Dot Records
Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B (later black gospel) air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen. The label was known to hire artists to record remakes of their previous hits.
The original headquarters of Dot Records were in Gallatin, Tennessee, but in 1956 the company moved to Hollywood, California.
In its early years, the label specialized in artists from around Tennessee. Then it branched out to include musicians and singers from across the United States. It recorded a variety of country music, rhythm & blues, polkas & waltzes, gospel music, rockabilly, pop music, and early rock & roll. After the move to Hollywood, Dot Records bought up many recordings by small local independent labels and issued them nationally.
In 1957, Wood sold ownership of the label to Paramount Pictures, but he remained the president of the company for another decade. In 1958 Dot Records started a subsidiary label, Hamilton Records, for rockabilly and rhythm & blues. They distributed Jeff Barry's Steed Records and also distributed the only record from Carnival Records. In addition Dot Records created two other subsidiary labels: Crystalette and Acta. In 1967 Dot Records acquired the DynoVoice label from Bell Records. In 1967 Randy Wood left to co-found the Ranwood Records label with Lawrence Welk.
In 1968, after Paramount was bought out by Gulf and Western, the Dot Records label was rebranded as a country music label under the umbrella of Famous Music Group. This included the Paramount, Neighborhood, Blue Thumb and Sire labels. In 1974 the label was bought by ABC Records, which discontinued the label in 1977. ABC Records itself was sold to MCA Records in 1979. The Dot/Paramount catalog is now owned by Universal Music Group, with Geffen Records (which absorbed MCA Records) managing the pop/rock back catalog, and MCA Nashville Records managing the country back catalog.
Dot Records artists
- Steve Allen
- Andrews Sisters
- Pat Boone
- Walter Brennan
- The Chantays
- Roy Clark
- Sanford Clark
- The Dartells
- Lonnie Donegan
- Donna Fargo
- Fear Itself
- Freddy Fender
- Fontane Sisters
- Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs
- Bonnie Guitar
- Roy Head (The Story of Roy Head and The Traits)
- The Hilltoppers
- Tab Hunter
- Gunilla Hutton
- The Illusion (Steed)
- Tommy Jackson
- Jack Kerouac[1]
- Anita Kerr
- Andy Kim (Steed)
- Sonny Knight
- Lennon Sisters
- Liberace
- Jim Lowe
- Robin Luke
- Johnny Maddox
- Barbara Mandrell
- Wink Martindale
- Robin McNamara (Steed)
- Mills Brothers
- Vaughn Monroe
- Leonard Nimoy
- Nervous Norvus
- Larry Novak
- Tommy Overstreet
- Eddie Peabody
- Louis Prima
- Jimmie Rodgers
- Mitch Ryder (DynoVoice)
- Lalo Schifrin
- John Serry, Sr.
- Six Fat Dutchmen
- Keely Smith
- Dodie Stevens (Crystalette & Dot)
- Gale Storm
- The Surfaris
- Diana Trask
- The Counts
- Billy Vaughn
- Robin Ward
- Lawrence Welk
- Margaret Whiting
References
- ^ Birmingham, Jed (2006-03-22). "Beat Vinyl: Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker" (HTML). Realitystudio.org. Supervert. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
The ultimate Beat Generation collectible on vinyl might be Jack Kerouac's Poetry of the Beat Generation on Dot Records.