Leedon Records
Encyclopedia
Leedon Records was an Australia
n record label
active from 1958
to 1969
. It was founded by American
entrepreneur Lee Gordon
in early 1958.
, Pye
and Parlophone
and indigenous labels such as Coronet
and W&G Recrods had few Australian rock'n'roll artist on their rosters; their main focus was on local releases of British and American artists or, in the case of Coronet, mainstream vocalists or artists who performed in the so-called "hillbilly" style (which later became known as country music
), as well as others.
The advent of Leedon Records in 1958, soon after the establishment of Australia's first Top 40 charts, played a significant role in the development of Australia's local rock and pop scene, especially in the decade following the label's acquisition by Festival Records
in 1960.
Entrepreneur Lee Gordon had broken into the Australian entertainment scene in 1955 with a record-setting tour by vocalist Johnny Ray
, followed by a string of star-studded "Big Show" jazz/pop package tours featuring stars including Frank Sinatra
, Louis Armstrong
and Thelonious Monk
. In 1957 he promoted the first rock'n'roll bill to tour Australia, headlined by Bill Haley & the Comets Leedon and its sister label Lee Gordon Records as an adjunct to his hugely successful tour promotion business. Through his American connections, Gordon had promoted many historic jazz tours and in January 1957 he brought the first rock'n'roll tour to Australia, featuring. He then secured the Australian release rights to the American Roulette Records
label and signed a pressing and distribution deal with the Australian Record Company (which was later taken over by CBS Records
).
Leedon's first releases were "Oh, Oh I'm Falling In Love Again" by Jimmie Rodgers
and "(Make With) The Shake" by The Mark IV
. Other releases included singles by Duane Eddy
, Huey Piano Smith, Dion & The Belmonts, Dick Dale
and Little Junior Parker. Most of their early releases featured overseas acts, as illustrated above, however they did provide a release for some local recordings including Johnny Rebb & The Rebels' 'Hey Sheriff' in 1958.
's "The Purple People Eater" and David Seville's "Witch Doctor
". However aural evidence suggests this first Johnny Scat Brown single release is a completely different artist. Some of these singles were released locally in the face of 'embargo
' restrictions placed on them by publishing companies such as Chappell Music.
"Indeed I Do" and "Mama Rock" had been recorded in the USA, featuring vocals performed by an Elvis Presley
-soundalike singer. The singer's identity was unknown to Leedon staff at the time, as the tapes had been sent to them from the USA by Lee Gordon without any recording details. As a result, company manager Alan Heffernan created the pseudonym Johnny "Scat" Brown.
According to former Leedon employee Max Moore, Heffernan's cousin discovered decades later (the 70s), that although there was a real Johnny "Scat" Brown performing in the USA, the person who had recorded "Indeed I Do" and "Mama Rock" was noted rockabilly artist Johnny Powers.
was engaged as the label's A&R
manager. Although he was still contracted to Festival Records
at the time, O'Keefe was able to work as a consultant to Leedon, and he signed a number of other prominent Australian artists including Lonnie Lee
, The Delltones
and Warren Williams
. According to Leedon employee Max Moore, O'Keefe did not receive a salary for this work, so he was compensated with an increase in his fee for appearances on Gordon's famous "Big Show" concert tours, on which he had become a regular featured attraction.
The Leedon "LK" series was started in June 1961 with Lonnie Lee's "You're Gonna Miss Me" and from this point on the label's releases were made up almost entirely of Australian artists. Johnny O'Keefe featured very prominently in this series.
Internationally, Leedon's most significant signing was a young British-born vocal trio, The Bee Gees, who recorded numerous singles and one LP for the label. Although they penned several local hits for other performers, none of their own Leedon recordings were commercially successful, and by 1966 Festival was on the verge of dropping them. However their manager at that time, Nat Kipner had just been appointed to head new Sydney label Spin Records
and he was able to negotiate the group's move from Leedon to Spin, in exchange for Festival being granted the Australian distribution rights to their subsequent recordings, a lucrative deal that continued for several years after the band moved back to UK in 1967 and signed internationally with the Robert Stigwood Organisation and Polydor.
In the mid-1960s Leedon released many classic beat-era singles and albums by bands including Ray Brown & The Whispers
, The Showmen
and The Amazons, which featured singer Johnny Cave (aka William Shakespeare
) and bassist Harry Brus
. The label's final release was a reissue of "She's My Baby" by Johnny O'Keefe. which had been recorded in 1959.
By the time the label was folded in 1969, it had released 420 singles.
The Leedon LK Series featured many prominent Australian artists including Barry Stanton, Booka Hyland, Warren Williams, Ian Crawford, Paul Wayne, Jerry J. Wilder, The Barry Sisters, The Dee Jays, The Taylor Sisters etc. All got their big break with Leedon, who nourished and supported them throughout their careers—with shows and gigs along the way.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n 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,...
active from 1958
1958 in music
-Events:*February - 45,000 peoplein one week watch performances of "rokabirī" music by Japanese singers at the first Nichigeki Western Carnival....
to 1969
1969 in music
-Events:Perhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event...
