The History of Starday Records: (2/3) The Formative Years, Songs By: Willis Brothers, Clyde Moody

The History of Starday Records: The Formative Years (2/3)

In 1953, Don Pierce bought into the label and became President of Starday. Daily continued as head of Artists & Repertoire (A&R). Shortly after this, Pierce bought the Hollywood label from John Dolphin, and consolidated the Starday offices with the Hollywood label's offices in Los Angeles California. Starnes share of Starday was purchased by Daily and Pierce in June 1955. In 1957, both Starday and Hollywood Records were moved to Madison Tennessee.

Starday's major discovery and the reason for its stable ascendancy was the masterful honky-tonk stylist George Jones from Saratoga, Texas. In 1954, a young ex-Marine named George Jones was playing in Starnes' club. Starnes decided to cut some records with Jones and brought in Daily to help produce his first session. The records were cut in Starnes' living room on a Magnecord home recorder. Jones initially sounded like his idols Roy Acuff and Lefty Frizzell, but Daily told him to develop his own style. His first release was No Money in This Deal. The record didn't sell well, but in 1955, Jones recorded his first hit titled, Why Baby Why (N. 4, 1955). From 1954 to 1958, George was the mainstay of the label recording exclusively for Starday. Together with Don Pierce (who replaced Starnes at Starday), Daily worked extensively with George Jones to further his career. Their collaboration generated six top-ten singles, including Why, Baby Why (No. 4, 1955), What Am I Worth (No. 7, 1956), You Gotta Be My Baby (No. 7, 1956), Just One More (No. 3, 1956) and a duet with Jeannette Hicks titled, Yearning (No. 10, 1957). If Daily and Pearce had just given us George Jones, their place in history would be secure. George Jones has been one of the most significant country artist of the post-Hank Williams era and his career was nurtured on Starday. Daily and Pearce's finger-prints were all over the country and rockabilly map of the 1950s. Their working relationship was an ideal one. Daily made all the musical decisions, while Pearce excelled at the business; working with managers, agents, bookers and DJs. This gave him easy access to many new artists for the label's custom pressing series.

The duo split in 1958 with Daily producing Chantilly Lace by the ill-fated Big Bopper on D, before moving on to be a producer at Mercury Records. Pearce carried on with Starday, hitting the Top 10 with Frankie Miller, Cowboy Copas, Johnny Bond and Red After Daily left the label, his interest in Starday was purchased by Don Pierce and Tommy Hill was responsible for much of the A&R work. Starday recorded country music almost exclusively, and Pierce continued to grow the label starting the careers of Roger Miller, Jimmy Dean and Dottie West. Starday also had an extensive stable of bluegrass acts, including the Stanley Brothers, Bill Clifton and Carl Story. Pierce was able to revive the career of Cowboy Copas, who signed with the label in 1959. Pierce also recorded some of the country music pioneers on the label including Pee Wee King, Moon Mullican, Smiley Burnette, Curly Fox , Texas Ruby, T. Texas Tyler and Lulu Belle & Scotty, Starday had the misfortune to see Cowboy Copas killed in a plane crash on March 5, 1963, near Camden, Tennessee. Alabam.

By the mid 1960s, Starday had become the big name in "truck driver music," a subgenre of country music that related to big rigs and truck stops, with endless stories about the road, fast women, drinking, highway police, etc. A typical song in this vein is Red Sovine's "Phantom 309" (No.XX). 1968, Starday purchased the King Label of Cincinnati, Ohio. This powerhouse independent label had a strong country catalog as well as a strong R&B catalog with James Brown, Little Willie John, Freddie King and Hank Ballard among others. Three years later, Pierce sold Starday-King to Lin Broadcasting for about five million dollars and retired from the record business.

After selling the label Pierce went into land development. He died on April 3, 2005. Harold Pappy Daily died on December 5, 1987, in Houston.

~ RJB: Country Music Historian, 8/2010

Also see: The History of Starday Records: ~ The Establishment, (1/3)
Also see: The History of Starday Records: The Recording Artist (3/3)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• movie
• 23

[nathandgibson]

thanks so much for the vids! as a heads up, my book on starday records with don pierce just came out, available on amazon right now, which may help clarify some of your history above... thanks!

[FAUSTORICCARDO]

Videos always complete of many infos; interesting.

Grazie Bell

[jtls8]

Again thank you for keeping the greatest music ever made alive and the great history info!!!!!