Roulette Records
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Roulette Records is a record label which was started late 1956 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Khals, but the label was soon sold to Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Morris Levy was appointed director of the label.
Some years later they sold the label to Levy, to found Avco Records. Levy grouped Gee, Rama and Tico into Roulette Records. Some years later he also bought Gone Records and End Records from Goldner. In 1958 Roost Records was purchased. In 1981 Henry Stone turned to Morris to help salvage the demise of TK Records, so they setup Sunnyview Records under the Roulette umbrella. In 1986 Morris was exposed and convicted for extorting money from an FBI wired, small-time music wholesaler named John LaMonte. He fled the country while awaiting his appeal, and died shortly after. In 1989 Roulette Records was sold to a consortium off EMI and Rhino Records. Rhino has the rights to the pop/R&B catalogue in North America while EMI has the rights in the rest of the world. EMI has the global rights to the jazz catalogue and the Roulette name. Among it's roster of stars were Tommy James and the Shondells ("Mony Mony"), Count Basie and "Little" Esther Philips.
Today, EMI uses the Roulette name for the reissue of Roulette label material. In the United States, Blue Note Records handles the Roulette jazz catalogue for release on the Roulette Jazz label.
See also
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