WBack Beat Records was an American record label launched in 1957, as the Houston-based soul sub-label of Duke Records, when it was run by Don Robey. ABC Records assumed ownership of Back Beat on May 23, 1973 as part of ABC's acquisition of Back Beat's parent label Duke. The label's biggest hits included "Treat Her Right" by Roy Head & The Traits, "Tell Me Why" by Norman Fox & The Rob-Roys and "Everlasting Love" by Carl Carlton. The last of these was the title cut of an album intended to be issued on Back Beat in December 1974, but ABC ended up issuing the album on their main label, as they had discontinued Back Beat at the last minute.
WBlack & White Records was an American record company and label founded by Les Schreiber in 1943. It specialized in jazz and blues. When the label was sold to Paul and Lillian Reiner, it moved from New York City to Los Angeles. The catalog included music by Art Hodes, Cliff Jackson, Lil Armstrong, Barney Bigard, Wilbert Baranco, Erroll Garner, Jack McVea, and Willie "The Lion" Smith.
WBlack Hen Music is a Canadian independent record label founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1995. The music label was established by record producer and musician Steve Dawson of the band Zubot and Dawson. Black Hen Music began releasing albums in 1996 and is distributed in Canada by Fontana North, in Europe and the UK by Continental Record Services, and in the US by Burnside Distribution.
WBlack Patti Records was a short-lived American record label based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, founded by Mayo Williams in 1927. It was named after the black opera singer Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, who was called Black Patti because some thought she resembled the Italian opera singer Adelina Patti. The label lasted seven months and produced 55 records. The Black Patti peacock logo was used in the 1960s by Nick Perls for his Belzona and Yazoo labels.
WBlack Swan Records was an American jazz and blues record label founded in 1921 in Harlem, New York. It was the first widely distributed label to be owned, operated, and marketed to African Americans.. Black Swan was revived in the 1990s for CD reissues of historic jazz and blues recordings.
WChess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is currently owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records.
WChief Records, together with its Profile and Age subsidiaries, was an independent record label that operated from 1957 to 1964. Best known for its recordings of Chicago blues artists Elmore James, Junior Wells, Magic Sam, and Earl Hooker, the label had a diverse roster and included R&B artists Lillian Offitt and Ricky Allen.
WCobra Records was an independent record label that operated from 1956–1959. The label launched the careers of Chicago blues artists Otis Rush, Magic Sam, and Buddy Guy and "signaled the arrival of a new generation of blues artists and a new sound ... to be called the West Side Sound."
WCollectables is a reissue record label founded in 1980 by Jerry Greene. Greene was previously associated with New York City's Times Square Record Shop, Philadelphia's Record Museum retail chain, and the Lost Nite and Crimson record labels.
WCordova Bay Records is an independent record label in Victoria, British Columbia. The label operates in conjunction with Cordova Bay Music Publishing under the parent company Cordova Bay Entertainment Group. The company was founded by Michael Burke in 1999 and touts itself as an artist-oriented label.
WDelmark Records is an American jazz and blues independent record label. It was founded in 1958 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when owner Bob Koester released a recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the Delmar imprint.
WFat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Water Valley and Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists. Recently, Fat Possum has signed younger rock acts to its roster. The label has been featured in The New York Times, New Yorker, The Observer, a Sundance Channel production, features on NPR, and a 2004 documentary, You See Me Laughin. Fat Possum also distributes the Hi Records catalog.
WFortune Records was an American family operated, independent record label located in Detroit, Michigan from 1946 to 1995. The label owners were Jack and Devora Brown, their son Sheldon Brown recorded for the label. Original releases tapered off after 1972 aside from a few albums in the mid-1980s. Fortune specialized in R&B, blues, soul and doo-wop music, although the label also released pop, big band, hillbilly, gospel, rock and roll, and polka records.
WImmediate Records was a British record label, started in 1965 by The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Tony Calder, and concentrating on the London-based blues and R&B scene.
WKeen Records was an American independent record label, founded by John and Alex Siamas in 1957 in Los Angeles. John Siamas was a successful businessman in the aerospace industry, and, as a music aficionado, started Keen as a side business. They owned two other labels, Ensign and Andex, which shared the same numbering system with Keen. Bob Keane was with the label in its early days, but departed in late 1957.
WMeteor Records was a Memphis-based R&B record label ran by Lester Bihari, one of the Bihari brothers, owners of Modern Records in Los Angeles. Founded in 1952, the label was a bold experiment to broaden the talent base by focusing on signing and recording Southern regional talent by having recording studios locally available.
WParamount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
WProvogue Records is a European record label and part of the Mascot Label Group. Founded by Jan Van Der Linden in the early 1990s, the label specializes in rock and blues. Its catalog includes Jay Hooks, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Eric Johnson, Robert Cray, Gov't Mule, Philip Sayce, and Warren Haynes.
