Crown Records- The Pocket guide to Budget Record Collecting: Part 2

                                          Crown Records.

Crown was just beginning in 1957, its catalog was filled with stars such as B.B. King at the beginning, later it would make all sorts of knock offs, and many big band and background records and others stuff budget labels liked to issue (think generic 50's music, show tunes, pop hits, etc).

A great resource for this label is here; this site has a history (in far more depth than I can write here) and a discography (for those who want more information on the various 650+ releases).

The first release looked like this.

This album featured many wells know rock and roll artists such as the Jacks and the Cadets.

You see, Modern was a Blues and R&B label before it went budget and began issuing these Crown records. The first 25 releases were top-notch in every way; each album was star-studded (Kay Starr, Joe Houston, B.B King, etc.). Then release CLP-5026 comes along and looks like this...

Yep, it is a Glenn Miller tribute album; they didn't even mention the studio group's name on the first issue! Until this album was reissued in 1958 under a different catalog number (CLP-5073), they even bothered to make up a name (it was Phil Martain & His Orchestra)!

Crown then proceeds to issue budget records up into 1972 (again, for more information, go to the website I mentioned above). I will now proceed to show you a couple releases of note. By the way,  if you see any B.B. King release from Crown records at a thrift store, pick it up and guard it (B.B. King albums are very collectible)!

 

CLP-5046, this release featured Crown's most provocative cover ever! 

CST-164/CLP-5161, best Christmas background album ever!

CLP-5233/CST-241 the one of the closest knock-off cover art I have ever seen!

Any Twist album (CLP-5244/CST-247-CLP-5255/CST-255)

Starting at CST-268 (mono issue is 5268, so the last three digits are the exact same), Jazz albums start being released with covers like this.

It was a short-lived series that lasted less than a year.

Then starting at CST/CLP-321 to CST/CLP-429, we have the "Fazzio" covers. Fazzio was the artist's name that airbrushed photos of the featured stars to look like oil paintings. This series Crown releases older material from many artists that you most likely would be familiar with, such as the above "Ahab The Arab" album. However, the trick to these albums would be that the featured artist's (older, not the style the artist was known for) material would only make up two to four tracks, and the rest would be filled up with no-name studio groups and other no-name singers. Many of these "name" albums were reissued in the early '70s to cash in on the 50's nostalgia going on at the time. Those albums ended with the third reissue of the Dave Clark Five album Crown had put out.

Then at CST/CLP-430 Crown's approach to record jacket covers change and also Crown put out a new logo. For the most part, the new covers featured pretty women (make that beautiful woman) and cowboys (for all Crown's country knock-off albums).

Crown issued knock-offs and other generic music albums. However, the greatest knock-offs crown produced had to be the Mexicali Brass albums between 1965 and 1967. The first album The Mexicali Brass put out was the above album; the last Mexicali brass release is so obscure  I have only had the pleasure to see a photo of it only a handful of times. Below are all the other Mexicali Brass covers.

Reissue of the above album, "The Lonely Bull," replaced with "Espana Cani." I happen to own both the original release and this reissue.

After this, the releases are rather scarce, then at CST-571 Crown stopped making mono counterparts and started and made the only stereo releases only (which make collecting easier because I will always find the stereo version from this point on, that's if I can find them).

At this point, Crown is either reissuing or making county and pop knock-off albums. This one is CST-584, which is a reissue of CLP-5035. Below is a series of "Pop" albums that Crown put together between 1968 to 1971. The albums issued in 1972 (the last year that Crown Records) was in operations will be covered shortly.

The Beatles was the top rock band in the '60s and had quite a few hit songs. Crown covered three Beatle tunes, "I Want To Hold You Hand"(CLP-5399/CST-399), " Michelle" (Mexicali Brass CLP-5503/CST-503), and now "Hey Jude" by The Underground Electrics. The studio group was apparently not that great, and I quote from a fellow blogger, "the group would have been kicked out of most bars for being so incompetent."

CST-593

CST-594

CST-600

CST-625

Then In 1972, Crown issued their last albums; these albums were issued to answer the 50's nostalgia scene that was going on in the early '70s.

CST-641

CST-642

CST-644

CST-644 was the final release for Crown Records, as far as I know. This was the second reissue of "The Dave Clark Five and The Playbacks," which was originally issued in 1964 (CST-400), so eight years later, crown was scraping the proverbial bottom of the barrel for things to reissue, and I guess that this album was it. Shortly afterward, the Bihari brothers split up and went their separate ways. So, my friend, that is Crown Records in a nutshell.