Sunflower Records was a

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

-based

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, ...

founded by

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

Mack David Mack David (July 5, 1912 – December 30, 1993) was an American lyricist and songwriter, best known for his work in film and television, with a career spanning the period between the early 1940s and the early 1970s. David was credited with writing ...

and

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

veteran Danny Kessler that operated from

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

. The label was distributed by

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

. Sunflower issued fewer than 30

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

and a dozen

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Albums

Early in its operation, Sunflower obtained the rights to some 1966

vintage In winemaking, vintage is the process of picking grapes to create wine. A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine ...

concert recordings by the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

. They issued these as the albums ''

Vintage Dead ''Vintage Dead'' is a live album by the rock group the Grateful Dead. It was recorded at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, California, in late 1966 (thought to be September 16, 1966), and released in October 1970. ''Vintage Dead'' was produ ...

'' (SUN-5001) and ''

Historic Dead ''Historic Dead'' is a live album by the rock group the Grateful Dead. It was recorded at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, California in late 1966, and released in June 1971. History ''Historic Dead'' was produced as a vinyl LP on the Sun ...

'' (SNF-5004), both of which made the

record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, ofte ...

s. They followed the first Grateful Dead LP with another live set, ''Live At The Family Dog'' (SUN-5002) from popular performer Danny Cox, who reminded listeners of the

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

era. Another artist was

Randy Edelman Randy Edelman (born June 10, 1947) is an American musician, Record producer, producer, and composer and Conducting, conductor for Film score, film and television. He began his career as a member of Broadway theatre, Broadway's pit orchestras; he ...

, who would later find success in writing songs picked up by more famous artists such as

Barry Manilow Barry Manilow ( ; born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer with a career that spans over sixty years. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", "Looks Like We Made It", "Brandy (Scott ...

. Edelman's debut album, Sunflower SNF-5005, was released in 1971.

Singles

Sunflower Records' first single, "Song Of A Thousand Voices"/ "You Can Cry If You Want To" (Sunflower 101), was by Fearless Fradkin a/k/a/

Les Fradkin Les Fradkin (born 1951) is an American MIDI guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He is best known for being a member of the original cast of the hit Broadway show ''Beatlemania''. In addition to playing MIDI guitar, ...

and the third (Sunflower 103) was "Hippie Lady" / "Patty Cake" by the Yummies, both of which surfaced as regional hits in various sections of the US in fall 1970. By the time they reached #105, they came up with a fictitious artist called

Daddy Dewdrop Daddy Dewdrop is a pseudonym for the American songwriter Richard "Dick" Monda (born 1940, Cleveland, Ohio, United States). He is best known for his 1971 hit "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)". Biography Monda's family moved from Ohio to Calif ...

, who coupled "

Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It) "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)" is a song written by Janice Lee Gwin and Linda Martin and performed by Daddy Dewdrop. It was featured on his 1971 album, ''Daddy Dewdrop''. The lyrics in the verses are spoken, rather than sung. "Chick-A-Bo ...

" with the children's tune " John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith". Surprisingly, the song "Chick-A-Boom," a wry

sexual fantasy A sexual fantasy, or erotic fantasy, is an Autoeroticism, autoerotic mental image or pattern of thought that stirs a person's Human sexuality, sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual Fantasy (psychology), fantasy can be crea ...

put to music, jumped into the national top-10, the biggest hit the label ever had. The Daddy Dewdrop album, which followed the successful single, was a light-hearted, if not lightweight, effort that sealed the fate of Daddy Dewdrop as a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

, never to be heard from again. The follow-up single, "The March of the White Corpuscles"/"Fox Huntin'" (Sunflower 111), sank without a trace.

Other artists

Other notable artists on the label included

Jasper Wrath Jasper Wrath was a progressive rock band from New Haven, Connecticut, that was active throughout the 1970s. They were founded by Jeff Cannata, who would later go on to form the 1980s band Arc Angel. The band also featured James Christian, who ...

, Storm (featuring songwriter

Larry Weiss Laurence D. "Larry" Weiss (born March 25, 1941) is an American songwriter and musician. He wrote " Rhinestone Cowboy", a US no.1 hit for Glen Campbell in 1975; and co-wrote " Bend Me, Shape Me", " Hi Ho Silver Lining" and several other internatio ...

Tony Scotti Anthony Joseph Scotti (born December 22, 1939) is an American actor, television and film producer, and co-founder of Scotti Brothers Records. He is married to French singer Sylvie Vartan. Early life Scotti and his brother Ben both played foot ...

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performa ...

and R.B. Greaves. The last single to make the charts was Sunflower 118, "Love Me, Love Me, Love" by

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Frank Mills Frank Mills (born June 27, 1942) is a Canadian pianist and recording artist, best known for his solo instrumental hit " Music Box Dancer". Early life and education Mills was born in Montreal, Quebec. He was raised in Verdun, Quebec and started p ...

, which reached the top 50 in early 1972. Mills was to make a top-3 record, "Music Box Dancer," about seven years later on

Polydor Records Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

References

{{Authority control Defunct record labels of the United States MGM Records Record labels established in 1970 Record labels disestablished in 1972

Albums

Singles

Other artists

See also

References