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- In 1953, Vivian Carter Bracken and her husband, James, borrowed $500 from a pawnbroker because they wanted to record a group they'd found in Gary, Ind., where they owned a record store. They took their initials, V and J, and Vee-Jay Records was born.
www.npr.org › 2008/01/15 › 18112344
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Vee-Jay Records filed for bankruptcy in August 1966. The assets were subsequently purchased by label executives Betty Chiappetta and Randy Wood (not the Dot Records founder), who changed its name to Vee-Jay International.
Feb 20, 2023 · They started Vee-Jay, named after the first letters of their first names, with a $500 loan from a local pawnbroker. The first signed act was a doo-wop group, the Spaniels. Their debut single,...
Feb 23, 2022 · At Vee Jay, Abner tapped the robust national network of Black DJs, distributors and retailers that he’d established at Chance. Crucially, he knew how to get Vee Jay’s records on the radio.
- Bryan Greene
Vee-Jay records was founded by husband-and-wife team Vivian Carter and James Bracken in 1953—taking the label’s name from their first initials—with $500 they borrowed from a pawnbroker.
Vee-Jay Records was launched in 1953 as an offshoot of a Gary, Indiana record shop owned by the aforementioned Vivian Carter and her soon-to-be husband James Bracken. Vivian (1921-1989) was something of a local celebrity—a velvet-voiced charmer who hosted a popular radio show, “Livin’ with Vivian,” on Gary stations WGRY and WWCA.
Jan 15, 2008 · It's not often that you hear of a record company being destroyed by success, but that was the fate of one of America's most prominent soul labels, Vee-Jay Records. They recorded John Lee Hooker...
Aug 21, 2007 · Thirteen years later, Vee-Jay Records became the country's biggest independent, black-owned record label, and for a time, it was bigger than Motown. Vee-Jay was even the Beatles' first...
