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Pickwick Records
Pickwick Records was an American record label and British record distributor known for its budget album releases of sound-alike recordings, bargain bin reissues, and repackagings under the brands Design, Bravo (later changing its name to International Award), Hurrah, and Grand Prix, and children's records on the Cricket and Happy Time labels.
The label is also known for distributing music by smaller labels such as Sonny Lester's Groove Merchant, Gene Redd's De-Lite Records, Chart Records, and the Swedish label Sonet Records (for which it distributed late-1960s recordings by Bill Haley & His Comets in Canada and the US). They also issued records from Britain's Hallmark Records label.
Pickwick Records (originally formed as Pickwick Sales Corporation, later Pickwick International) was founded in 1950 by Cy Leslie, whose first business was a recorded greeting-card service that in 1946 turned into Voco Records, a label of children's records. In 1957, after successfully marketing its Cricket children's label of 78 and 45 rpm records, Pickwick entered the LP market with low-priced records, beginning with its Design label. The albums from the 1960s into the early 1970s bore the "Pickwick/33" imprint.
Singer-songwriter Lou Reed once worked as a staff songwriter for Pickwick Records, and gained experience in its small recording studio. Several of Pickwick's sound-alike albums from 1964 to 1965 feature Reed as an uncredited session musician. Two of his songs, "Cycle Annie" (credited to the Beachnuts) and "You're Driving Me Insane" (as the Roughnecks), both appeared on the Soundsville! compilation in 1965. "The Ostrich" and "Sneaky Pete", two earlier songs by Reed, united him with John Cale, leading to their founding of the Velvet Underground. In 2024, Light In The Attic Records released a compilation of his main contributions on Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65.
Amos Heilicher and his brother Daniel Heilicher merged their Musicland retail chain with Pickwick International in the late 1960s. Capitol Records had an early interest in Pickwick, and many Capitol artists, including Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, and Nat King Cole, had recordings issued on Pickwick; however, Capitol sold its share in the company in 1970.
In the mid-1970s, Pickwick began reissuing LPs that had been deleted from catalogues of the major record labels, including the RCA Records budget reissue label RCA Camden. Most notably, Pickwick obtained the rights to reissue RCA Camden albums featuring recordings by Elvis Presley. Pickwick reissued an edited version of Presley's RCA Victor soundtrack album of Frankie and Johnny, a two-record set titled Double Dynamite, a collection of mostly movie songs and Mahalo from Elvis, an album featuring unissued tracks recorded for Presley's Aloha From Hawaii TV special in 1973. After Presley's unexpected death in August 1977, sales of his recordings increased dramatically and RCA reclaimed the rights to Presley's Camden releases from Pickwick.
Pickwick also reissued numerous LPs from the Motown catalogue during the 1970s. On many of these albums, the cover art was changed and/or the track listing was altered (with two or more songs deleted). In the early 1980s, Motown began reissuing its own catalogue albums, thus ending Pickwick's series.
Pickwick launched the subsidiary label P.I.P and began distributing Gene Redd's De-Lite Records, to issue original material. De-Lite hit it big in 1974 and 1975 with million-selling singles and albums by funk band Kool & The Gang. P.I.P had a few big dance-club hits with "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)" and "Drive My Car" by Gary Toms Empire in 1975.
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Pickwick Records
Pickwick Records was an American record label and British record distributor known for its budget album releases of sound-alike recordings, bargain bin reissues, and repackagings under the brands Design, Bravo (later changing its name to International Award), Hurrah, and Grand Prix, and children's records on the Cricket and Happy Time labels.
The label is also known for distributing music by smaller labels such as Sonny Lester's Groove Merchant, Gene Redd's De-Lite Records, Chart Records, and the Swedish label Sonet Records (for which it distributed late-1960s recordings by Bill Haley & His Comets in Canada and the US). They also issued records from Britain's Hallmark Records label.
Pickwick Records (originally formed as Pickwick Sales Corporation, later Pickwick International) was founded in 1950 by Cy Leslie, whose first business was a recorded greeting-card service that in 1946 turned into Voco Records, a label of children's records. In 1957, after successfully marketing its Cricket children's label of 78 and 45 rpm records, Pickwick entered the LP market with low-priced records, beginning with its Design label. The albums from the 1960s into the early 1970s bore the "Pickwick/33" imprint.
Singer-songwriter Lou Reed once worked as a staff songwriter for Pickwick Records, and gained experience in its small recording studio. Several of Pickwick's sound-alike albums from 1964 to 1965 feature Reed as an uncredited session musician. Two of his songs, "Cycle Annie" (credited to the Beachnuts) and "You're Driving Me Insane" (as the Roughnecks), both appeared on the Soundsville! compilation in 1965. "The Ostrich" and "Sneaky Pete", two earlier songs by Reed, united him with John Cale, leading to their founding of the Velvet Underground. In 2024, Light In The Attic Records released a compilation of his main contributions on Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65.
Amos Heilicher and his brother Daniel Heilicher merged their Musicland retail chain with Pickwick International in the late 1960s. Capitol Records had an early interest in Pickwick, and many Capitol artists, including Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, and Nat King Cole, had recordings issued on Pickwick; however, Capitol sold its share in the company in 1970.
In the mid-1970s, Pickwick began reissuing LPs that had been deleted from catalogues of the major record labels, including the RCA Records budget reissue label RCA Camden. Most notably, Pickwick obtained the rights to reissue RCA Camden albums featuring recordings by Elvis Presley. Pickwick reissued an edited version of Presley's RCA Victor soundtrack album of Frankie and Johnny, a two-record set titled Double Dynamite, a collection of mostly movie songs and Mahalo from Elvis, an album featuring unissued tracks recorded for Presley's Aloha From Hawaii TV special in 1973. After Presley's unexpected death in August 1977, sales of his recordings increased dramatically and RCA reclaimed the rights to Presley's Camden releases from Pickwick.
Pickwick also reissued numerous LPs from the Motown catalogue during the 1970s. On many of these albums, the cover art was changed and/or the track listing was altered (with two or more songs deleted). In the early 1980s, Motown began reissuing its own catalogue albums, thus ending Pickwick's series.
Pickwick launched the subsidiary label P.I.P and began distributing Gene Redd's De-Lite Records, to issue original material. De-Lite hit it big in 1974 and 1975 with million-selling singles and albums by funk band Kool & The Gang. P.I.P had a few big dance-club hits with "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)" and "Drive My Car" by Gary Toms Empire in 1975.