. It was founded by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entrepreneur Lee Gordon
Lee Gordon (promoter)
Lee Gordon was an American entrepreneur and rock and roll promoter who worked extensively in Australia in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
in early 1958.
Establishment and early releases
In Australian in the 1950s and early 1960s, locally distributed labels such as His Masters Voice, London RecordsLondon Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....
, Pye
Pye Records
Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan , Petula Clark , The Searchers , The Kinks , Sandie Shaw and Brotherhood of Man...
and Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
and indigenous labels such as Coronet
Coronet Records
Coronet Records was a record label in Australia, based in Sydney, NSW. The label that operated from the early 1950s until around 1960 was recognizable by its famous octagonal label....
and W&G Recrods had few Australian rock'n'roll artist on their rosters; their main focus was on local releases of British and American artists or, in the case of Coronet, mainstream vocalists or artists who performed in the so-called "hillbilly" style (which later became known as 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...
), as well as others.
The advent of Leedon Records in 1958, soon after the establishment of Australia's first Top 40 charts, played a significant role in the development of Australia's local rock and pop scene, especially in the decade following the label's acquisition by Festival Records
Festival Records (Australia)
Festival Records was an Australian music recording and publishing company which was founded in Sydney in 1952 and operated until 2005....
in 1960.
Entrepreneur Lee Gordon had broken into the Australian entertainment scene in 1955 with a record-setting tour by vocalist Johnny Ray
Johnny Ray
John Cornelius Ray is a former second baseman in Major League Baseball who had a 10-year career from 1981 to 1990. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League and the California Angels of the American League...
, followed by a string of star-studded "Big Show" jazz/pop package tours featuring stars including Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
and Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
. In 1957 he promoted the first rock'n'roll bill to tour Australia, headlined by Bill Haley & the Comets Leedon and its sister label Lee Gordon Records as an adjunct to his hugely successful tour promotion business. Through his American connections, Gordon had promoted many historic jazz tours and in January 1957 he brought the first rock'n'roll tour to Australia, featuring. He then secured the Australian release rights to the American Roulette Records
Roulette Records
Roulette Records is an American record label, which was founded in late 1956, by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Khals, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed as director...
label and signed a pressing and distribution deal with the Australian Record Company (which was later taken over by CBS Records
CBS Records
CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...
).
Leedon's first releases were "Oh, Oh I'm Falling In Love Again" by Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer)
James Frederick "Jimmie" Rodgers is an American singer. He is not related to the country singer of the same name.-Career:...
and "(Make With) The Shake" by The Mark IV
The Mark IV
The Mark IV were an American musical ensemble, based in Chicago, who were originally named The Rhythm Makers. They later changed their name to Mark V, and then - as members left - to The Mark IV, and eventually ending in the 1980s as The Mark IV Trio...
. Other releases included singles by Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
, Huey Piano Smith, Dion & The Belmonts, Dick Dale
Dick Dale
Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...
and Little Junior Parker. Most of their early releases featured overseas acts, as illustrated above, however they did provide a release for some local recordings including Johnny Rebb & The Rebels' 'Hey Sheriff' in 1958.
Johnny "Scat" Brown
Notable among Leedon's early releases were a couple of wild singles credited to the mysterious Johnny 'Scat' Brown - "Indeed I Do" (Leedon 514) and "Mama Rock" (Leedon 518). The flip sides of both records were performed by totally different artists, despite the fact the b-side of "Indeed I Do" also listed Johnny Scat Brown as the singer. The performer of 'Little Star", the flip of "Mama Rock" was shown as Moon Rockets, another mystery act. These singles were preceded by another Leedon single (#008) also billed to Johnny 'Scat' Brown which featured cover versions of current American chart hits, Sheb WooleySheb Wooley
Shelby F. "Sheb" Wooley was a character actor and singer, best known for his 1958 novelty song "Purple People Eater"...
's "The Purple People Eater" and David Seville's "Witch Doctor
Witch Doctor
"Witch Doctor" is a song written and performed by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., and released in 1958 by Liberty Records under the name David Seville, a character whom Bagdasarian portrayed.-Song information:...
". However aural evidence suggests this first Johnny Scat Brown single release is a completely different artist. Some of these singles were released locally in the face of 'embargo
Embargo
An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is...
' restrictions placed on them by publishing companies such as Chappell Music.
"Indeed I Do" and "Mama Rock" had been recorded in the USA, featuring vocals performed by an Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
-soundalike singer. The singer's identity was unknown to Leedon staff at the time, as the tapes had been sent to them from the USA by Lee Gordon without any recording details. As a result, company manager Alan Heffernan created the pseudonym Johnny "Scat" Brown.
