Okeh Records
Encyclopedia
Okeh Records began as an independent record label
based in the United States of America
in 1918
. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records
.
') was founded by Otto K. E. Heinemann (1877–1965), a German-American manager for the U.S. branch of German
-owned Odeon Records
. As World War I
raged in Europe, Heinemann thought it best to have an American based company. He incorporated the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation in 1916, set up his own recording studio
and gramophone record
pressing plant in New York City
, and introduced the company's line of records for public sale in September 1918. Heinemann formed the name of the record label "Okeh", from his initials; early disc labels rendered the name as OkeH. The first discs were vertical cut. In 1919 Okeh switched to the lateral cut method of sound recording, more usual for disc records. That same year the name of the label's owning company was changed to the General Phonograph Corporation. The name on the labels was changed to OKeh. The common 10-inch discs retailed for 75 cents
each; the 12-inch discs for $1.25. The company's musical director was Fred Hager, who also appeared under the pseudonym of "Milo Rega" (Hager's middle name and his surname reversed).
Okeh began by issuing popular songs, dance numbers, and vaudeville skits similar to the fare of other labels, but Heineman also wished to experiment with music for audiences neglected by the larger record companies. Okeh produced lines of recordings in German, Czech, Polish, Swedish, and Yiddish for the USA's immigrant communities. Some were pressed from masters leased from European labels, others were recorded by Okeh in New York.
In 1920, Ralph Peer
's recordings by African-American blues
singer Mamie Smith
were a surprise smash hit for Okeh. The company perceived the significant, little-tapped market for blues and jazz
by African American
artists. In 1922, Okeh hired Clarence Williams to act as director of "Race
" (African American) recordings for Okeh's New York studios, in addition to making recordings under his own name. Okeh then opened a recording studio in Chicago, Illinois, the center of jazz in the 1920s, where Richard M. Jones
served as "Race" recordings director. Many classic jazz performances by the likes of King Oliver, Lucille Bogan
, Sidney Bechet
, Hattie McDaniel
, Louis Armstrong
, and Duke Ellington
were recorded by Okeh. As part of the Carl Lindstrom Company
, Okeh recordings were distributed by other Lindstrom labels including Parlophone
in the United Kingdom
.
recording was in 1920, of “Crazy Blues.” General Phonograph Corp, OKeH’s manufacturer used Smith’s success as the press to cultivate the new market. Portraits of Smith and lists of her records were used as the advertisements in newspapers including the Chicago Defender
, the Atlanta Independent, New York Colored News, and others popular with the African-American community. Okeh had further prominence in the demographic, as African-American artists such as Sara Martin
, Eva Taylor, Shelton Brooks
, Esther Bigeou
, and Handy’s Orchestra recorded exclusively for the label. The success of these “Race Recordings” led OKeh to start recording where the music was actually being performed, known as “remote” or “location” recording.
, Atlanta, Georgia
, San Antonio, Texas
, St. Louis, Missouri
, Kansas City, Missouri
, and Detroit, Michigan
, recording a wealth of jazz and early country music
artists.
In 1926, Okeh switched to the electric microphone
system of audio recording. On November 11 of that year, controlling interest in Okeh was purchased by Columbia Records. Beside the legendary OKeh Race 8000 Series (which featured some of the great blues and black jazz of the era), OKeh recorded a series of legendary "chamber" hot jazz sessions with Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang
, Frank Trumbauer's studio groups, Miff Mole
's studio groups, among others. These are considered among the best of the 1920s hot small-group white jazz sessions.
name (by dropping the Brunswick
label) and pressed it until 1946. It was revived once again in 1951 and used sporadically through to the 1990s. In 1953, Okeh's pop music
acts were transferred to the newly formed Epic Records
making Okeh an exclusive rhythm and blues
label. In 1963, Carl Davis became Okeh's A&R manager and boosted Okeh's fortunes for a couple of years. Epic Records
took over management of Okeh in 1965. Among the artists during Okeh's "pop" phase of the 50s and 60s were Johnnie Ray
, Little Joe & The Thrillers.
