Norton Records
Encyclopedia
For the Canadian independent record label of the same name, see Matt Minglewood
.
Norton Records, a New York City
based independent record label
founded by musicians Miriam Linna
and Billy Miller, maintains a focus on primitive, retro rock'n'roll, rockabilly
, garage punk
, garage rock
, lounge music
and early R&B.
in 1976. The two were properly introduced while Miller was selling vinyl at a record show in 1977. Miller recalled selling Linna the You Must Be a Witch LP by the Lollipop Shoppe. Miller later said, "You can't let a gal with taste like that slip away!" One year later, in 1978 Miller and Linna started Kicks, a magazine devoted to obscure rock, soul and rockabilly.
, the response was so intense that Linna and Miller decided to form a record label to reissue his music. They named their company after Ed Norton, Art Carney
's character on The Honeymooners
. Adkins had recorded about 15 singles in the 1950s, but many had never been released or collected on an LP. "We made 500 copies and prayed that it would sell," recalled Linna.
Along with previously unreleased discoveries, Linna and Miller have successfully reissued many other obscurities and classics from the 1950s and 1960s, and their extensive catalog also includes current talents: King Coleman
, Wade Curtiss, Elroy Dietzel, Esquerita
, Charlie Feathers
, Figures of Light
, Flat Duo Jets
, Ron Haydock
, Roy Loney, Rudy Ray Moore
, Doug Sahm
, Reigning Sound
, Ronnie Self
, Tyrone Schmidling, Jack Starr, Gene Summers
, The Teenbeats, King Uszniewicz, Gene Vincent
, Gino Washington
, Andre Williams
and Link Wray
.
Their El Paso Rock series, for example, chronicles the early days of the El Paso
rock scene, beginning with the legendary first recordings of Bobby Fuller
, including the original 1964 pre-hit version of "I Fought the Law," first issued by Fuller on his own Exeter label. Volume two in the series offers more Fuller in a selection of "never before issued live mayhem from Texas teen clubs, shopping centers, bowling alleys circa 1962-64 plus insane home recordings."
In Billboards "Declaration of Independents" column, Norton received kudos for their Sonics
and Fabulous Wailers reissues, and Goldmine praised Big Star's Nobody Can Dance as "the most exciting reissue of the decade... one of the strongest pieces of music I've heard in 25 years."
Radio station WFMU celebrated the label's 15 years in the business with the "Norton Records 15th Anniversary Roast," aired October 25, 2001, on Music to Spazz By with Dave the Spazz.
.
. After finding a copy at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History bookstore, Dr. Ink (aka Dr. Roy Peter Clark
) highlighted the importance of Rocco's work in an April 2, 2003 review, "Jukin' with Eddie Rocco". Ink wrote:
In 2009, Linna launched her paperback book company, Kicks Books, with Sweets and Other Stories
, followed by This Planet Is Doomed (2011). a collection of Sun Ra
poetry.
In 2006, Norton released Dangerous Game, the first solo album by Mary Weiss
, the original lead singer of The Shangri-Las
. Backed by the Reigning Sound, Weiss recorded 13 original songs plus a cover version
of the Shangri-Las' "Heaven Only Knows".
In 2009, Norton released three outer space trips by Sun Ra
: Interplanetary Melodies, The Second Stop Is Jupiter and Rocket Ship Rock.
Matt Minglewood
Matt Minglewood is a Canadian musician whose style can be described as a blend of country, blues, folk, roots and rock.-Career:...
.
Norton Records, a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
based independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
founded by musicians Miriam Linna
Miriam Linna
Miriam Linna has run the Brooklyn-based independent record label Norton Records since 1986 with her husband—the producer and singer-songwriter Billy Miller...
and Billy Miller, maintains a focus on primitive, retro rock'n'roll, 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...
, garage punk
Garage punk
Garage punk is a fusion of garage rock and punk rock. It is fast-paced lo-fi music characterized by a dirty, choppy guitar sound—usually played by bands who are on independent record labels or who are unsigned...
, garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
, lounge music
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
and early R&B.
Early days
Billy Miller first encountered Miriam Linna while she was drumming for The CrampsThe Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...
in 1976. The two were properly introduced while Miller was selling vinyl at a record show in 1977. Miller recalled selling Linna the You Must Be a Witch LP by the Lollipop Shoppe. Miller later said, "You can't let a gal with taste like that slip away!" One year later, in 1978 Miller and Linna started Kicks, a magazine devoted to obscure rock, soul and rockabilly.
Norton unleashed
In 1986, when the couple published an article in Kicks about West Virginia guitarist Hasil AdkinsHasil Adkins
Hasil Adkins was an Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz...
, the response was so intense that Linna and Miller decided to form a record label to reissue his music. They named their company after Ed Norton, Art Carney
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....
