Paul Clayton

Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009. Elektra was formed in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt in Holzman's St. John's... College dorm room. Each invested $300. The usual spelling of the Greek mythological Pleiad Electra was changed. Holzman famously explained, “I gave her the ‘K’ that I lacked”. He found the 'C' in the original name "too soft" but liked the "solid bite" of the letter 'K', citing its use in the Kodak name. The first Elektra LP, New Songs , was a collection of Lieder and similar 'art' songs which sold few copies. During the Fifties and early Sixties the label concentrated on folk music recordings, releasing a number of best-selling albums by Theodore Bikel, Ed McCurdy, Oscar Brand, Judy Collins and protest singers such as Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton. Holzman also recorded Josh White, who was without a record deal as a result of McCarthyite blacklisting. In 1964, Elektra launched Nonesuch Records.
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Monument Records was an American record label, Washington, D.C. named for the Washington Monument, founded in 1958, by Fred Foster and Buddy Deane . Buddy Deane soon left the company, and in the early 60's bought KOTN in Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he retired to until his death. Foster relocated to... the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Monument Record releases include a variety of genres, including rock and roll, country, jazz and rhythm and blues. In the beginning, Monument was the first of London Records distributed labels. Monument Records' first release in October 1958, was also the label's first hit. Billy Grammer's "Gotta Travel On", became a U.S. Top 5 Billboard record chart success which sold over 900,000 copies. It also spawned a nation-wide dance craze called "The Shag". The signing of the former Sun Records singer, Roy Orbison, brought more success to Monument Records, beginning with the 1960 release, "Only the Lonely". By 1961, London Records was distributing more than forty independent companies, prompting Foster to move Monument to the independent-distributor network.
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Tradition Records was an American record label that existed from 1955 to 1961. The label was founded by Guggenheim heiress Diane Hamilton in 1956. Its first president and director was Patrick "Paddy" Clancy, who was soon to join his brothers and Tommy Makem, as part of the new Irish folk group,... The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. The label may possibly have originally begun as a non-commercial exercise, but once popular artists and groups like The Clancy Brothers, Odetta, and Jean Ritchie recorded on the Tradition Label, it began to generate profits. When The Clancy Brothers signed with Columbia Records in 1961, the label ceased to be viable, and the catalogue was sold to "Everest Records". Some Tradition recordings were issued without any notes in haphazard permutations. Later Rykodisc bought the rights, and issued several recordings under the "Tradition" logo. Some of these were actually from the Everest catalogue. The history is cloudy, but Dizzy Gillespie, Erroll Garner, Coleman Hawkins and Jimmy Witherspoon almost certainly never recorded for Tradition, though recent issues would suggest they did.
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