Biography

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 James Brown, Hank Ballard 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 ...