King Records is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 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,...

, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan

Syd Nathan

Syd Nathan was an American hillbilly, country & western and rhythm and blues record producer. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He started the Queen record label in 1943. In 1947 it was renamed King Records. James Brown's first single "Please, Please, Please" was released on their subsidiary label...

 and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

.

History

At first it specialized in country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

, at the time still known as "hillbilly music." King advertised, "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly -- If it's a Hillbilly, it's a King." One of the label's most important hits was "I'm Using My Bible for a Road Map" by Reno and Smiley

Reno and Smiley

Reno and Smiley were a musical duo composed of Don Reno and Red Smiley. They were one of the most acclaimed duos in country music of the 1950s and early '60s.-How They Met:...

. Very important recordings in this field were done by The Delmore Brothers

The Delmore Brothers

Alton Delmore and Rabon Delmore , billed as The Delmore Brothers, were country music pioneers and stars of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s...

 and Wayne Raney

Wayne Raney

Wayne Raney was an American country singer and harmonica player.-Biography:Raney was born on a farm with a foot deformity and could not do heavy labor. After learning to play harmonica at an early age, he moved to Piedras Negras, Mexico at age 13, where he played on radio station XEPN...

 featuring their close harmony vocals, harmonica, electric guitar and string band playing. The Delmores also did their country boogie material on this label which was a precursor to rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

. King ventured into the rockabilly genre and several King artists such as Bill Beach are in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Beach's song, "Peg Pants" also experienced success during the European resurgence of rockabilly in the late 1980s. Likewise, singer-pianist Moon Mullican

Moon Mullican

Aubrey Wilson Mullican , known as Moon Mullican, was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. However, he also sang and played jazz, rock 'n' roll and the blues...

 recorded a country boogie style that was a precursor to piano-based rock 'n' roll. Major country hits on the label included "I'll Sail My Ship Alone", "Blues Stay Away from Me", "Chew Tobacco Rag", "Eight More Miles to Louisville", "Sweeter Than the Flowers" and "Cherokee Boogie".

The company also had a "Race Records" (African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

) label, Queen Records (which was melded into the King label within a year or two) and most notably (starting in 1950) Federal Records

Federal Records

Federal Records was an American record label founded in 1950 as a subsidiary of Syd Nathan's King Records and based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was run by famed record producer Ralph Bass and was mainly devoted to Rhythm & Blues releases. But also hillbilly and rockabilly recordings were released,...

 which launched the singing career of James Brown

James Brown

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...

. In the 1950s, this side of the business outpaced the hillbilly recordings. King Records was highly successful after the hiring of Ralph Bass

Ralph Bass

Ralph Bass , born in The Bronx, New York of an Italian-American-Catholic father, and a German-American-Jewish mother, was an influential rhythm and blues record producer and talent scout for several independent labels and was responsible for many hit records. He was a pioneer in bringing black...

 and recorded R&B artists like Joe Tex

Joe Tex

Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...

, Valerie Carr

Valerie Carr

Valerie Carr is an African-American singer. Her most fondly remembered single is probably "I Talk Too Much," her answer song to Joe Jones' 1960 hit, "You Talk Too Much".-Career:...

, Roy Brown

Roy Brown (blues musician)

Roy James Brown was an American R&B singer, songwriter and musician, who had an influence on the early development of rock and roll music. His "Good Rocking Tonight" was covered by Wynonie Harris, Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, and the rock group Montrose. In addition,...

, Jack Dupree

Champion Jack Dupree

William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack Dupree, was an American blues pianist. His birth date is disputed, given as July 4, July 10, and July 23, in the years 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died on January 21, 1992.-Biography:...

, Otis Williams & the Charms, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters

Hank Ballard

Hank Ballard , born John Henry Kendricks, was a rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and one of the first proto-rock 'n' roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s...

, Ivory Joe Hunter

Ivory Joe Hunter

Ivory Joe Hunter was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, and pianist. After a series of hits on the US R&B chart starting in the mid 1940s, he became more widely known for his hit recording, "Since I Met You Baby" . He was billed as The Baron of the Boogie, and also known as The...

 and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. They also had a long legal battle with James Brown, after he repeatedly violated his King contract.
King also bought out several other record labels, including De Luxe Records

De Luxe Records

De Luxe Records was a Linden, New Jersey, United States based record label formed in 1944 by brothers David and Jules Braun. The label flourished in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1947, Syd Nathan, the founder and owner of King Records, purchased a majority interest in De Luxe. In 1949, Nathan moved the...

