Air Week: September 2-8, 2024

This week, it’s part 3 of a 10-part series on the great King Record Label, out of Cincinnati. Syd Nathan, who began putting out records under the King logo in 1943, developed King as a hillbilly music label. After a rough start, he relaunched King in 1944 with investment from his various family members. Nathan, seeing sales potential in the Rhythm & Blues market, launched the Queen Records subsidiary in 1945, but folded it into King in 1947 and transferred his R&B acts over. King established itself in the R&B field with Bull Moose Jackson, Ivory Joe Hunter, Wynonie Harris and Lonnie Johnson all scoring enormous hit records. This week in part 3, we take a look at King’s spectacular releases at the end of 1948 and through most of ’49. Wynonie Harris would score his biggest hit in ’49 with the multi-week chart-topper “All She Wants To Do Is Rock,” while both Lonnie Johnson and Ivory Joe Hunter would have records stall at #2 on the chart. Bull Moose Jackson continues to score hits while King finds major success with a few instrumentals by Joe Thomas and Todd Rhodes. So get ready to groove as we continue our salute to King Records in part 3 on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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