Tops Records was a giant in the budget record label world in the 1950s. Tops/Mayfield Records set the bar of budget record label releases to an all-time high, blowing the Eli Oberstien and Don Garner record lines out of the water in terms of quality and price. Every new budget record label company that joined the market in the late 1950s typically had, at least, full-color photo jackets and liner notes. Tops also issued their albums in 45 rpm EP sets, a practice larger record labels were employing at the time to make sure they were reaching for as many potential customers as possible.
Tops originally entered the market as a seller of used jukebox records, quickly issuing their own records containing covers of the day's top-charting hits. After success with cover records, they moved on to releasing complete albums of various genres to fill the music interests of the mass market.
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