 (in 1952), and Bethlehem Records

Bethlehem Records

Bethlehem Records was a record label based in New York and Hollywood founded by Gus Wildi in 1953. It was bought by King Records in the early 1960s....

.

One of the most successful features of the label was its encouragement of the mixing of the country and R&B sides of the label. Many of the label's country singers such as Moon Mullican, Delmore Brothers, Hawkshaw Hawkins

Hawkshaw Hawkins

Harold Franklin Hawkins , better known as Hawkshaw Hawkins, was an American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 60s known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honky tonk...

 and Zeb Turner

Zeb Turner

Zeb Turner was an American boogie-woogie songwriter and guitarist, and pioneer of rockabilly.He was born William Edward Grishaw in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States, and he renamed himself after a favorite piece of music, "The Zeb Turner Stomp"...

 covered many of the label's R&B songs such as "Grandpa Stole my Baby", "Rocket to the Moon", "Bloodshot Eyes", and "I Got Loaded". Also, some of the R&B artists also provided pure country songs such as Bubber Johnson's "Keep a Light in the Window for Me", which was recorded by Johnson and made famous by Moon Mullican. Likewise, R&B artists covered bluesy country artists' songs such as Wynonie Harris

Wynonie Harris

Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley...

's covers of "Triflin' Woman Blues" and "Bloodshot Eyes".

During the 1950s, King also distributed their own line of portable phonographs.

King Records was unique among the independent labels because the entire production process was done in house. That included recording, mastering, printing, pressing and shipping. This gave Nathan complete control so a record could be recorded one day and shipped to radio stations the next day in quantities as few as 50. That's why non-selling King records became so rare.

When Nathan died in 1968, King Records was acquired by Hal Neely's Starday Records and relaunched as 'Starday and King Records'. The legendary songwriting duo Leiber & Stoller

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Jerome "Jerry" Leiber and Mike Stoller were American songwriting and record producing partners. Stoller was the composer and Leiber the lyricist. Their most famous songs include "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock", "Kansas City", "Stand By Me" Jerome "Jerry" Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011)...

 bought the label in 1970, but sold it soon afterwards to Lin Broadcasting which in turn sold it to Tennessee Recording & Publishing, owned by Freddy Bienstock

Freddy Bienstock

Freddy Bienstock was an American music publisher who built his career in music by being the person responsible for soliciting and selecting songs for Elvis Presley's early albums and films.-Early life:...

, Hal Neely, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller; who sold it in 1974 to Gusto Records

Gusto Records

Gusto Records is a Nashville, Tennessee based record company specializing in reissuing and licensing recordings from its vast catalogue of music from acquired record labels and their own studio recordings....

. In 1971, James Brown

James Brown

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...

's recording contract and back catalogue were sold to Polydor Records

Polydor Records

Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...

. Since 2001, Collectables Records

Collectables Records

Collectables is a reissue record label founded in 1980 by Jerry Greene. Greene was previously associated with New York City's Times Square Record Shop, Philadelphia's Record Museum retail chain, and the Lost Nite and Crimson record labels....

 has been remastering and reissuing the King Records catalogue. Several compilation CD's are available featuring King Recording Artist, specifically "King Rockabilly", released in 2004. King Records is now only used as a record label under the parent company, Gusto Records.

The former King Records headquarters at 1540 Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati is still standing and has an historical marker placed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...

 in 2008.

King Records artists

• Kay Adams
• Rush Adams
• Tex Atchison
• Bailes Brothers
• Hank Ballard
  Hank Ballard
  Hank Ballard , born John Henry Kendricks, was a rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and one of the first proto-rock 'n' roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s...
  
  
• Arne Barnett
• Curt Barrett
• Billy Barton
• Ralph Bass
  Ralph Bass
  Ralph Bass , born in The Bronx, New York of an Italian-American-Catholic father, and a German-American-Jewish mother, was an influential rhythm and blues record producer and talent scout for several independent labels and was responsible for many hit records. He was a pioneer in bringing black...
  
