Dial Records

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Dial Records has been the name of more than one record company.

The best-known of these companies was a United States based record label specializing in bebop jazz. Dial was founded by Ross Russell in 1946, who operated the label for about a decade. Notable artists who recorded for Dial included Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach, and Milt Jackson. Dial Records were made by the Tempo Music Shop of Hollywood, California.

Labels of Dial Records said that they were "Contemporary American Music", a dig at the traditionalist American Music Records label.

A second Dial label was formed by Nashville-based song publisher/plugger/producer Buddy Killen in 1964. This label was formed specifically so Killen could record perhaps his best-known discovery, soul singer Joe Tex. After a few tries and misses, Tex came up with a song called "Hold What You've Got," a ballad that bridged traditional rhythm and blues with the emerging Southern soul style and also pointed toward a future of rap thanks to Tex's spoken, almost testifying homily midway through the song. (Tex, in fact, was actually nicknamed "The Rapper" in these years.") "Hold What You've Got" got Killen's Dial label a distribution deal with Atlantic Records. Joe Tex was the anchor star of this Dial label (he rolled up almost thirty soul hits, some of which hit the pop charts, especially "Skinny Legs and All" and "I Gotcha") until he all but retired from music in the 1970s and died of a heart attack at age 49.

A later Dial Records was founded in 1998 by Mike Donovan in San Francisco, California.

Another Dial Records focusing on Electronic and Techno Music in particular was founded in 1999 in Hamburg, Germany by Peter M. Kersten and David Lieske. The Label released influencing Techno 12 Inches and Albums by Artists such as Lawrence, Carsten Jost, Pantha du Prince, Efdemin and others. www.dial-rec.de

Dial Records

See also