's character on The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners is an American situation comedy television show, based on a recurring 1951–'55 sketch of the same name. It originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show hosted by Jackie Gleason, and filmed before a live...
. Adkins had recorded about 15 singles in the 1950s, but many had never been released or collected on an LP. "We made 500 copies and prayed that it would sell," recalled Linna.
Along with previously unreleased discoveries, Linna and Miller have successfully reissued many other obscurities and classics from the 1950s and 1960s, and their extensive catalog also includes current talents: King Coleman
King Coleman
Carlton "King" Coleman was an American rhythm and blues singer and musician, known for providing the vocals for the 1959 hit single, " Mashed Potatoes", recorded with James Brown's band...
, Wade Curtiss, Elroy Dietzel, Esquerita
Esquerita
Esquerita was the stage name of singer, songwriter and pianist Eskew Reeder Jr, originally known as Steven Quincy Reeder Jr. and also known as S.Q. Reeder and SQ Jr. A native of Greenville, South Carolina, he was born on November 20, 1935, and died in Harlem, New York on October 23, 1986, of AIDS...
, Charlie Feathers
Charlie Feathers
Charles Arthur "Charlie" Feathers was an influential American rockabilly and country music performer.-Biography:...
, Figures of Light
Figures of Light
Figures of Light is an American proto-punk band formed in 1970 by Wheeler Winston Dixon and Michael Downey. Their latest project, the CD "Drop Dead," was recorded in Brooklyn, New York at Mitro's Studios, June, 2011, and produced by Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs, featuring fifteen new tracks from...
, Flat Duo Jets
Flat Duo Jets
Flat Duo Jets was a rockabilly band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Athens, Georgia. They were a major influence on several bands of the 1990s and 2000s, including The White Stripes. In interviews, Jack White has often acknowledged Dexter Romweber's influence...
, Ron Haydock
Ron Haydock
Ron Haydock was an American actor, screenwriter, novelist and rock musician.His band, Ron Haydock & the Boppers, was sometimes compared to Elvis Presley...
, Roy Loney, Rudy Ray Moore
Rudy Ray Moore
Rudy Ray Moore was an American comedian, musician, singer, film actor, and film producer. He was perhaps best known as Dolemite , the uniquely articulate pimp from the 1975 film Dolemite, and its sequel, The Human Tornado...
, Doug Sahm
Doug Sahm
Douglas Wayne Sahm , was an American musician from Texas. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he was a child prodigy in country music, but became a significant figure in blues rock and other genres. Today Sahm is considered one of the most important figures in what is identified as Tejano music...
, Reigning Sound
Reigning Sound
The Reigning Sound is an American garage punk band originally based out of Memphis, Tennessee, now located in Asheville, North Carolina. The band's current lineup includes former Oblivians and Compulsive Gamblers frontman Greg Cartwright on lead vocals and guitar, David Wayne Gay on bass, Lance...
, Ronnie Self
Ronnie Self
Ronnie Self was a United States rockabilly singer and songwriter. His solo career was unsuccessful, despite being signed to contracts with Columbia and then Decca from the late 1950s through the early 1960s. His only charted single was "Bop-A-Lena"; recorded in 1957 and released in 1958, it...
, Tyrone Schmidling, Jack Starr, Gene Summers
Gene Summers
Gene Summers is an American rock/rockabilly singer and entertainer. Some of his classic recordings include "School of Rock 'n Roll", "Straight Skirt", "Nervous", "Gotta Lotta That", "Twixteen", "Alabama Shake" and his biggest-selling single "Big Blue Diamonds"...
, The Teenbeats, King Uszniewicz, Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...
, Gino Washington
Gino Washington
George "Gino" Washington is an African American R&B and rock singer from Detroit, Michigan who had cross-racial appeal. While he was attending Pershing High School, he achieved local hits in 1963 and 1964 with "Out of This World" and "Gino Is a Coward". In 1964 he was drafted into the U.S. Army...
, Andre Williams
Andre Williams
Andre Williams is an American R&B and punk blues musician who started his career in the 1950s at Fortune Records in Detroit.-Biography:...
and Link Wray
Link Wray
Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....
.
Their El Paso Rock series, for example, chronicles the early days of the El Paso
El Paso
El Paso, a city in the U.S. state of Texas, on the border with Mexico.El Paso may also refer to:-Geography:Colombia:* El Paso, CesarSpain:*El Paso, Santa Cruz de TenerifeUnited States:...
rock scene, beginning with the legendary first recordings of Bobby Fuller
Bobby Fuller
Robert Gaston "Bobby" Fuller was an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitar player best known for his singles "I Fought the Law" and "Love's Made a Fool of You," recorded with his mid-1960s group, the Bobby Fuller Four....