  
• Bill Beach
• Boyd Bennett
  Boyd Bennett
  Boyd Bennett was an American rockabilly songwriter and singer.His two biggest hit singles, both written and performed by him, were "Seventeen" with his band, the Rockets ; and "My Boy, Flat Top" . "Seventeen" reached No. 16 in the UK Singles Chart in December 1955...
  
  
• Blind Blake
  Blind Blake
  "Blind" Blake was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist.-Biography:...
  
  
• Jimmie Blue
• Bonnie Lou
  Bonnie Lou
  Bonnie Lou is an American rock and roll and country music singer. During the mid-1950s, Bonnie Lou helped pave the way for future female artists as one of rock and roll's first female singers...
  
  
• Earl Bostic
  Earl Bostic
  Earl Bostic was an American jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his...
  
  
• Duke Bowman
• Donnie Bowshier
• Bob Braun
  Bob Braun
  Bob Braun was a local television and radio personality in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was born in Ludlow, Kentucky....
  
  
• James Brown
  James Brown
  James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
  
  
• Roy Brown
  Roy Brown
  Roy Brown may refer to:*Roy Brown , English professional footballer who was the first black player to play for Stoke City.*Roy Brown , English footballer...
  
  
• Brown's Ferry Four
• Neal Burris
• Cliff Butler
• Jack Cardwell
• Bill Carlisle
  Bill Carlisle
  William Toliver Carlisle was an American country music singer, songwriter, comedian and guitarist popular in the late 1940s and 1950s but who influenced the genre for more than 50 years. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.-Biography:Bill Carlisle was born in Wakefield, Kentucky...
  
  
• Valerie Carr
  Valerie Carr
  Valerie Carr is an African-American singer. Her most fondly remembered single is probably "I Talk Too Much," her answer song to Joe Jones' 1960 hit, "You Talk Too Much".-Career:...
  
  
• Mark Carter
• Petula Clark
  Petula Clark
  Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
  
  
• Wayne Cochran
  Wayne Cochran
  Wayne Cochran is an American soul singer, known for his outlandish outfits and white pompadour. He is sometimes referred to as The White Knight of Soul....
  
  
• David Allan Coe
  David Allan Coe
  David Allan Coe is an American outlaw country music singer who achieved popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. He has written and performed over 280 original songs throughout his career...
  
  
• Emil Coleman
• Cowboy Copas
  Cowboy Copas
  Lloyd Estel Copas , known by his stage name Cowboy Copas, was an American country music singer popular from the 1940s until his death in the 1963 plane crash that also killed country stars Patsy Cline and Hawkshaw Hawkins. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry.-Biography:Copas was born in 1913 in...
  
  
• The Cope Brothers
• Carolina Cotton
• Country Paul
  Carolina Slim
  Carolina Slim was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer. His best known tracks were "Black Cat Trail" and "I'll Never Walk in Your Door". He used various pseudonyms during his relatively brief recording career, including Country Paul, Jammin' Jim, Lazy Slim Jim and Paul Howard...
  
  
• Mel Cox
• Crash Craddock
• Bruce Culver
• Mac Curtis
  Mac Curtis
  Wesley Erwin "Mac" Curtis, Jr. is an American rockabilly musician.Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Curtis began playing guitar at the age of 12, entering local talent competitions. He moved to Weatherford in 1954, and while there he formed a band with two classmates, Jim and Ken Galbraith...
  
  
• Delmore Brothers
• Cowboy Jack Derrick
• Al Dexter
  Al Dexter
  Al Dexter was an American country musician and songwriter. He is best known for "Pistol Packin' Mama," a 1944 hit that was one of the most popular recordings of the World War II years and later became a hit again with a cover by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters.-Biography:Born Clarence Albert...
  
  
• Jack Dupree

• Bill Doggett
  Bill Doggett
  Bill Doggett was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist. He is best known for his tracks, "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with The Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.-Biography:William Ballard Doggett was born in...
  
  
• Pop Eckler
• Red Egner
• Brother Claude Ely
  Claude Ely
  "Brother" Claude Ely was a religious singer-songwriter and a Pentecostal Holiness preacher.Brother Claude Daniel Ely, coined as the King Recording Label’s “Gospel Ranger” of the Appalachian Mountains, was born in Pucketts Creek, Virginia...
  
  
• Milton Estes
• Charlie Feathers
  Charlie Feathers
  Charles Arthur "Charlie" Feathers was an influential American rockabilly and country music performer.-Biography:...
  
