George Goldner

Record producer/executive George Goldner was born in New York City in 1918, the son of immigrant Jewish parents (mother Polish, father Austrian). He grew up in the Turtle Bay section of New York's East Side. As a young man Goldner worked a variety of different jobs--often holding down two or more at the same time--until he got enough money to open up a chain of dance halls in the 1940s. His timing was great, as a craze for Latin music--which he loved--was sweeping the country at the time and his dance halls were making a lot of money. In 1948 he established Tico Records to cater to the Latin market; among its first artists was Latin music icon Tito Puente. The label soon became the most important one in the Latin-American music scene and helped to "mainstream" Latin music into the non-Latin population.

Goldner soon noted that his clubs were getting an increasing number of African-American customers, and in 1953 he decided to start another label catering to the "new" rhythm-and-blues scene. The label, Rama, signed up several pioneering artists and vocal groups, including The Crows, who recorded the classic "Gee" for Rama. To Goldner's surprise the record was bought not only by African-American customers but was a hit among white teenagers as well. He soon set up another label, Gee--in honor of The Crows' hit--and recorded such artists as The Cleftones and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, who had several hits for the label.

Goldner formed quite a few labels in his day--such as End, Gone and Red Bird--that helped to establish rock-and-roll as a popular and potent music form, bringing many black artists who would otherwise probably not have reached white audiences to the public eye. On the downside, he was an inveterate gambler and often wound up selling his labels in order to pay off gambling debts or to form yet another record label. That's how he lost control of the company that would later become an industry giant, Roulette Records. He helped found it in 1957 along with producer Morris Levy, who was notorious for his shady business practices and rumored mob ties. They formed Roulette in i957 but Goldner gave back control of the label--as well as his labels Tico, Rama and Gee--to Levy and his partners a few years later. He then formed End Records and shortly afterwards Gone Records, and the labels recorded such artists as The Chantels, Ral Donner and Little Anthony and the Imperials. In 1964 he helped famed producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller put together Red Bird Records, which lasted for two years before they sold it in 1966 (mainly to get away from Goldner, who was into the Mafia for quite a bit of money in gambling debts). In 1970 Goldner formed Firebird Records, but that didn't last long and had few, if any, hits.

George Goldner died from a heart attack on April 15, 1970, age 52.