| Scepter Records | |
| Parent: | Gusto Records |
| Founder: | Florence Greenberg |
| Genre: | Pop, soul |
| Country: | U.S. |
| Location: | New York City |
Scepter Records was an American record company founded in 1959 by Florence Greenberg.
Florence Greenberg founded Scepter Records from the $4,000 she received after she sold Tiara Records and the Shirelles to Decca Records. When the Shirelles didn't produce any hits for Decca, they were given back to Greenberg, who promptly signed them.[1]
By 1961, Greenberg had launched a subsidiary, Wand Records. Through the two labels, she launched the careers of not only the Shirelles, but Dionne Warwick, Chuck Jackson, The Kingsmen, B.J. Thomas, Joey Dee, Maxine Brown, The Esquires, Tommy Hunt, The Guess Who, Tammi Terrell, The Independents and B. T. Express, and gave The Isley Brothers their famous hit "Twist and Shout', which was later covered by The Beatles. Other Scepter/Wand subsidiary labels include: Bamboo, Bunky, Cap City, Captain, Citation, Garrison, Jet Stream, Lanie, Madtad, Marlu, Mosaic, Pepper, Realm, Roadshow, Rock'N, Sonday, Spokane, Stop, Tiffany, Toddlin' Town and Treat.[2]
In 1965, Scepter moved its offices to 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York City (a building now famous for housing the legendary Studio 54 disco). The building included warehouse space and its own recording studio. Though few albums of note were recorded at Scepter Studios, one was the influential experimental rock album The Velvet Underground & Nico, much of which was recorded there in April 1966, by engineer John Licata under the supervision of Andy Warhol and Norman Dolph.[3] The album was ranked number 13 on Rolling Stones list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003, re-positioned to number 23 on the 2020 updated list.[4] [5] In 2006, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[6]
Scepter was one of the earliest record labels to release 12-inch singles intended for the nascent disco market.[7] During this revival of the label during the disco era in the 1970s, the label featured LTG Exchange, South Shore Commission, Ultra High Frequency, General Crook, Southside Movement, Armada Orchestra and Bobby Moore.
The label worked with several music industry notables of the period, Marvin Schlachter joined Scepter as a partner in 1960, he became overall vice president and later sold his interest in the label in 1969.[8] [9] Schlachter then ran several other major labels before opening up Prelude Records in 1977.[10] Scepter's main 1960s producer, Luther Dixon, was unparalleled in his field as a songwriter for years.[11] It was also at Scepter that Burt Bacharach came into prominence as a writer and producer. Mel Cheren joined in 1970 as head of production, and together with the vice president for sales Ed Kushins launched West End Records in 1976.[12] Cheren worked with Tom Moulton to create some of the first disco remixes on Scepter's early 12 inch discs in 1975.[13]
Greenberg decided to retire from the business in 1976, and sold her record labels to Springboard International. When Springboard went bankrupt, Gusto Records acquired the catalog. Dionne Warwick arranged to buy her own masters, and the Kingsmen won control of their masters via a highly publicized lawsuit.
In March 2011, the musical Baby It's You!, which told the story of Greenberg and the development of Scepter Records, premiered on Broadway to lukewarm-to-poor reviews.[14]