Smash Records was an American

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 1961 as a subsidiary of

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

by Mercury executive Shelby Singleton and run by Singleton with Charlie Fach. Fach took over after Singleton left Mercury in 1966. Its recording artists included

Frankie Valli Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice. ...

, James Brown,

Bruce Channel Bruce Channel ( ; born November 28, 1940) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his 1962 million-selling number-one hit record, "Hey! Baby". Career Channel performed originally for the radio program '' Louisiana Hayride'' and th ...

Roger Miller Roger Dean Miller Sr. (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs and his chart-topping country and pop hits " King of the Road", " Dang Me", and "Engl ...

The Left Banke The Left Banke was an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, " Walk Away Renée" and " Pretty Ballerina". The band often used what the music press referred to as " ba ...

, Bill Justis, and

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as " rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis mad ...

History

A dispute with King Records led Brown to release all of his band's instrumental recordings between

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

and

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establ ...

on Smash. Smash also released three of Brown's vocal recordings, including his 1964 proto- funk single "

Out of Sight ''Out of Sight'' is a 1998 American crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Frank, adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1996 novel of the same name. The first of several collaborations between Soderbergh and actor Geor ...

". Smash shared the numbering system for their singles with other labels that they distributed. The most important of these was

Fontana Records Fontana Records is a record label that was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. The independent label distributor Fontana Distribution takes its name from the label. History Fontana started in the 1950s as a sub ...

. Mercury discontinued the Smash label in 1970. Mercury label owner

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be ...

used the Smash imprint for reissues in the 1980s. PolyGram revived Smash in 1991 as an R&B/ dance label with its offices located in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. It was first under the PolyGram Label Group (PLG) umbrella, then under the Independent Label Sales (ILS) umbrella, then under

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, an ...

until the imprint was retired in 1996. One of the hits Smash saw during this period was "

People Are Still Having Sex "People Are Still Having Sex" is a song written and performed by American musician LaTour. It was released in March 1991 as the first single from his self-titled debut album, ''LaTour'' (1991). The song reached number one on both the US and Canadi ...

" by house music producer

LaTour Latour may refer to: People * LaTour, American musician Surname * House of Baillet ** Alfred de Baillet Latour (1901–1980), ** Henri de Baillet-Latour (1876–1942), Belgian aristocrat and the third president of the International Olympic Comm ...

. Another successful artist on the dance charts was Jamie Principle.

Artists

* The Angels * The Asylum Choir * James Brown * The Caravelles * Mother Maybelle Carter *

Jimmy Castor James Walter Castor (January 23, 1940 – January 16, 2012) was an American funk, R&B, and soul musician. He is credited with vocals, saxophone and composition. He is best known for songs such as "It's Just Begun", " The Bertha Butt Boogie", a ...

* Crunch-O-Matic *

D'Bora D'Bora Lippett is an American female dance artist. She was previously a member of the all-female rap group, Mercedes Ladies. D'Bora released her first single "No Sense" on New York City based dance label West End Records in 1984. It was re ...

* Dee Jay & The Runaways (see also

Iowa Great Lakes Recording Company The Iowa Great Lakes Recording Company, Inc was a recording studio located at 906 9th St. in Milford, Iowa, in the area of Iowa known as the Iowa Great Lakes region. Co-founders and original owners Roger Blunt, Cliff Plagman and John Senn started ...

) * Joe Dowell *

Pete Drake Roddis Franklin "Pete" Drake (October 8, 1932 – July 29, 1988), was a Nashville-based American record producer and pedal steel guitar player. One of the most sought-after backup musicians of the 1960s, Drake played on such hits as Lynn Anderson ...

(and his talking steel guitar) * Jay & the Techniques * Bill Justis * Dickie Lee * Hudsen Bay Co. * Left Banke *

* Linda Gail Lewis * Jamie Loring *

* Chris Mars * M-Doc * The Mesmerizing Eye * Luke "Long Gone" Miles *

* The Millions *The Nouns * Jamie Principle * Charlie Rich * Sir Douglas Quintet *

Millie Small Millicent Dolly May Small CD (6 October 1947 – 5 May 2020) was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who is best known for her 1964 hit " My Boy Lollipop". The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million ...

Swingin' Medallions The Swingin' Medallions are an American beach music group from Greenwood, South Carolina, United States. History The band was formed as The Medallions in 1962 adding the "Swingin'" in 1965; possibly as a tribute to the Swingin' Travelers, an R& ...

Pleasure Game Pleasure refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious animals ...

Presence Presence may refer to: Technology * Presence (sound recording), also known as room tone * Presence (amplification), used in four band equalisation * Presence (telepresence), the scientific and technological field * Immersion (virtual reality ...

Sheep on Drugs Sheep on Drugs are a British techno/ industrial music group, formed by Duncan X ( King Duncan) (vocals) and Lee Fraser (a.k.a. Dead Lee) (guitar/keyboards), and currently composed of Fraser and Johnny Borden (vocals/keyboards). Biography Dun ...

* The Tempests *

Ten Tray Ten, TEN or 10 may refer to: * 10, an even natural number following 9 and preceding 11 * one of the years 10 BC, AD 10, 1910 and 2010 * October, the tenth month of the year Places * Mount Ten, in Vietnam * Tongren Fenghuang Airport (IATA cod ...

* Eric Von Schmidt *

The Walker Brothers The Walker Brothers were an American pop group of the 1960s and 1970s which included Noel Scott Engel (eventually known professionally as Scott Walker), John Walker (born John Joseph Maus, but using the name Walker since his teens) and Gary L ...

* Scott Walker *

Cookie Watkins A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nut ...

Yello Yello is a Swiss electronic music band, which formed in Zürich in 1979. For most of the band's history, Yello has been a duo consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank; founding member Carlos Perón left in 1983. Their sound is often charac ...

References

External links

The Smash Records Story from BSN Pubs

A discography of Smash albums

A biography of Pete Drake

{{Authority control American record labels Record labels established in 1961 Record labels disestablished in 1970 Record labels established in 1991 Record labels disestablished in 1996 Re-established companies 1961 establishments in the United States Philips

History

Artists

See also

References

External links