X-Nico

unusual facts about Specialty Records



Bessie Griffin

After moving to Los Angeles she was signed in 1956 by Art Rupe of Specialty Records.

Don and Dewey

Later that year they were signed by Art Rupe's Specialty Records label and for the next two years produced rock and roll.

Lloyd Price

His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" was a huge hit on Specialty Records in 1952, and although he continued to turn out records, none were as popular until several years later, when he refined the New Orleans beat and achieved a series of national hits.

When Art Rupe of Specialty Records came to New Orleans scouting for talent and heard Price's song, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", he wanted to record it.

Wynona Carr

Being tipped by The Pilgrim Travelers, who shared a bill with Carr in the late 1940s, Art Rupe signed her to his Specialty label, giving Carr her new stage name "Sister" Wynona Carr (modelled after pioneering gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and cutting some twenty sides with her from 1949 to 1954, including a couple of duets with Specialty's biggest gospel star at the time, Brother Joe May.

Both Carr's gospel and R&B recordings went largely unappreciated during the time they were released, but found a new audience when Specialty Records released two CDs, covering Carr's entire output on the label and adding previously unreleased material, such as a recording with Rev. C.L. Franklin (father of Aretha Franklin) and his New Bethel Baptist Church Choir in Detroit.


see also

Rupe

Art Rupe (born 1917), the founder of the record label Specialty Records

WEA Manufacturing

WEA Manufacturing Inc. was created in 1978–1979 when Warner Communications Inc. (WCI) purchased two of its longtime suppliers: the record pressing plants Specialty Records Corporation (Olyphant, Pennsylvania) and Allied Record Company (Los Angeles).