Imperial Records, Part 1 - 1947-50 this week on the Juke In The Back!

The "Juke In The Back" focuses on the " soul that came before rock n' roll," the records that inspired Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and countless others.
Imperial Records was a major player among the indie labels of the late 1940s and the entirety of the 1950s. Started in Los Angeles in 1946 by Lew Chudd, a Canadian raised in Harlem, Imperial began filling the ethnic and cultural voids left by the majors at the time. Chudd knew there was a large market for Latino Music in America, so he headed to Mexico City and recorded some Mexican jump bands that sold very well. He then included square dance records which also racked up sales as now square dances could be held without callers. He began recording Rhythm & Blues in 1947 and by '49, he had hired Dave Bartholomew to scout talent in fertile New Orleans. The Braun Brothers had beat him to The Crescent City by recording Paul Gayten and Annie Laurie first, but with Bartholomew's help, Chudd was able to sign Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Archibald and Jewel King, dominating the New Orleans R&B scene.
This week, we begin a series looking at the huge impact that Imperial Records had on R&B during the late 1940s into the mid-1950s. In part 1, Matt The Cat will showcase Imperial's earliest R&B releases from 1947-1950. We'll see how the boogie woogie stylings of Dick Lewis, "Poison" Gardner, Charlie "Boogie Woogie" Davis and Lloyd Glenn gave way to the New Orleans blues of Tommy Ridgley, Jewel King, Smiley Lewis and Fats Domino, who would become the biggest artist ever on the Imperial label.
It's Imperial Records, part 1 on this week's "Juke In The Back."
Join Matt the Cat for "Juke in the Back", Thursday morning at 4 AM Eastern, with an encore presentation, Sunday afternoon at 3 PM Eastern, after "The All 80s Show" with Gary G and before "The Song Remembers When" with Melissa Ricobono, on Mushroom FM, the home of the fun guys, making four decades of magic mushroom memories!
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