, including the original 1964 pre-hit version of "I Fought the Law," first issued by Fuller on his own Exeter label. Volume two in the series offers more Fuller in a selection of "never before issued live mayhem from Texas teen clubs, shopping centers, bowling alleys circa 1962-64 plus insane home recordings."
In Billboards "Declaration of Independents" column, Norton received kudos for their Sonics
The Sonics
The Sonics are an American garage rock band from Tacoma, Washington, originating from the early and mid-1960s. Among The Sonics' contemporaries were The Kingsmen, The Wailers, The Dynamics, The Regents, and Paul Revere & the Raiders...
and Fabulous Wailers reissues, and Goldmine praised Big Star's Nobody Can Dance as "the most exciting reissue of the decade... one of the strongest pieces of music I've heard in 25 years."
Radio station WFMU celebrated the label's 15 years in the business with the "Norton Records 15th Anniversary Roast," aired October 25, 2001, on Music to Spazz By with Dave the Spazz.
Music events
Norton Records stages music events in the New York area, such as their 2005 New Year's Eve Rock N' Roll Show & Dance at Union Pool in Brooklyn, an event headlined by Linna and Miller's band, the A-Bones, and emceed by The Mighty HannibalThe Mighty Hannibal
The Mighty Hannibal is an American R&B, soul and funk singer, songwriter and record producer. Known for his showmanship, and outlandish costumes often incorporating a pink turban, several of his songs carried social or political themes...
.
Publishing division
In addition to their line of magazines (Kicks, Bad Seed), Norton Records also published a book on the work of photographer Eddie Rocco, who contributed to Charlton's Ebony Song Parade and freelanced for Fort Worth's Sepia magazine. Printed on quality stock with an attractive graphic design, The Great Lost Photographs of Eddie Rocco collects many unknown, unpublished 1950s and 1960s pictures, including shots of Esquerita, Ruth Brown, the Treniers and Roy OrbisonRoy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
. After finding a copy at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History bookstore, Dr. Ink (aka Dr. Roy Peter Clark
Roy Peter Clark
Roy Peter Clark is an American writer, editor, and teacher of writing who has become a writing coach to an international community of students, journalists, and writers of many sorts. He is also senior scholar and vice president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism think-tank...
) highlighted the importance of Rocco's work in an April 2, 2003 review, "Jukin' with Eddie Rocco". Ink wrote:
- Rocco's work would come to the attention of Charlton Publications, a house that specialized in printing lyrics of popular music along with photos of the stars. Founded in 1931, Charlton produced a series of popular music magazines, "which provided beat-happy boppers of all ethnicities with information on R&B musicians, songwriters, and disc jockeys." Although Rocco's photos of popular white bands in the 1960s may attract some fans, it is his earlier work capturing black artists that should be of special interest to journalists, especially those trying to understand the importance of diversity. In spite of its reputation for mass-producing pulp fiction and comic books, Charlton Publications, writes Miriam Linna, "has long gone unlauded for pioneering true racial integration in mass market magazines at a time when other teen periodicals remained safely segregated." Rocco was no Pat Boone, exploiting and whitewashing black creativity. Instead, he and his camera were telling the untold story of the evolution of black music beyond the borders of a black audience.
In 2009, Linna launched her paperback book company, Kicks Books, with Sweets and Other Stories
Sweets and Other Stories
Sweets and Other Stories is the 2009 debut novel by soul singer Andre Williams. It features an introduction by author Nick Tosches and an editor's note by Miriam Linna of Kicks Books.-About Sweets:...
, followed by This Planet Is Doomed (2011). a collection of Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
poetry.
20th anniversary
Norton kicked off their 20th anniversary with a massive 80-page catalog, featuring a cover photograph of Marty Lott, the Gulf Coast Fireball, aka The Phantom, and a dedication: "Our 20th Anniversary catalog is dedicated to the memory of Norton's very first artist, the immortal Hasil Adkins." Adkins died in 2005.In 2006, Norton released Dangerous Game, the first solo album by Mary Weiss
Mary Weiss
Mary Weiss, born on December 28 in Queens, New York, found fame in the 1960s as the lead singer of The Shangri-Las. She then vanished from the music scene for decades, returning in 2007 to record her first solo album with Norton Records....
, the original lead singer of The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las were an American pop girl group of the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1966 they charted with often heartbreaking teen melodramas, and remain best known for "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember ".- Early career :...
. Backed by the Reigning Sound, Weiss recorded 13 original songs plus a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the Shangri-Las' "Heaven Only Knows".
In 2009, Norton released three outer space trips by Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
: Interplanetary Melodies, The Second Stop Is Jupiter and Rocket Ship Rock.