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King Records question.

DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
edited January 2008 in Strut Central
Anyone know who owns the old King masters from the 1950s (I don't mean the James Brown stuff, as I know that's owned by Universal)? A friend of a friend is putting together a compilation of jump/jazz/r&b from the late 40's and early 50's and is trying to find out if a specific track from about 1952/1953 is owned by anyone in particular, or if ownership is likely to be in the public domain? Apparently it's his first shot at doing anything like this, so he's a bit concerned about the ethical/legal issues that might arise if he simply bootlegged the shit like a lot of other people might. The tune is "Last Call For Alcohol" by Hot Lips Page (King 4584), so if anyone has any pointers as to where he should start looking for the owners, please either post it up or hit me on the PM. Thanks.

  Comments

  • SebastianFSebastianF 20 Posts
    Have a talk with the people at:

    http://www.acerecords.co.uk

    They've put out lots of 50s/60s non-James Brown King/Federal/etc. stuff and it's all 100% legal. Don't know if they own the rights to the catalogue, but they don't seem to have much trouble to license this material (if that's the case).
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    Have a talk with the people at:

    http://www.acerecords.co.uk

    They've put out lots of 50s/60s non-James Brown King/Federal/etc. stuff and it's all 100% legal. Don't know if they own the rights to the catalogue, but they don't seem to have much trouble to license this material (if that's the case).

    Good call, and thanks. I've got a friend who's done some work for Ace, so he might have a few ideas.
  • SebastianFSebastianF 20 Posts
    Contact Tony Rounce or Ady Croasdell and I'm sure they will have an answer for you in less than a day. Extremely nice and helpful people.

    Addresses:

    [email]tony.rounce@acerecords.co.uk[/email]

    [email]ady.croasdell@acerecords.co.uk[/email]
  • yoigotbeatsyoigotbeats 1,667 Posts
    in other king quandaries: What's the deal with the different label colors? I have some JB's related stuff that have blue, red & green labels. Any idea which came first and the science behind it?
  • kalakala 3,362 Posts
    yellow too [color:yellow] [/color]
  • tuneuptuneup 586 Posts


    The tune is "Last Call For Alcohol" by Hot Lips Page


    please tell your friend that they have excellent taste, as this is one of the best tracks of that era. Also pass along good luck on the project.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Contact Tony Rounce or Ady Croasdell and I'm sure they will have an answer for you in less than a day. Extremely nice and helpful people.

    Addresses:

    [email]tony.rounce@acerecords.co.uk[/email]

    [email]ady.croasdell@acerecords.co.uk[/email]

    And IN THE USA, the King masters are owned by Gusto Records, which I believe is in Nashville, Tennessee.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I think King was pressing up the red, blue, white, black, and orange-brown labels simultaneously without rhyme or reason (I've never seen green King).

    yellow too [color:yellow] [/color]

    Only on the DJ copies.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    I think King was pressing up the red, blue, white, black, and orange-brown labels simultaneously without rhyme or reason (I've never seen green King).

    yellow too [color:yellow] [/color]

    Only on the DJ copies.

    I'll look and see my references later. In the early days Black was Mono, Blue was Stereo, right?

    Later days they kept changing the labels, but would still use older lables even after the change.

    There were a bunch of owner ship changes in the late 60s and early 70s, all well documented.

    It's crazy that Gusto still owns that stuff. Who is Gusto? Do they own Starday too?
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I think King was pressing up the red, blue, white, black, and orange-brown labels simultaneously without rhyme or reason (I've never seen green King).

    yellow too [color:yellow] [/color]

    Only on the DJ copies.

    I'll look and see my references later. In the early days Black was Mono, Blue was Stereo, right?

    Yeah, those were the albums. But on the singles, there was a period there between 1967-71 where the label designs on the 45's kept changing randomly.

    It's crazy that Gusto still owns that stuff. Who is Gusto? Do they own Starday too?

    Right, the whole Starday-King conglomerate is a Gusto thing now.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gusto_Records
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    Thanks for your input, people - the Strut comes through again.

    I've found some contact details for Gusto and passed them on.
  • Rich45sRich45s 327 Posts
    Not that specific track, but a lot of his pre-50s works are owned by ASV Limited, which was a subsiduary of Sanctuary, so now owned by Universal

    Also theres quite a few tracks of his upto SONY BMG to so theres a couple of starting points
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    I think King was pressing up the red, blue, white, black, and orange-brown labels simultaneously without rhyme or reason (I've never seen green King).

    yellow too [color:yellow] [/color]

    Only on the DJ copies.

    I'll look and see my references later. In the early days Black was Mono, Blue was Stereo, right?

    Yeah, those were the albums. But on the singles, there was a period there between 1967-71 where the label designs on the 45's kept changing randomly.

    It's crazy that Gusto still owns that stuff. Who is Gusto? Do they own Starday too?

    Right, the whole Starday-King conglomerate is a Gusto thing now.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gusto_Records

    I love wikipedia. That short entry told me all I wanted to know about Gusto.

    Check out this list of record labels:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_record_labels
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