Syd Nathan

Induction Year: 1997

Induction Category: Non-Performer

Inductee: Syd Nathan (born April 27, 1904, died March 5, 1968)

Syd Nathan was an old-school music-business entrepreneur who launched the careers of , and other R&B greats on his King Records label and its affiliates. A frustrated musician who yearned to be a jazz drummer, he instead transformed the musical landscape with his King Records Company. He went from owning a record store in downtown Cincinnati in the late Thirties to launching his own recording studio and label in the Forties. Over the next quarter century, King, Federal, DeLuxe and other Nathan-owned labels issued nearly 500 hit singles in a cross-section of genres.

Nathan set up shop in an old icehouse on Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati. The first records on the King label appeared in 1943. He aimed to reach otherwise untapped niche markets, providing country-music records to whites who’d relocated to the Midwest from Appalachia and rhythm & blues records to black urban dwellers who’d moved up from the South. In the process of working with black R&B and white country artists, Nathan helped effect a cross-pollination of the two worlds, thereby helping lay the groundwork for the musical hybrid known as rock and roll. The record labels launched or acquired by Nathan included King, Queen, DeLuxe, Federal, Glory, Bethlehem, Audio Lab and Beltone.

Nathan’s talent scouts scoured the industrial North and rural South for blues, R&B, jazz and country musicians. In addition to , whose R&B smash “Work With Me Annie” helped give the Cincinnati-based enterprise a national profile, the roster of artists who recorded for King and its affiliates included , Billy Ward and the Dominos, Bill Doggett, Earl Bostic, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Wynonie Harris, Bullmoose Jackson, the Delmore Brothers, Moon Mullican, Grandpa Jones and Cowboy Copas. The biggest star of all was , who was brought to King by A&R man in early 1956. As Brown told writer Gerri Hirshey decades later, “I would be telling a lie if I said I would be a world star without the help of men like Mr. Nathan. He was the first one willing to take a chance on me.” King hit its commercial peak in 1963, when Brown’s Live at the Apollo, Vol. I rose to #2 on the album charts.

TIMELINE

April 27, 1904: Syd Nathan is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1943: Queen record label is formed in Cincinnati, Ohio by Syd Nathan.

November 10, 1943: The first records on Syd Nathan’s Queen label are released.

1947: The Cincinnati-based Queen label changes name to King.

April 10, 1954: “Work With Me Annie,” by and the Midnighters, is released on Syd Nathan’s Federal label. It begins a half-year run on the R&B charts, which it tops for seven weeks. The same year “Sexy Ways” and “Annie Had a Baby” are released.

March 3, 1956: “Please, Please, Please,” ’s first single for Syd Nathan’s Federal label (a King subsidiary), is released, thereby launching the career of this legendary soul singer.

August 18, 1956: Syd Nathan cracks the rock and roll market when “Honky Tonk,” an instrumental by Bill Doggett released on the King label, enters the pop charts. It reaches #2, topped only by Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender.”

1956: ‘Dance to the Beat of Bostic’, by alto sax player Earl Bostic, is the first 12” long-playing album released on King Records. Prior to this, the label had issued its albums in the 10” format.

1960: Syd Nathan acquires the New York-based jazz label Bethlehem and moves its offices to Cincinnati.

October 24, 1962: Against the objections of Syd Nathan, who felt that no one would be interested in a live album of previously released material, records his performance at New York’s Apollo Theater.

June 30, 1963: ’s ‘Live at the Apollo, Vol. 1,’ is released. Reaching #2 on the album charts, it the most successful album issued by Syd Nathan’s King Records. This same year, King/Federal releases albums by and the Midnighters, Freddy King, Earl Bostic and the Stanley Brothers.

August 7, 1965: “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” the all-time biggest hit on Syd Nathan’s King Records, enters the Top Forty. It tops the R&B chart for eight weeks and reaches #8 on the pop chart.

March 5, 1968: Syd Nathan dies of heart disease in Miami Beach, Florida.

October 9, 1968: King Records is sold to Nashville-based Starday Records.

May 6, 1997: Syd Nathan is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the twelfth annual induction dinner. is the presenter.

Recommended Reading

“Syd Nathan: He Was Rock Music’s Unlikeliest Legend.”
Barry M. Horstman. Cincinnati Post (February 4, 1999).

The King Labels: A Discography
Michael Ruppli. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.