Scepter Records is a record company founded in 1959 by Florence Greenberg. She had just sold Tiara Records with The Shirelles for $4000 to Decca Records. When The Shirelles didn't produce any hits for Decca, they were given back to Greenberg, who promptly signed them. By 1961 Greenberg launched a subsidiary Wand Records. Another related label was Citation Records, "a Scepter Records subsidiary/series that featured a fake gold record on every cover, advertising the 'best of' (Joe) Tex, Flip Wilson, Deep Purple, Wilson Pickett, the Isley Brothers, and anything else they could lease (or own the rights to)[1]." In 1976 Florence Greenberg decided to retire from the business and sold her record labels to Springboard International. When Springboard went bankrupt, Gusto Records acquired the catalog.
Scepter Records was one of the earliest record labels to release 12-inch singles intended for the nascent disco market. (Vince Aletti, 1975)
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Scepter Studios
In 1965, Scepter moved its offices to 254 West 54th Street at Manhattan (a building now famous for housing the legendary Studio 54 disco). The building included warehouse space and its own recording studio. Though few albums of note were recorded at Scepter Studios, one was the influential, avant-garde rock and roll album The Velvet Underground & Nico, recorded in April 1966 by engineer John Licata under the supervision of Andy Warhol and Norman Dolph. In 1961 and 1962 Wally Roker was the promotion man for Scepter Records that promoted all the Shirelles hit records.
Scepter & subsidiary label artists (also see Wand Records)
- B.T. Express
- Beverly Bremers
- The Buoys
- Scott English (Spokane)
- The Esquires (Bunky)
- The Guess Who (Chad Allan & The Expressions)
- Roy Head (The Story of Roy Head and The Traits)
- Tommy Hunt
- Rocky Fellers
- Merrilee Rush
- The Shirelles
- B.J. Thomas
- Dionne Warwick
- The Executives (1973)[citation needed]
- Tammy Montgomery (Tammi Terrell)
References
- ^ James Porter with John Battles and Waymon Timbsdayle. Commenting on the re-release of The Best of Joe Texin Roctober 2003.
See also
External links
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