutz
''AllMusic''. Retrieved 26 April 2013
''Bsnpubs.com, Retrieved 26 April 2013 In 1964, he returned to the music business to establish, with partner Rudolph V. "Doc" Russell, Goldwax Records, a label specialising in

Southern soul Southern soul or country soul is a type of soul and country music that emerged from the Southern United States. The music originated from a combination of styles, including blues (both 12 bar and jump), country, early R&B, and a strong gospel ...

and

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music vary according to culture and social context. Gospel music is compo ...

. The company had a series of R&B hits, by James Carr, The Ovations, Spencer Wiggins and others. The label folded in 1969, due to differences between Claunch and Russell as well as Carr's erratic behaviour. In the mid 1980s, the company was re-launched by Memphis businessman Elliott Clark, and Claunch became its President, but he left again in the 1990s. Claunch died in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 2021 at the age of 99.Tony Burke, "Obituary: Quinton Claunch", ''Blues & Rhythm'', No.360, June 2021, p. 13

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Claunch, Quinton 1921 births 2021 deaths American music industry executives People from Tishomingo County, Mississippi Record producers from Mississippi