Florence Greenberg
Encyclopedia
Florence Greenberg was an American record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 owner, music executive
Music executive
A music executive or record executive is person within a record label who works in senior management, making executive decisions over the label's artists...

 and a record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

.

Life and career

Greenberg lived as a housewife Passaic, New Jersey
Passaic, New Jersey
Passaic is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 69,781, maintaining its status as the 15th largest municipality in New Jersey with an increase of 1,920 residents from the 2000 Census population of 67,861...

. In the mid-1950s, she already had two children, Mary Jane and Stanley, who were both in school, so she had nothing to do at home during the day. A friend of her husband helped her to get in the record business. Although she didn't have any background in music, she got fascinated and so Tiara Records
Tiara Records
Tiara Records was a record label, started in 1958 by Florence Greenberg. When she had a local hit with I Met Him on a Sunday by The Shirelles, she sold the group with the label to Decca Records for $4000. With that money she started Scepter Records in 1959....

 was born. Greenberg was in her mid-thirties when she got interested in the record business. After a performance by a group of students at Passaic High School
Passaic High School
Passaic High School is a four-year community public high school, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Passaic, in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Passaic City School District...

 in 1957, Greenberg's daughter Mary Jane convinced her that she had to hear the group sing.

In 1958, she started her own record label, called Tiara Records
Tiara Records
Tiara Records was a record label, started in 1958 by Florence Greenberg. When she had a local hit with I Met Him on a Sunday by The Shirelles, she sold the group with the label to Decca Records for $4000. With that money she started Scepter Records in 1959....

. The first song recorded and released on the label was I Met Him On a Sunday, by The Shirelles
The Shirelles
The Shirelles were an African-American girl group that achieved popularity in the early 1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens , Doris Coley , Addie "Micki" Harris , and Beverly Lee...

, the same year as the company was started. Just as the record started to break locally, Greenberg sold the company with The Shirelles' contract to Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 for $4,000. With that money, she started a new label in 1959, called Scepter Records
Scepter Records
Scepter Records is a record company founded in 1959 by Florence Greenberg. She had just sold Tiara Records with The Shirelles for $4000 to Decca Records. When The Shirelles didn't produce any hits for Decca, they were given back to Greenberg, who promptly signed them. By 1961 Greenberg launched a...

, which became one of the leading independent record labels in the 1960s
1960s in music
For music from a year in the 1960s, go to 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 1960s....

. In 1961, Greenberg launched another record label, called Wand Records
Wand Records
Wand Records was started by Florence Greenberg in 1961 as a subsidiary of Scepter Records. In 1976 Florence Greenberg decided to retire from the business and sold her record labels to Springboard International. When Springboard went bankrupt, Gusto Records acquired the catalog.Artists on Wand...

, as a subsidiary of Scepter Records. After a few years, Greenberg had established herself as a record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 and music executive
Music executive
A music executive or record executive is person within a record label who works in senior management, making executive decisions over the label's artists...

 for several popular singers in the 60s, such as: Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....

, The Shirelles
The Shirelles
The Shirelles were an African-American girl group that achieved popularity in the early 1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens , Doris Coley , Addie "Micki" Harris , and Beverly Lee...

, Tammi Terrell
Tammi Terrell
Thomasina Winifred Montgomery, known as Tammi Terrell was an American singer-songwriter most notable for her association with Motown and her duets with Marvin Gaye. As a teenager she recorded for the Scepter–Wand, Try Me and Checker record labels. She signed with Motown in April 1965 and enjoyed...

, Chuck Jackson
Chuck Jackson
Chuck Jackson is an R&B singer who was one of the first artists to record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David successfully. He has performed with moderate success since 1961...

, B.J. Thomas and many others.

In 1965, Greenberg received an offer of $6 million for Scepter from Gulf+Western
Gulf+Western
Gulf and Western Industries, Inc., for a number of years known as Gulf+Western, was an American conglomerate.- History :Gulf and Western's prosaic origins date to a manufacturer named Michigan Bumper Co. founded in 1934, though Charles Bluhdorn treated his 1958 takeover of what was then Michigan...

, an offer that she rejected and later regretted not accepting. Greenberg retired from business in 1976, and sold all of her labels to Springboard International. Unfortunately, the reissue pressings made by Springboard International were cheap, unlike the first-class records put out by Greenberg.

Death and legacy

Greenberg died on November 2, 1995, of heart failure at Hackensack University Medical Center
Hackensack University Medical Center
Hackensack University Medical Center is a 775-bed non-profit, research and teaching hospital located seven miles west of New York City, in Hackensack, New Jersey, providing tertiary and healthcare needs for northern New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area...

. She was 82, and lived in Teaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, and a suburb in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 39,776, making it the second-most populous among the 70 municipalities in Bergen County....

.

In 2011, a Broadway show based on Greenberg's life called Baby It's You!
Baby It's You!
Baby It's You! is a jukebox musical written by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, featuring the music of the 1960s pop group The Shirelles. The show "tells the story of Florence Greenberg and Scepter Records, the label Florence started when she signed The Shirelles." After several tryouts and...

debuted starring Beth Leavel
Beth Leavel
-Biography:Leavel was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. She attended Meredith College, earning a degree in social work. She completed a graduate theatre degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1980. She acted during college, appearing in productions such as Cabaret and Hello,...

as Greenberg.
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