HENRY STONE BLACK MUSIC INNOVATOR
Henry Stone
was born and raised on Jackson
Avenue New York City
borough of the Bronx on June 3, 1921. His
family stayed in the Bronx until their move to Manhattan ’s
Washington Heights Pleasantville ,
New York Camp Kilmore in New
Brunswick , New Jersey
Ray Charles
came to Miami
During the
1950s Henry kept busy by building his distribution company and recording local
artists. He says, "I always liked to make records (produce and record
them). That was my hobby. I did a lot of Blues stuff with Earl Hooker, John Lee
Hooker, The Charms’ "Hearts of Stone",
which became an R&B chart #1 hit in 1954. He was also instrumental in
signing James Brown
to King, and in recording Brown’s first hit “Please, Please, Please”
In 1955, he
established his own independent publishing companies and several record labels,
including Chart and Dade, mainly recording local blues artists. In 1960, Stone
cut "(Do The) Mashed Potatoes" by "Nat Kendrick and the
Swans" – actually James Brown's backing band - for the Dade label. He also
set up Tone Distribution (originally Tru-Tone), which became one of the world’s
most successful record distribution companies.
He
would distribute records for Atlantic Records, Motown Records, Stax Records and
many more independent labels right up through the 1960s and 1970s.
Henry’s
success included Betty Wright whose "Clean Up Woman" was a major hit in 1971
on his Alston label. He also set up the Glades label, recording the million
selling hit "Why Can’t We Live Together" by Timmy Thomas. In 1972, Stone formed TK Records (named after
studio owner Terry Kane), based in Hialeah
Florida
Stone’s companies produced numerous other hits during the
1970s, including Beginning of the End’s "Funky Nassau" (on Alston), Latimore’s "Let's Straighten It Out"
(on Glades), Anita Ward’s "Ring My Bell" (on Juana),
Little Beaver’s "Party Down" and
Gwen McCrae’s
"Rockin’ Chair" (both on Cat), and Peter Brown’s "Do Ya Wanna Get Funky
With Me" (on Drive). Two of Stone’s
warehouse employees, Harry Wayne “KC” Casey and Rick Finch, began
collaborating on writing and performing songs, with Stone allowing them to
experiment in the recording studio after hours. As KC and the Sunshine Band, they released a
string of hits such as "Get Down Tonight", "That's The Way I
Like It" and "Shake Your Booty", all on Stone's TK label. The
band had five number one pop singles, and platinum albums, winning five Grammys in
1976. At the same time, Casey and Finch wrote and produced the number one
"Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae,
and his follow-ups.
By the late 1970s, the TK Records and its sister labels
became pre-eminent in the dance and pop music scene, but suffered badly from
the anti-disco movement which followed. TK Records ceased operating by 1981,
and Stone went into partnership with Morris Levy
of Roulette Records to form the Sunnyview label,
issuing records by funk and rap artists such as Newcleus.
Stone later became involved with Hot Productions in the reissue of dance
classics on CD. Today, he continues reissuing R&B and dance tracks on his
own label, The Legendary Henry Stone Presents...
Stone established many different labels on the basis, he
said, that it was easier to get records played if the radio stations did not
realize they came from the same source.
Here’s a brief list of record labels that Henry Stone had an
interest in:
- APA
- Alston (in partnership with Steve
Alaimo)
- Blue Candle
- Bold
- Cat
- Chart
- Dade
- Dash
- Deluxe (in partnership with King
Records)
- Drive
- Glades
- Glory
- Gucci
- Hot Productions
- Kayvette (partnership with Brad
Shapiro)
- Marlin
- Nezz
- Reid’s World
- Rockin’
- Saadia
- Scott
- Silver Blue
- Summer
- Sunnyview (in partnership with
Morris Levy)
- Sunshine Sound Disco (label meant
to spotlight KC & Finch productions)
- T. K. Records / T. K. Productions
- Time-X
