King Records In The Queen City

Record store owner Syd Nathan established King Records in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1943. Situated just across the Ohio River from more rural, Southern-oriented Kentucky, Nathan recorded country acts who came to town to play on WLW’s Midwestern Hayride and the touring black singers and bands who included Cincinnati on their itinerary. By reputation irascible and penny-pinching, the single-minded Nathan created a uniquely self-sufficient operation with not only a recording studio and publishing company but his own pressing plant, printing press (for labels and sleeves), and distribution system.

Despite being incapable of actually writing a song himself, Nathan regularly bought out the composer rights for nominal sums and claimed authorship under the name Lois Mann. To supervise recordings he hired Henry Glover and Ralph Bass, who pulled together an incomparable roster of performers that included country stars Cowboy Copas and the Delmore Brothers, big band refugees Earl Bostic (alto sax) and Bill Doggett (organ), blues shouters Wynonie Harris and Roy Brown, blues ballad singers Little Esther and Little Willie John, and vocal groups Billy Ward and the Dominoes (featuring first Clyde McPhatter and later Jackie Wilson) and Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. But by far the biggest artist to record for King was the maverick James Brown, who succeeded despite Nathan’s initial skepticism at Bass’s decision to record and release Brown’s first single, “Please, Please, Please” (1956), which launched his remarkable career.