Duke Records was an American record label, started in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1952 by David James Mattis (WDIA program director and DJ) and Bill Fitzgerald, owners of Tri-State Recording Company. Their first release was Roscoe Gordon singing "Hey Fat Girl", issued on Duke R-1, later amended to R-101.
After forming a partnership with Mattis in the summer of 1952, Don Robey (founder of Houston's Peacock Records) took control of Duke. Both labels then headquartered at his Bronze Peacock club at 2809 Erastus Street in Houston, focusing on R&B and gospel music. Robey started a subsidiary, Back Beat Records, in 1957 and this later specialised in soul music.
Robey sold his labels to ABC Dunhill Records on 23 May 1973.
Artists who recorded on Duke, Peacock and Back Beat included:
- Buddy Ace
- Johnny Ace
- Bobby "Blue" Bland
- Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown
- Carl Carlton
- Larry Davis
- Ernie K Doe
- Jerry Foster
- Roscoe Gordon
- Roy Head
- Joe Hinton
- Long John Hunter
- Little Frankie Lee
- Junior Parker
- Fenton Robinson
- Otis Rush
- Big Mama Thornton
- Lavelle White
- Lester Williams
- Andy Wilson
- O.V. Wright
Famous quotes containing the words duke and/or records:
“I hate the whole race.... There is no believing a word they say—your professional poets, I mean—there never existed a more worthless set than Byron and his friends for example.”
—Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke Wellington (1769–1852)
“In America, the photographer is not simply the person who records the past, but the one who invents it.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)