  
• Irving Fields
  Irving Fields
  Irving Fields is an American pianist and lounge music artist who was born in New York City, New York. Some of his most noteworthy compositions include "Miami Beach Rhumba", "Managua, Nicaragua" and "Chantez, Chantez," covered by Dinah Shore in the 1940s.Fields' most famous album is Bagels &...
  
  
• Curley Fox
• Bobby Freeman
• Charlie Gore
• Shannon Grayson
• Rex Griffin
  Rex Griffin
  Alsie "Rex" Griffin was an American country musician and songwriter.-Early years:Griffin was born in Gadsden, Alabama as the second of seven children to Marion and Selma Griffin. He grew up on a farm and received little schooling, eventually finding work in the factory where his father worked as a...
  
  
• Hardrock Gunter
  Hardrock Gunter
  Sidney Louie Gunter Jr. , known as Hardrock Gunter, is a singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music at the turn of the 1950s prefigured rock and roll and rockabilly music....
  
  
• Wynonie Harris
  Wynonie Harris
  Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley...
  
  
• Esco Hankins
• Hawkshaw Hawkins
  Hawkshaw Hawkins
  Harold Franklin Hawkins , better known as Hawkshaw Hawkins, was an American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 60s known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honky tonk...
  
  
• Herb and Kay
• Fiddlin' Red Herron
• Fairley Holden
• Sally Holmes
• Homer and Jethro
  Homer and Jethro
  Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. Haynes and Kenneth C. Burns , popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs...
  
  
• Earl Hooker
  Earl Hooker
  Earl Hooker was an American Chicago blues guitarist, perhaps best known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", Hooker performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker as well as fronting his own bands...
  
  
• Paul Howard
  Paul Howard (musician)
  Paul Leroy "Ox Blood" Howard was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist....
  
  
• Billy Hughes
  Billy Hughes
  William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
  
  
• Ivory Joe Hunter
  Ivory Joe Hunter
  Ivory Joe Hunter was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, and pianist. After a series of hits on the US R&B chart starting in the mid 1940s, he became more widely known for his hit recording, "Since I Met You Baby" . He was billed as The Baron of the Boogie, and also known as The...
  
  
• Bill Hutlo
• The Ink Spots
  The Ink Spots
  The Ink Spots were a popular vocal group in the 1930s and 1940s that helped define the musical genre that led to rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and the subgenre doo-wop...
  
  
• Louis Innis
• Little Willie John
  Little Willie John
  William Edward John was better known by his stage name Little Willie John. Many sources erroneously give his second name as Edgar...
  
  
• Johnny & Jack
• Rome Johnson
• Ann Jones
• Grandpa Jones
  Grandpa Jones
  Louis Marshall Jones , known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer...
  
  
• Howdy Kemp
• Art Kibbee
• Freddie King
  Freddie King
  Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
  
  
• Nelson King
• Steve Lawrence
  Steve Lawrence
  Steve Lawrence is an American singer and actor, perhaps best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as "Steve and Eydie"...
  
  
• Ann Leaf
• Lightcrust Doughboys
• Charlie Linville

• Buddy Livingstone
• Shorty Long
  Shorty Long
  Frederick Earl "Shorty" Long was an American soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer for Motown's Soul Records imprint...
  
  
• Trini Lopez
  Trini Lopez
  Trini Lopez is an American singer, guitarist and actor.-Career:Lopez was born in Dallas, Texas, on Ashland Street in the Little Mexico neighborhood. He began his entertainment career in Dallas playing at the Vegas Club, a nightclub owned by Jack Ruby...
  
  
• J. E. Mainer
  J. E. Mainer
  J. E. Mainer was an American old time fiddler who followed in the wake of Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers.-Biography:...
  
  
• Wade Mainer
  Wade Mainer
  Wade Mainer was an American singer and banjoist. With his band, the Sons of the Mountaineers, he is credited with bridging the gap between old-time mountain music and Bluegrass and is sometimes called the "Grandfather of Bluegrass." In addition, he innovated a two-finger banjo fingerpicking style,...
  
  
• Kitty Mann
• Eddie Martin
• Jimmy Martin
  Jimmy Martin
  Jimmy Martin was an American bluegrass musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass".-Early years:Born James H. Martin in Sneedville, Tennessee. Jimmy Martin was born into the hard farming life of rural East Tennessee. He grew up near Sneedville, singing in church and with friends from surrounding...
  
