Saul "Sol" Rabinowitz (April 26, 1924 – March 16, 2013) was an American

music business The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

executive. He was the founder and lead producer of

Baton Records Baton Records was an American, New York City based independent record label, launched in 1954 by record producer Sol Rabinowitz, mainly to record and release rhythm and blues music. Baton's first record, and subsequent hit, was "A Thousand Stars" ...

, an independent

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 ...

that recorded

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed p ...

music in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

during the 1950s.

Biography

He was born in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

, New York City, the son of a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n-born

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * Som ...

mother, and trained as a printer before joining the Army Air Corps during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He developed an interest in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

and blues music, and began visiting clubs in New York. After the end of the war, he started work as a record salesman, before setting up Baton Records in 1954. His first record, "A Thousand Stars" by the Rivileers, was a regional hit. Over the next few years, the label was responsible for several moderate sized R&B hits, for

The Hearts The Jaynetts were an American girl group based in the Bronx, New York, who became a one-hit wonder in 1963 with the song "Sally Go 'Round the Roses", which reached No. 2 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Career Beginnings In 1954, Bronx-native Ze ...

, Ann Cole - including the original version of "

Got My Mojo Working "Got My Mojo Working" is a blues song written by Preston "Red" Foster and first recorded by R&B singer Ann Cole in 1956. Foster's lyrics describe several amulets or talismans, called ''mojo'', which are associated with hoodoo, an early Afric ...

" - and

Noble "Thin Man" Watts Noble "Thin Man" Watts (February 17, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was an American blues, jump blues and rhythm and blues saxophonist. He primarily played tenor saxophone. The AllMusic journalist, Bill Dahl, considered Watts "one of the most incend ...

.John Broven with Richard Tapp, ''Sol Rabinowitz's Baton Records'',

Juke Blues ''Juke Blues'' is a British magazine covering blues, R&B, gospel, soul, zydeco and jazz. It was established in 1985 in London by Cilla Huggins, John Broven and Bez Turner, and is now published in Bath, Somerset, England. Cilla Huggins has been ...

#72, 2012, pp. 12-22Biography
Allmusic.com; retrieved April 12, 2013. He closed the business in 1959, setting up Sir Records, which was unsuccessful. In 1961 he joined

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, and was responsible for the relaunch of the

OKeh Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

label, and for the development of the Epic label. He was appointed a vice-president at CBS International in 1966, and set up a new division of the company in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

before retiring in 1986. After his retirement he lived in

Cary, North Carolina Cary is a town in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Raleigh–Cary, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2020 Census, its population was 174,721, making it the seventh largest muni ...

. He died in 2013 at the age of 88. Marv Goldberg & Marcia Vance, ''Baton Records''
retrieved March 28, 2014.

References

1924 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American Jews American people of Latvian-Jewish descent American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Record producers from New York (state) People from the Bronx Businesspeople from New York City 20th-century American businesspeople United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 21st-century American Jews {{Music-producer-stub