Dot Records
Dot Records was an American record label founded by Randy Wood and Gene Nobles that was active between 1950 and 1978. The original headquarters of Dot Records were in Gallatin, Tennessee. In its early years, Dot specialized in artists from Tennessee. Then it branched out to include musicians from across the U.S. It recorded country music, rhythm and blues, polkas, waltzes, gospel, rockabilly, pop, and early rock and roll.
For other uses, see Dot (disambiguation).Dot Records
Independent (1950–57)
Paramount Pictures (1957–72)
Gulf+Western (1966–74)
Famous Music Group (1972–74)
ABC Records (1974–78)
MCA Records (1985–86)
Universal Music Group (2014–17)
1950 (original)
2014 (revival)
1978 (original)
2017 (revival)
Defunct
Self-distributed (1950–68)
Famous Music Group (1968–74)
ABC Records (1974–78)
MCA Records (1985–86)
Big Machine Label Group (2014–17)
Various (early)
Country (later)
U.S.
After moving to Hollywood in 1956, Dot Records bought many recordings by small local independent labels and issued them nationally. In 1957, Wood sold the label to Paramount Pictures, but remained in charge until 1967, when he departed to join Lawrence Welk in the formation of Ranwood Records.
In 1968, the label was acquired as part of the acquisition of Paramount by Gulf+Western, which transitioned it to recording exclusively country music and placed it under the management of Famous Music in 1971. Gulf+Western sold its labels to ABC in 1974. Dot was renamed to ABC-Dot Records before closing in 1978.
The label was reactivated in 2014 through a joint venture between Big Machine Label Group and the Republic Records unit of Universal Music Group (which owns the original Dot Records catalog). Based in Nashville, Tennessee, the label was retired in 2017.[1]
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
Dot's founder, Randy Wood, a veteran of the Army during World War II, settled in Gallatin, Tennessee. There he started an appliance store named Randy's, and began carrying records as an afterthought in 1947. Wood initially carried records in the classical and popular genres, but found his customers were asking for records of such rhythm and blues artists as Joe Liggins, Roosevelt Sykes, and Cecil Gant. They were staples of the playlist of Nashville's CBS Radio affiliate, WLAC.
After discovering that their records were only available only in limited quantities—and not in Gallatin—Wood formed a mail-order operation by placing a short advertisement with WLAC personalities "Hoss" Allen and Gene Nobles. By 1950, his record sales had far surpassed that of the appliances he carried and he renamed his store to Randy's Record Shop. As an extension, he formed a label named Randy's, which released "Gene Nobles' Boogie" by Richard Armstrong, and Record Shop Special, which had Gant on its roster.[2]
After Wood purchased local radio station WHIN, he and Nobles formed Dot, a more widely distributed label, whose first headquarters were in that station's building. Since WHIN was broadcast only in the daytime, recording sessions were at night when the station was off the air.[2]
One of the first artists he recorded was the young Johnny Maddox, who packed records for him at his store, and whose honky tonk piano style graced Dot Records for almost twenty years. Wood's roster of R&B artists included Ivory Joe Hunter, Joe Liggins, the Four Dots, the Big Three Trio, Brownie McGhee, Shorty Long, the Counts, and the Griffin Brothers, who had a number one R&B hit with "Weepin' & Cryin'" (with vocal by Tommy Brown) in 1951. His country artists included Mac Wiseman, who had hits with "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" and "Jimmy Brown the Newsboy", and, more famously, Jimmy "C." Newman, who scored many hits on the label (the biggest being "Cry, Cry, Darling") before leaving for MGM Records in 1958. Wood also recorded such gospel artists as the Fairfield 4, the Gateway Quartet, the Golden Voice Trio, Rosa Shaw, Joe Warren, the Singing Stars, and the Brewsteraires.[2]
Dot's first major pop act was The Hilltoppers, whose hits included "P.S. I Love You" and "Trying"; when lead singer Billy Vaughn hit #2 with a revival of Wayne King's "Melody of Love", he left the group to become the label's main musical director.[2]
Wood, seeing the demand for rhythm and blues recordings among white audiences, in 1955, hired a number of vocalists to do pop-oriented covers of tunes popular in the genre. The most notable artist who performed that function for Dot was Pat Boone, who outsold the original recordings of the Charms' "Two Hearts", Fats Domino's "Ain't It a Shame" (which was changed to the slightly more grammatically correct "Ain't That a Shame"), the Five Keys' "Gee Whittakers!", Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally", the El Dorados' "At My Front Door", and Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Almost Lost My Mind". Boone in the late spring of 1956 opted to switch to original material in the Bing Crosby/Frank Sinatra tradition.
Other notable artists who did R&B covers for Dot included the Fontane Sisters (who covered the Jewels' "Hearts of Stone", the Teen Queens' "Eddie My Love", the Drifters' "Adorable", the Marigolds' "Rollin' Stone", and Fats Domino's "Please Don't Leave Me"), Snooky Lanson (with covers of the Jacks' "Why Don't You Write Me" and the Dream Weavers' "It's Almost Tomorrow"), and actress Gale Storm (with covers of Frankie Lymon's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knocking". (This last was revived by Dave Edmunds in 1970).[2]
In 1956, Dot also made a noteworthy contribution to the Easy Listening genre by releasing a recording of popular music arranged by John Serry (Squeeze Play, DLP-3024, 1956).[3][4][5]