Various Artists - Hy Weiss Presents Old Town Records (2003 + Booklet) 2 x CD Ace - Rare Blues/R&B/Soul (FLAC 1.02GB)

Hyman Y. "Hy" Weiss was born in 1923 & passed in 2007. He was an American record producer of pop and rhythm and blues music in the 1950s and 1960s, and the founder of Old Town Records that soul/R&B fans & collectors know so very well. Born to a Jewish family in Cuca, Argeș County, Romania, he was an immigrant to the United States as a baby in 1924 and was brought up in the Bronx, New York. There, he established a friendship with Morris Levy who owned Roulette Records, a pair of street wise New York Businessmen. He served in the US Army Air Force in World War II, before working briefly as a bouncer and as a furrier. He started in the music industry as a record salesman, and set up Parody Records with his brother Sam in 1949. His record label, Old Town Records, was established in August 1953 and was active until 1966. Weiss took sole control of the label in 1956. He was primarily a producer of doo wop groups, as well as blues music. Old Town had its first hit with the 1958 single "We Belong Together" by Robert & Johnny, and had further hits by Billy Bland, the Solitaires, the Capris, the Earls, and others. The Old Town catalog was sold by Weiss to Atlantic Records in 1970. Subsequently, Weiss worked for Stax Records. He had a co-writer credit for the song "Foggy Notion" by the Velvet Underground, along with all the members of the band. Weiss revived Old Town as a vehicle for Arthur Prysock in 1973 and kept the label going until about 1978. Weiss was described as one of the most colorful characters of the New York independent record business and as brash, miserable and explosive in equal measure. He had a bulging contacts book and was both courted and feared in an industry notoriously not for the faint hearted. He was associated with the practice of "payola", being credited as the inventor of the "$50 handshake", and once said: "Why waste time going out with someone you don't like, and sit down and feast with them when you can't stand them? Just give them the money and let them play the  f-----g record!..Tough man but what a legacy he left behind him!..The booklet is a fantastic read guys from a great Double Album!..Tasters all northern..

AMM

                                                                                                         The Tasters!