  
• Luke McDaniel
  Luke McDaniel
  Luke McDaniel , who also recorded under the stage name Jeff Daniels, was an American country and rockabilly music singer and songwriter.-Biography:...
  
  
• Minnie Pearl
  Minnie Pearl
  Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
  
  
• Deke Moffitt
• Marvin Montgomery
• Clyde Moody
  Clyde Moody
  Clyde Moody , also known as the "Hillbilly Waltz King" and sometimes as "The Genial Gentleman of Country Music" was one the great founders of American Bluegrass music....
  
  
• Lattie Moore
• Moon Mullican
  Moon Mullican
  Aubrey Wilson Mullican , known as Moon Mullican, was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. However, he also sang and played jazz, rock 'n' roll and the blues...
  
  
• Bud Newman
• Mac O'Dell
• Matty O'Neil
• Jimmy Osborne
• Hot Lips Page
• Randall Parker
• Hank Penny
  Hank Penny
  Herbert Clayton Penny was an accomplished banjo player and practitioner of western swing. He worked as a comedian best known for his backwoods character "That Plain Ol' Country Boy" on TV with Spade Cooley...
  
  
• Red Perkins
  Red Perkins
  Frank Shelton "Red" Perkins was a bandleader of one of the oldest Omaha-based territory bands, The Dixie Ramblers. Born in Muchakinock on December 26, 1890, Perkins' band was based in the city's Near North Side. National Orchestra Service booked his gigs...
  
  
• Jack Perry
• Teddy Phillips
• Pied Pipers
• Dewey Price
• Tommy Prisco
• Reno and Smiley
  Reno and Smiley
  Reno and Smiley were a musical duo composed of Don Reno and Red Smiley. They were one of the most acclaimed duos in country music of the 1950s and early '60s.-How They Met:...
  
  
• Wayne Raney
  Wayne Raney
  Wayne Raney was an American country singer and harmonica player.-Biography:Raney was born on a farm with a foot deformity and could not do heavy labor. After learning to play harmonica at an early age, he moved to Piedras Negras, Mexico at age 13, where he played on radio station XEPN...
  
  
• Don Reno
  Don Reno
  Don Wesley Reno was an American bluegrass and country musician best known as a banjo player in partnership with Red Smiley, and later with guitarist Bill Harrell.-Biography:...
  
   and Red Smiley
• Johnny Rion
• Kenny Roberts
  Kenny Roberts (musician)
  Kenny Roberts was a country music singer, born in Lenoir City, Tennessee, but raised on a farm outside of Greenfield, Massachusetts....
  
  
• Floyd Robinson
  Floyd Robinson
  Floyd Andrew Robinson is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox , Cincinnati Reds , Oakland Athletics , and Boston Red Sox...
  
  
• Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney
  Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
  
  
• Leon Rusk
  Leon Rusk
  Malcolm Leon Rusk was a 1940s country singer and music writer. He was born in Canyon, Texas and died, aged 28, in an accident near Tulia, Texas....
  
  
• Ralph Sanford
• Shelton Brothers
  Shelton Brothers
  The Shelton Brothers, Bob, Joe and Merle, were pioneer country musicians and renowned recording artists based out of Texas from the mid 1930s through the 1960s...
  
  
• Riley Shepard
• Sheppard Brothers

• Arthur Q. Smith
• Ronnie Speeks
• The Stanley Brothers
  The Stanley Brothers
  The Stanley Brothers were an American bluegrass duo made up of brothers Carter and Ralph Stanley.-Biography:Carter and Ralph Stanley hailed originally from Dickenson County, Virginia. The family soon moved to McClure, Virginia where their parents worked a small farm in the Clinch Mountains...
  
  
• Roy Starkey
• Ann Stevens
• April Stevens
  April Stevens
  April Stevens is an American singer.She has recorded since she was 15 years old. Her most popular solo recording was her RCA Victor recording of "I'm in Love Again" . Accompanied by an orchestra arranged and conducted by Henri René, Stevens' recording peaked at No...
  
  
• Redd Stewart
  Redd Stewart
  Henry Ellis Stewart , better known as Redd Stewart, was an American country music songwriter and recording artist who co-wrote "The Tennessee Waltz" with Pee Wee King in 1948.-Biography:...
  
