So you really must watch King of Them All: The Story of King Records, currently on demand at PBS and also in entirety on YouTube. In the days or formative R&B and rock ‘n’ roll, Memphis had Sun and later Stax, Chicago had Chess, Houston had Duke/Peacock, Shreveport had Jewel/Ronn, New Orleans had Imperial, and Cincinnati had King/Federal.
The PBS documentary traces the life of Syd Nathan, a Jewish native of Cincinnati, who launched King Records initially as a hillbilly and country label (Grandpa Jones, The Delmores, Moon Mullican). With the enlistment of staff writer and producer Henry Glover, a Black man who was as much at home with hillbilly as he was blues and R&B, King spawned a Black music initiative, eventually signing Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Roy Brown, Bill Doggett (whose “Honky Tonk” instrumental is heard at the start and finish of the program), Champion Jack Dupree, Ivory Joe Hunter, Joe Tex, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, and Otis Williams & the Charms. Occasionally the country artists and R&B artists would record the same song, with very different takes.
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