WQRS is an American company which makes piano rolls. During the 1920s and early 1930s, it also produced three short-lived record series.
WThe Weekend Beatnik is a British independent record label, which specialises in the reissue of albums within the world, folk, blues and acoustic music genres, often issuing albums in CD format for the first time. The company policy is to provide "maxi-length, mid-price CDs with in-depth notes and archive photos". The firm was founded by Ian A. Anderson, editor of fRoots magazine, as a subsidiary of his company, Southern Rag Ltd, originally formed to publish fRoots magazine under its earlier incarnation as Southern Rag. The label's tagline is "Ahead of Their Time". Most albums were originally issued on the sister Rogue Records label, also created by Anderson.
WRooster Blues is an American independent record label founded in 1980.
WRounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Alison Krauss and Union Station, George Thorogood, Tony Rice, and Béla Fleck, in addition to re-releases of seminal albums by artists such as the Carter Family, Jelly Roll Morton, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie. "Championing and preserving the music of artists whose music falls outside of the mainstream," Rounder releases have won 54 Grammy Awards representing diverse genres, from bluegrass, folk, reggae, and gospel to pop, rock, Americana, polka and world music. Acquired by Concord in 2010, Rounder is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
WRuf Records is a German independent record label, which was founded in 1994 by Luther Allison’s manager, Thomas Ruf, to promote Allison's career. The motto of the blues label is "Where Blues Crosses Over". The company's office is located in Lindewerra, Germany. As of 2008, Ruf had produced 120 releases, sold over one million albums, received two Grammy nominations and ten Blues Music Award nominations.
WSpecialty Records was an American record label founded in Los Angeles in 1945 by Art Rupe. It was known for rhythm and blues, gospel, and early rock and roll, having recorded Little Richard, Guitar Slim, Percy Mayfield, and Lloyd Price. Rupe started the company under the name Juke Box Records but changed it to Specialty when he parted company with a couple of his original partners.
WStony Plain Records is a Canadian independent record label, which specializes in roots music genres such as country, folk, and blues. The label has released more than 300 albums.
WSun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee in February 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Prior to that, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues and wanted to bring it to a white audience.
WTakoma Records was a small but influential record label founded by guitarist John Fahey in the late 1950s. It was named after Fahey's hometown, Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
WTops Records was a Los Angeles-based record label owned by Tops Music Enterprises, both founded in 1947 by Carl L. Doshay and Sam Dickerman. After a prolific and profitable run, Tops merged with PRI Records in 1958, which in turn, sold to a group of investors in 1960, then went bankrupt in about 1962. Its assets — which included a huge library of recordings — were sold to Pickwick Records, a label that had been its main competitor throughout the 1950s. Pickwick's assets were purchased by PolyGram Records in the late 1970s. In 1990, Tom Ficara and Combined Artists acquired the Tops / PRI catalog.
WTrumpet Records was an American record company founded by Lillian McMurry in Jackson, Mississippi in 1951. Although it existed for only four years, it was influential.
WVanguard Records is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal jazz, folk, and blues musicians. The Bach Guild was a subsidiary label.
WVee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
WThe Village Thing was an independent record label in the United Kingdom which published folk rock, blues and acoustic music between 1970 and 1973, under the tag of "The Alternative Folk Label".
WVocalion Records is an American record company and label.
WThe Weekend Beatnik is a British independent record label, which specialises in the reissue of albums within the world, folk, blues and acoustic music genres, often issuing albums in CD format for the first time. The company policy is to provide "maxi-length, mid-price CDs with in-depth notes and archive photos". The firm was founded by Ian A. Anderson, editor of fRoots magazine, as a subsidiary of his company, Southern Rag Ltd, originally formed to publish fRoots magazine under its earlier incarnation as Southern Rag. The label's tagline is "Ahead of Their Time". Most albums were originally issued on the sister Rogue Records label, also created by Anderson.
WYambo Records was a blues record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded by arranger and composer Willie Dixon in the late 1960s after he left Chess Records. Yambo Records also had two subsidiary labels, Spoonful and Supreme. The label was based at 7711 South Racine Avenue in Chicago, along with Dixon's related companies Blues Factory and Soul Productions. It was distributed by Summit Distributors in Skokie, Illinois. Dixon recorded and released his 1971 album Peace? on Yambo. He also released several singles, including the hit "1, 2, 3, 4" by five-year-old Lucky Peterson. The label closed in the mid-1970s.
WYazoo Records was an American record label founded in the mid-1960s by Nick Perls. It specialized in early American blues, country, jazz, and other rural American genres collectively known as roots music.
WYellow Dog Records is an American independent record label based in Memphis, Tennessee that features authentic American music: blues, soul and Americana. It was founded in 2002 to support independent musicians on its roster with recording, production, promotion and distribution.