With soul music coming to the forefront in the 60s, Okeh signed Major Lance
, who gave the label two big successes with "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um
". Fifties rocker Larry Williams
found a musical home for a period of time in the 60s, recording and producing funky soul with band that included Johnny "Guitar" Watson. He was paired with Little Richard
who had been lured back into secular music. He produced two Little Richard albums for Okeh Records in 1966 and 1967, which returned Little Richard to the Billboard album chart for the first time in ten years and spawned the hit single Poor Dog. He also acted as the music director for the Little Richard's live performances at the Okeh Club in Los Angeles. Bookings for Little Richard during this period skyrocketed. Williams also recorded and released material of his own and with Watson, with some moderate chart success. This period may have garnered few hits but produced some of Williams' best and most original work.
Much of the success of Okeh in the 1960s was dependent on producer Carl Davis and songwriter Curtis Mayfield
. After they left the label (due to disputes with Epic/Okeh head Len Levy), Okeh gradually slipped in sales, and was finally deactivated discreetly by CBS Records in 1970. Davis moved on to Brunswick Records
and made it a leading soul music label.
reactivated the Okeh label (under distribution by Epic Records
) as a new-age Blues
label. Okeh's first new signings included G. Love & Special Sauce
, Keb' Mo, Popa Chubby
, and Little Axe
. Throughout the first year, in celebration of the relaunch, singles for G. Love, Popa Chubby and Keb' Mo were released on 10-inch vinyl. By 2000, the Okeh label was again retired, and G. Love & Special Sauce was moved to Epic.
reissue subsidiary. Parlophone parent EMI
's rights to the Okeh catalogue in the UK expired in 1968 at which point Sony Music's predecessor company CBS Records took over distribution.
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:...
based in the United States of America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1918
1918 in music
-Events:* March 3 - Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 2 is premiered in Budapest* May 24 - Béla Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle is premiered in Budapest.*April 30/May 1 - Toivo Kuula is mortally wounded in the Finnish Civil War....
. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
.
History
Okeh ' onMouseout='HidePop("71276")' href="/topics/Okay">okayOkay
"Okay" is a colloquial English word denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment. "Okay" has frequently turned up as a loanword in many other languages...
') was founded by Otto K. E. Heinemann (1877–1965), a German-American manager for the U.S. branch of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-owned Odeon Records
Odeon Records
Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....
. As World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
raged in Europe, Heinemann thought it best to have an American based company. He incorporated the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation in 1916, set up his own recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
and gramophone record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
pressing plant in 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...
, and introduced the company's line of records for public sale in September 1918. Heinemann formed the name of the record label "Okeh", from his initials; early disc labels rendered the name as OkeH. The first discs were vertical cut. In 1919 Okeh switched to the lateral cut method of sound recording, more usual for disc records. That same year the name of the label's owning company was changed to the General Phonograph Corporation. The name on the labels was changed to OKeh. The common 10-inch discs retailed for 75 cents
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
each; the 12-inch discs for $1.25. The company's musical director was Fred Hager, who also appeared under the pseudonym of "Milo Rega" (Hager's middle name and his surname reversed).
Okeh began by issuing popular songs, dance numbers, and vaudeville skits similar to the fare of other labels, but Heineman also wished to experiment with music for audiences neglected by the larger record companies. Okeh produced lines of recordings in German, Czech, Polish, Swedish, and Yiddish for the USA's immigrant communities. Some were pressed from masters leased from European labels, others were recorded by Okeh in New York.
In 1920, Ralph Peer
Ralph Peer
Ralph Sylvester Peer was an American talent scout, recording engineer and record producer in the field of music in the 1920s and 1930s...
's recordings by African-American blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer Mamie Smith
Mamie Smith
-External links:* African American Registry* with photos* with .ram files of her early recordings* NPR special on the selection on "Crazy Blues" to the 2005...
were a surprise smash hit for Okeh. The company perceived the significant, little-tapped market for blues and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
by 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...
artists. In 1922, Okeh hired Clarence Williams to act as director of "Race
Race record
Race records were 78 rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans during the early 20th century, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s. They primarily contained race music, comprising a variety of African American musical genres including blues, jazz, and gospel music, though comedy...
" (African American) recordings for Okeh's New York studios, in addition to making recordings under his own name. Okeh then opened a recording studio in Chicago, Illinois, the center of jazz in the 1920s, where Richard M. Jones
Richard M. Jones
Richard M. Jones, born Richard Marigny Jones, was a jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer. Numerous songs bear his name as author, including "Trouble in Mind"....
served as "Race" recordings director. Many classic jazz performances by the likes of King Oliver, Lucille Bogan
Lucille Bogan
Lucille Bogan was an American blues singer, among the first to be recorded. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson...
, Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
, Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
were recorded by Okeh. As part of the Carl Lindstrom Company
Carl Lindstrom Company
Carl Lindström A.G. was a global record company founded in 1893 and based in Berlin, Germany. Founded by Carl Lindström , a Swedish inventor living in Berlin, it originally produced phonographs or gramophones with the brand names "Parlograph" and "Parlophon" and eventually began producing records...
, Okeh recordings were distributed by other Lindstrom labels including 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...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Race records
The original Mamie SmithMamie Smith
-External links:* African American Registry* with photos* with .ram files of her early recordings* NPR special on the selection on "Crazy Blues" to the 2005...
recording was in 1920, of “Crazy Blues.” General Phonograph Corp, OKeH’s manufacturer used Smith’s success as the press to cultivate the new market. Portraits of Smith and lists of her records were used as the advertisements in newspapers including the Chicago Defender
Chicago Defender
The Chicago Defender is a Chicago based newspaper founded in 1905 by an African American for primarily African American readers.In just three years from 1919–1922 the Defender also attracted the writing talents of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks....
, the Atlanta Independent, New York Colored News, and others popular with the African-American community. Okeh had further prominence in the demographic, as African-American artists such as Sara Martin
Sara Martin
Sara Martin was an American blues singer, in her time one of the most popular of the classic blues singers. She was billed as "The Famous Moanin' Mama" and "The Colored Sophie Tucker"...
, Eva Taylor, Shelton Brooks
Shelton Brooks
Shelton Brooks was a popular music and jazz composer who wrote some of the biggest hits of the first third of the 20th century.Brooks was born in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada...
, Esther Bigeou
Esther Bigeou
Esther Bigeou was an American vaudeville and blues singer. Billed as "The Girl with the Million Dollar Smile", she was one of the classic female blues singers popular in the 1920s....
, and Handy’s Orchestra recorded exclusively for the label. The success of these “Race Recordings” led OKeh to start recording where the music was actually being performed, known as “remote” or “location” recording.
Location recording
Okeh Records pioneered the practice of "location recording" in 1922. Starting in 1924, Okeh also sent mobile recording trucks to tour other parts of the country to record performers not heard in New York or Chicago. Regular return trips were made once or twice a year to New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, and Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, recording a wealth of jazz and early 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...
artists.
In 1926, Okeh switched to the electric microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
system of audio recording. On November 11 of that year, controlling interest in Okeh was purchased by Columbia Records. Beside the legendary OKeh Race 8000 Series (which featured some of the great blues and black jazz of the era), OKeh recorded a series of legendary "chamber" hot jazz sessions with Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang was an American jazz guitarist, regarded as the Father of Jazz Guitar. He played a Gibson L-4 and L-5 guitar, providing great influence for many guitarists, including Django Reinhardt.-Biography:...
, Frank Trumbauer's studio groups, Miff Mole
Miff Mole
Irving Milfred Mole, better known as Miff Mole was a jazz trombonist and band leader. He is generally considered as one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating "the first distinctive and influential solo jazz trombone style." His major recordings included "Slippin' Around",...
's studio groups, among others. These are considered among the best of the 1920s hot small-group white jazz sessions.
Later years
Okeh releases grew infrequent after 1932, although the label continued into 1935. Columbia again revived it in 1940 after they lost the rights to the VocalionVocalion Records
Vocalion Records is a record label active for many years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.-History:Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. The name was derived from one of their...
name (by dropping the Brunswick
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
label) and pressed it until 1946. It was revived once again in 1951 and used sporadically through to the 1990s. In 1953, Okeh's pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
acts were transferred to the newly formed Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
making Okeh an exclusive rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
label. In 1963, Carl Davis became Okeh's A&R manager and boosted Okeh's fortunes for a couple of years. Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
took over management of Okeh in 1965. Among the artists during Okeh's "pop" phase of the 50s and 60s were Johnnie Ray
Johnnie Ray
Johnnie Ray was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage personality.-Early life:John Alvin Ray was born in...
, Little Joe & The Thrillers.
With soul music coming to the forefront in the 60s, Okeh signed Major Lance
Major Lance
Major Lance was an American R&B singer. After a number of US hits in the 1960s, including "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um", he became an iconic figure in Britain in the 1970s among followers of Northern soul.-Life:Major Lance was born in Winterville, Mississippi...
