In 1950,
Cy Leslie formed
Pickwick Records out of the ashes of children's music label
Voco records. Before that, he was in the recorded greeting card business. By '53 he was building his budget LP empire. This would eventually include the
Design,
Bravo,
International Award,
Hurrah,
Hilltop,
Quintessence and
Grand Prix imprints as well as very popular children's records on the
Cricket,
Mr. Pickwick and
Happy Times labels. In the UK many releases were issued under the
Hallmark Records moniker. Specializing in genre releases early on, the focus was on the honky tonk piano, lounge and pop vocal market. Utilizing unknown session players and stock photography, Pickwick filled dimestores with cheap fodder. Later licensing agreements with major labels like
Capitol,
Motown and
RCA brought a bit of legitimacy, but the company was still churning out plenty of fodder. A favorite subgenre of mine is the hit movie exploitation album. (I've been saving images from various film exploitation albums for a future posting.) Especially prevalent in the UK during the late 60's and early 70's were compilation albums by
Top of the Pops,
Mirror Image,
Kings Road and a host of other phony bands doing covers with production values seemingly just a step above
MSR level recordings.
In 1950, Cy Leslie formed Pickwick Records out of the ashes of children's music label Voco records. Before that, he was in the recorded greeting card business. By '53 he was building his budget LP empire. This would eventually include the Design, Bravo, International Award, Hurrah, Hilltop, Quintessence and Grand Prix imprints as well as very popular children's records on the Cricket, Mr. Pickwick and Happy Times labels. In the UK many releases were issued under the Hallmark Records moniker. Specializing in genre releases early on, the focus was on the honky tonk piano, lounge and pop vocal market. Utilizing unknown session players and stock photography, Pickwick filled dimestores with cheap fodder. Later licensing agreements with major labels like Capitol, Motown and RCA brought a bit of legitimacy, but the company was still churning out plenty of fodder. A favorite subgenre of mine is the hit movie exploitation album. (I've been saving images from various film exploitation albums for a future posting.) Especially prevalent in the UK during the late 60's and early 70's were compilation albums by Top of the Pops, Mirror Image, Kings Road and a host of other phony bands doing covers with production values seemingly just a step above MSR level recordings.