From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Sep 5, 2002  1:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Art Rupe
 
ART RUPE

Born Arthur Goldberg, 5 September 1917, Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Label owner / producer.
Art Rupe was the founder of Specialty Records, the most innovative and
influential independent West Coast record company of the R&B era. For
over a decade, Specialty was at the cutting edge of black music, producing
quality releases in the blues, boogie, gospel and rock 'n' roll fields.
Like other successful independent label founders after him (Ahmet Ertegun,
Leonard Chess, Sam Phillips), Rupe had no musical background. In 1944
he joined Bob Sherman's Atlas Records as a partner. "Atlas was a very,
very bad deal", Rupe told author Arnold Shaw. "I lost my money. But what
I gained was an entree into the recording business." When he started on
his own, Rupe concentrated entirely on back artists, feeling that was the
only area (neglected by the majors) where he could succeed. Before he
began recording, Rupe made a meticulous survey of the market, trying to
find out what records were selling and why. He visited all the shops that
sold black disks, spending almost $200 on records and an all-important
stopwatch. Then he spent hours playing the records over and over and
timing sequences - the length of intros, of choruses, of repeat choruses.
He tried to discover correlations in the records that sold and in those that
didn't sell.
Rupe's first record was an instrumental called "Boogie No. 1" by the Sepia
Tones (August 1944), on his new Jukebox label. It sold well enough to
bring an influx of capital to the label. Several people with money came
knocking on his door and soon he had a number of partners. By the time
Roy Milton's "R.M. Blues" was climbing the R&B charts, Rupe felt that
control of the company was slipping away from him and he established
a new label without partners, Specialty Records, on August 10, 1946.
In 1947 he moved Specialty headquarters to Venice Boulevard in L.A.,
and formed Venice Music for his BMI published songs. Roy Milton renewed
his association with Art Rupe and made a string of successful records for the
label. Specialty had other hits with Joe Lutcher, Jimmy Liggins and Camille
Howard and in 1950 its first R&B # 1 hits, "Pink Champagne" by Joe Liggins
and "Please Send Me Someone To Love" by Percy Mayfield. A short-lived
country and western series was started in 1951. Lloyd Price was signed on
a scouting trip to New Orleans and his "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" gave Specialty
another # 1 R&B hit (1952), as did "The Things I Used To Do" by Guitar Slim
in 1954.
In 1955 Specialty signed what would prove to be the wildest rock and roller
of his generation : Little Richard. He had an immediate hit with "Tutti Frutti"
(# 2 R&B, # 17 pop) and an even bigger hit with the follow-up, "Long Tall Sally"
(# 1 R&B, # 6 pop). Rock 'n' roll had now really hit the music business and
many R&R gems came out on Specialty, but apart from Little Richard's
records, few other Specialty releases achieved the success they deserved.
Larry Williams was another important signing in 1957, scoring big hits with
"Short Fat Fannie" and "Bony Moronie". Little Richard left Specialty before
the end of his contract for a life away from R&R, but there was enough material
in the can to keep him on the charts until 1959. By 1958, Art consolidated his
business interests in other fields and passed much of the responsibility for
day-to-day decision-making to Sonny Bono and Harold Battiste. Perhaps
because of Art's hatred of payola there were few hits. Some white artists
recorded with moderate success, including Jerry Byrne's "Lights Out".
By 1959, Rupe became increasingly disenchanted with the music business
and Specialty was wound down. Until 1964 the label was dormant, then Little
Richard recorded again for Specialty and fresh sides by Don and Dewey and
Percy Mayfield were also issued. While chart action was minimal, Venice
copyrights were recorded by the Beatles, Rolling Stones and other UK groups
and Venice was a hugely successful publishing company in its own right.
The label went back to inactivity during 1965-1969. A few more recordings
came out in 1970, followed by a period of selective re-issues. In 1990, the
Specialty catalogue was sold to Fantasy, Inc., who embarked upon an
extensive CD reissue programme.

Recommended listening: Art Rupe In His Own Words : The Story Of Specialty.
2 CD-set, Ace CDCH2 542.
Further reading: Arnold Shaw, Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years Of
Rhythm and Blues. New York : Macmillan, 1978, page 179-194.
Website: http://www.island.net/~blues/arupe.htm