, who gave the label two big successes with "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um
Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um
"Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" is a 1964 single by Major Lance. The single was written by Curtis Mayfield and produced by Okeh label president, Carl Davis. The song was Major Lance's third release to make the Billboard Hot 100 and his most successful hit. "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" went to number five on...
". Fifties rocker Larry Williams
Larry Williams
Larry Williams was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana...
found a musical home for a period of time in the 60s, recording and producing funky soul with band that included Johnny "Guitar" Watson. He was paired with Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
who had been lured back into secular music. He produced two Little Richard albums for Okeh Records in 1966 and 1967, which returned Little Richard to the Billboard album chart for the first time in ten years and spawned the hit single Poor Dog. He also acted as the music director for the Little Richard's live performances at the Okeh Club in Los Angeles. Bookings for Little Richard during this period skyrocketed. Williams also recorded and released material of his own and with Watson, with some moderate chart success. This period may have garnered few hits but produced some of Williams' best and most original work.
Much of the success of Okeh in the 1960s was dependent on producer Carl Davis and songwriter Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
. After they left the label (due to disputes with Epic/Okeh head Len Levy), Okeh gradually slipped in sales, and was finally deactivated discreetly by CBS Records in 1970. Davis moved on to Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
and made it a leading soul music label.
Okeh: The New Era
In 1994, Sony MusicSony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
reactivated the Okeh label (under distribution by Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
) as a new-age Blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
label. Okeh's first new signings included G. Love & Special Sauce
G. Love & Special Sauce
G. Love & Special Sauce is an alternative hip-hop band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are known for their unique, "sloppy", and "laid back" blues sound that encompasses classic R&B. The band features Garrett Dutton, better known as G...
, Keb' Mo, Popa Chubby
Popa Chubby
Ted Horowitz , who plays under the stage name of Popa Chubby , is an American electric blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist.-Life and career:Born the son of a candy store owner, at age thirteen Horowitz began playing drums; shortly thereafter, he...
, and Little Axe
Little Axe
Little Axe is the stage name of Skip McDonald an American blues musician. McDonald played jazz, doo-wop, and gospel when young, and moved to New York as a teenager with his band of friends, called The Entertainers.Axe joined the group Wood Brass & Steel in 1973 with bassist Doug Wimbish and...
. Throughout the first year, in celebration of the relaunch, singles for G. Love, Popa Chubby and Keb' Mo were released on 10-inch vinyl. By 2000, the Okeh label was again retired, and G. Love & Special Sauce was moved to Epic.
Current ownership
Sony Music Entertainment owns the global rights to the Okeh Records catalogue through Epic Records and Sony's Legacy RecordingsLegacy Recordings
Legacy Recordings is Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division. It was founded in 1990 by CBS Records under the leadership of Jerry Shulman, Richard Bauer, Gary Pacheco and Amy Herot to handle reissues of recordings from the vast catalogues of Columbia Records, Epic Records and associated...
reissue subsidiary. Parlophone parent EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's rights to the Okeh catalogue in the UK expired in 1968 at which point Sony Music's predecessor company CBS Records took over distribution.
Popular culture
- The OKeh Laughing Record, which featured a man and woman laughing uncontrollably, was featured extensively in the Walter Lantz Productions cartoon short Sh-h-h-h-h, the last short directed by Tex AveryTex AveryFrederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
. The record was recorded in Germany by Beka RecordsBeka RecordsBeka Records was a record label based in Germany, active from about 1903 to 1925. Before World War I, Beka also made gramophone records for the United Kingdom market under the Beka-Grand Records label. The company became a subsidiary of the Carl Lindström Company which was sold to the Columbia...
in 1923, and would be issued in the UK as The Parlophone Laughing Record. - Jean ShepherdJean ShepherdJean Parker Shepherd was an American raconteur, radio and TV personality, writer and actor who was often referred to by the nickname Shep....
also used the record many times as background music on his radio show on WOR. - The OKeh logo has been used on clothing at retailer Forever 21Forever 21Forever 21 is an American chain of clothing retailers with branches in major cities in The United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that offers fashion and accessories for young women and men....
.
See also
- Okeh Records artists
- List of record labels
- Ralph PeerRalph PeerRalph Sylvester Peer was an American talent scout, recording engineer and record producer in the field of music in the 1920s and 1930s...