J & S Records

J & S Records was a New York record label started in 1956 and continued through to the 1960s. The owner was Zelma “Zell” Sanders (1922-1976) one of the few woman label owners in the record business. In the early 1950,s she was managing a girl group The Hearts She arranged a contract for them on NY’s Baton Recordsand hired and fired members till she got the mix she wanted. In mid 1956 she decided to start her own label J&S Records The Hearts finally move over from Baton to J&S in mid 1957.Many of her big selling records were snapped up by Chess Records and distributed nationally but Zell didn’t just use Chess-she leased to many companies who would spread her product better than she was able. Gone Records and ABC Paramount Records also were involved