| Vee Jay Records |
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Vee-Jay Records was a Record Label , specializing in Blues , Jazz , Rhythm And Blues and Rock And Roll . It was owned and operated by African American s. Vee-Jay was founded in Gary , Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken , a husband-and-wife team who used their initials for the label’s name. Vivian's brother, Calvin Carter , was the label's A&R man. Ewart Abner , formerly of Chance Records , joined the label in 1955 , first as manager, then as vice president, and ultimately, as president. The label quickly became a major R&B label, with the first song recorded making it to the top ten on the national R&B charts. Vee-Jay Records filed for bankruptcy in August 1966 . Major acts on the label included Jimmy Reed , Memphis Slim , John Lee Hooker , Jerry Butler , Gene Chandler , The Four Seasons , Hoyt Axton , Betty Everett , Little Richard (who re-recorded his Specialty Records hits in the early 1960s ), and, before he became successful, Billy Preston . Vee-Jay's jazz releases formed a small portion of the company's releases, but include releases by Wynton Kelly , Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter . The A&R for the jazz releases was Sid McCoy . The label also released early Beatles material ("Please Please Me", "From Me to You" via Vee-Jay and "Love Me Do" via its subsidiary Tollie Records ), because EMI's autonomous United States company Capitol initially refused to release Beatles records. Vee-Jay's releases were at first unsuccessful, but quickly became huge once the British Invasion took off in early 1964 , selling 2.6 million Beatles singles in a single month. Cash flow problems caused by the leasing of the British act's records are generally given as an explanation of the company's demise. Since 2000 , U.S. based record label Collectables Records has been remastering and reissuing the Vee-Jay catalog on Audio CD. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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