| Steve Sholes | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Stephen Henry Sholes |
| Born | February 12, 1911 |
| Origin | Washington, D.C. |
| Died | April 22, 1968 (aged 57) |
| Genre(s) | Rock, country, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Record producer |
| Instrument(s) | Saxophone, clarinet |
| Label(s) | RCA |
| Associated acts | Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnold, The Browns, Hank Snow, Jim Reeves |
Stephen H. Sholes (February 12, 1911 – April 22, 1968[1]) was a prominent recording executive with RCA Victor.
Career
He was born Stephen Henry Sholes, in Washington, D.C.. His family moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his father worked in the RCA plant. Sholes started work at RCA as a messenger boy in 1929. He worked part time for the firm while a student at Rutgers University.
Scholes worked for a time in RCA's radio division, but his experience playing saxophone and clarinet in dance bands led him to the record division. During World War II, he worked in the Army's V-disc operation, which made records for radio broadcast and for personal use by army personnel.[2]
In 1945, he became head of the country division in Nashville, Tennessee and was responsible for recruiting such talent as Chet Atkins for RCA Records. When he left Nashville, Atkins took over as head of the country music division. He also recruited Eddy Arnold, The Browns, Hank Locklin, Homer and Jethro, Hank Snow, Jim Reeves, and Pee Wee King. In 1955, he signed Elvis Presley for RCA.
He convinced RCA to build its own recording studio in Nashville on Seventeenth Avenue South in 1957. He became the company's pop singles manager the same year, pop singles and albums manager in 1958, and West Coast manager in 1961. The latter promotion took him to Los Angeles, California. In 1963, Sholes became RCA Records vice president for pop A&R and returned to New York.
He served on the Country Music Association (CMA) and Country Music Foundation (CMF) boards of directors.[1] Sholes was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, which he had worked to create, in 1967.[2]
His record production credits for Presley gave him fifteen chart topping hit singles in the UK.[3] This run of success in the UK Singles Chart placed him, in 1982, as the fourth most successful record producer in UK chart history.[3]
Sholes died in Nashville of a heart attack at the age of 57.[2]
References
- ^ a b Countrymusichalloffame.com
- ^ a b c "Biography by Bruce Eder". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:3pfqxqegldfe~T1. Retrieved on 2008-11-16.
- ^ a b Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 262. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
- Rumble, John. (1998). "Steve Sholes". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 483.
External links
- http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/stevesholes.txt
- http://www.countryworks.com/artist_full.asp?KEY=SHOLES
- http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/inductees/steve_sholes.html
| This article about a country musician from the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