According to former Leedon employee Max Moore, Heffernan's cousin discovered decades later (the 70s), that although there was a real Johnny "Scat" Brown performing in the USA, the person who had recorded "Indeed I Do" and "Mama Rock" was noted rockabilly artist Johnny Powers.
Johnny O'Keefe becomes A&R manager
During 1959 leading Australian rock'n'roll singer Johnny O'KeefeJohnny O'Keefe
John Michael O'Keefe, known as Johnny O'Keefe was an Australian rock and roll singer whose career began in the 1950s. Some of his hits include "Wild One" , "Shout!" and "She's My Baby"...
was engaged as the label's A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
manager. Although he was still contracted to Festival Records
Festival Records (Australia)
Festival Records was an Australian music recording and publishing company which was founded in Sydney in 1952 and operated until 2005....
at the time, O'Keefe was able to work as a consultant to Leedon, and he signed a number of other prominent Australian artists including Lonnie Lee
Lonnie Lee
Lonnie Lee is an Australian singer. He was raised on sheep property in Rowena, New South Wales and has been performing since the mid 1950s. At the peak of his career, Lee had eight national #1 hits and produced five Gold Records...
, The Delltones
The Delltones
The Delltones, a popular Australian rock 'n roll band, originally formed in 1958. They started out as a vocal harmony group with the lineup consisting of Brian Perkins, Noel Widerberg, Ian 'Peewee' Wilson and Warren Lucas...
and Warren Williams
Warren Williams (rock musician)
Warren Williams is a rock musician from Australia. In the 1950s, he was a pioneer of Australian rock music, forming the group Warren Williams and the Squares.Williams was a prolific songwriter.- The Squares :...
. According to Leedon employee Max Moore, O'Keefe did not receive a salary for this work, so he was compensated with an increase in his fee for appearances on Gordon's famous "Big Show" concert tours, on which he had become a regular featured attraction.
Acquisition by Festival
By 1960, Lee Gordon's business enterprises were making significant losses, and without consulting Heffernan (who was also the general manager and chief accountant of Gordon's promtions company Big Show Pty Ltd), he sold the label to Festival Records for a reported figure of AU£10,000. Leedon continued operation as a wholly owned subsidiary of Festival until 1969. Gordon died in London in 1963.The Leedon "LK" series was started in June 1961 with Lonnie Lee's "You're Gonna Miss Me" and from this point on the label's releases were made up almost entirely of Australian artists. Johnny O'Keefe featured very prominently in this series.
Internationally, Leedon's most significant signing was a young British-born vocal trio, The Bee Gees, who recorded numerous singles and one LP for the label. Although they penned several local hits for other performers, none of their own Leedon recordings were commercially successful, and by 1966 Festival was on the verge of dropping them. However their manager at that time, Nat Kipner had just been appointed to head new Sydney label Spin Records
Spin Records
Spin Records was an Australian popular music label of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was established in late 1966 by Clyde Packer and a group of partners including entrepreneur Harry M. Miller. The label's first A&R manager was Nat Kipner who produced several early Spin releases...
and he was able to negotiate the group's move from Leedon to Spin, in exchange for Festival being granted the Australian distribution rights to their subsequent recordings, a lucrative deal that continued for several years after the band moved back to UK in 1967 and signed internationally with the Robert Stigwood Organisation and Polydor.
In the mid-1960s Leedon released many classic beat-era singles and albums by bands including Ray Brown & The Whispers
Ray Brown & The Whispers
. For other uses of Whispers, see Whispers page.Ray Brown & The Whispers were a highly successful Australian rock band from 1964 to 1967...
, The Showmen
The Showmen
The Showmen were a New Orleans based American doo-wop and R&B group. formed in 1961. They are best remembered for their track, "It Will Stand", issued on Minit Records. "It Will Stand" reached #61 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961, and when re-released in 1964 re-charted and reached #80...
and The Amazons, which featured singer Johnny Cave (aka William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (singer)
William Shakespeare was the stage name of Australian Glam rock singer John Stanley Cave, also known as John Cabe or Billy Shake. He had two Australian hit singles, "Can't Stop Myself from Loving You" which peaked at #2 on the Kent Music Report in 1974 and "My Little Angel" which peaked at #1 in 1975...
) and bassist Harry Brus
Harry Brus
Harry Brus is an Australian bass player and guitarist, best known for his work with Matt Finish, Kevin Borich, Renée Geyer, Australian Crawl, Leo Sayer, Marcia Hines, Jimmy Barnes, Ross Wilson and Billy Thorpe....
. The label's final release was a reissue of "She's My Baby" by Johnny O'Keefe. which had been recorded in 1959.
By the time the label was folded in 1969, it had released 420 singles.
The Leedon LK Series featured many prominent Australian artists including Barry Stanton, Booka Hyland, Warren Williams, Ian Crawford, Paul Wayne, Jerry J. Wilder, The Barry Sisters, The Dee Jays, The Taylor Sisters etc. All got their big break with Leedon, who nourished and supported them throughout their careers—with shows and gigs along the way.