Rainy Wednesday 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, ...

created by novelty artist

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 ...

in 1973.

Creation

In his long career an artist and producer, Goodman released records under a slew of label names, including Luniverse (as Buchanan and Goodman in the late 50s), Rori, Mark-X, 20th Century and Cotique. In 1973, Goodman met the label's co-founder on a rainy Wednesday in New York, providing its name. Goodman started the label number at 201, the

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, rea ...

of his

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

residence at the time. All but one of Rainy Wednesday's releases were in Goodman's standard "break-in" style, in which an interviewer asks a question, only to have it "answered" with a snippet of a current hit record. (The only non-"break in" recording released was a straight cover of

Sheb Wooley Shelby Fredrick Wooley (April 10, 1921 – September 16, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He recorded a series of novelty songs, including the 1958 hit rock-and-roll comedy single "The Purple People Eater", and under the name ...

's "The Purple People Eater", a #1 hit from 1958.) Goodman himself and John & Ernest (a black duo whose records consisted of soul-oriented snippets and the original funk tune "Crossover" on one the flip sides) were the only two artists to appear on Rainy Wednesday.

Discography

Later career

Dickie Goodman folded Rainy Wednesday Records in 1975, but continued to release music under several other label names, including

Cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-i ...

Mr. Jaws "Mr. Jaws" is a novelty song by Dickie Goodman released on Cash Records in 1975. This record is a parody of the 1975 summer blockbuster film '' Jaws'', with Goodman interviewing the shark (whom he calls "Mr. Jaws"), as well as the film's main ch ...

", a Top 5 hit in 1975), Shark, Wacko and

Rhino Records A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

. Goodman's last recording, "Safe Sex Report", was released on the Goodname label in 1987; he died in 1989.

References

{{Authority control Record labels established in 1973