  
• Ocie Stockard
• Billy Strickland
• The Swallows
• Swanee River Boys
• Joe Tex
  Joe Tex
  Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...
  
  
• Guerney Thomas
• Jimmy Thomason
• Jimmy Thompson
  Uncle Jimmy Thompson
  Jesse Donald "Uncle Jimmy" Thompson was an American old-time fiddle player. He is best remembered as the first performer to play on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry , appearing with founder and host George D. Hay on the evening of November 28, 1925...
  
  
• Cal Tinney
• Merle Travis
  Merle Travis
  Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon"...
  
  
• Lee Tully
• Zeb Turner
  Zeb Turner
  Zeb Turner was an American boogie-woogie songwriter and guitarist, and pioneer of rockabilly.He was born William Edward Grishaw in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States, and he renamed himself after a favorite piece of music, "The Zeb Turner Stomp"...
  
  
• Ruth Wallis
  Ruth Wallis
  Ruth Wallis was a novelty Popular cabaret singer.-Career:Born Ruth Shirley Wohl in Brooklyn, New York, Wallis began her career singing jazz and cabaret standards - with such bands like Isham Jones and Benny Goodman on road tours for a couple of months; but gained fame in the 1940s and 1950s for...
  
  
• Billy Ward and the Dominoes
  Billy Ward and the Dominoes
  Billy Ward and His Dominoes were an African-American vocal group, one of the best-selling American R&B groups of the 1950s. The team began the careers of both Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson.-Career:Billy Ward Billy Ward and His Dominoes were an African-American vocal group, one of the...
  
  
• Preston Ward
  Preston Ward
  Preston Meyer Ward was a lefty-hitting, righty-throwing first baseman/outfielder/third baseman, who played 9 seasons in the major leagues, playing in both the National and American Leagues. In the National League, he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers , Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates...
  
  
• Johnny "Guitar" Watson
• Wanda Wayne
• Skeeter Webb
• Jimmy Widener
• Chuck Wells
• Joe Wheeler
• Otis Williams & the Charms
• Ralph Willis
  Ralph Willis (blues musician)
  Ralph Willis was an American Piedmont and country blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. Some of his Savoy records were released under pseudonyms, such as Alabama Slim, Washboard Pete and Sleepy Joe.-Biography:...
  
  
• Luke Wills
• Boots Woodall
  Boots Woodall
  Dennis "Boots" Woodall was a country musician active from the 1930s to early 1960s in the American South and Midwest. After participating in a number of bands and serving in World War II, he formed the Radio Wranglers, whose name was changed to the TV Wranglers in 1949...
  
  
• Ernest Worley
• George Wright
  George Wright (organist)
  George Wright was an American musician, possibly the most famous virtuoso of the theatre organ of the modern era....
  
  
• Ruby Wright
  Ruby Wright
  Ruby Wright was an American singer and songwriter.-Biography:Born in Anderson, Indiana, she began singing with a trio of college girls in Lake Manitou, Indiana....
  
  
• The Wright Family Singers
• The York Brothers
  The York Brothers
  Leslie York and George York , known as The York Brothers, were an American country music duo from the 1930s through the 1950s, known for their close harmony....
  
  

Labels associated with King Records

• De Luxe Records
  De Luxe Records
  De Luxe Records was a Linden, New Jersey, United States based record label formed in 1944 by brothers David and Jules Braun. The label flourished in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1947, Syd Nathan, the founder and owner of King Records, purchased a majority interest in De Luxe. In 1949, Nathan moved the...
  
  
• Federal Records
  Federal Records
  Federal Records was an American record label founded in 1950 as a subsidiary of Syd Nathan's King Records and based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was run by famed record producer Ralph Bass and was mainly devoted to Rhythm & Blues releases. But also hillbilly and rockabilly recordings were released,...
  
  
• Queen Records
• Bethlehem Records
  Bethlehem Records
  Bethlehem Records was a record label based in New York and Hollywood founded by Gus Wildi in 1953. It was bought by King Records in the early 1960s....
  
  
• Starday Records
• Audio Lab

External links

• Photos of King Records Recognition in Cincinnati, Ohio
• Photos of the King Records studio c.1966
• The King Records story