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The Day the Music Burned

Jun 11 2019

Chicago’s architecture, food and historic place in music history keep the Windy City a tourist destination — even in winter

Dec 22 2015

History

Chess brothers' company

Leonard Chess bought a stake in Aristocrat Records in 1947. In 1950, he brought his brother, Phil, into the operation, and they became the sole owners of the company. In that same year, they bought out a third partner, Evelyn Aron, and renamed the company Chess Records.

The first release from Chess was a 78 RPM single, "My Foolish Heart", backed with "Bless You", by Gene Ammons, issued as Chess 1425 in June 1950, which became the label's biggest hit of the year.⁹

In 1951, the Chess brothers began an association with Sam Phillips, of the Memphis Recording Service, the forerunner of Sun Records.¹⁰ One of the most important recordings that Phillips gave to Chess was "Rocket 88", by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (the band was actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm), which topped Billboard magazine's R&B Records chart¹¹ and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 in recognition of its influence on rock and roll.¹² One of the most important artists that came out of Memphis was Howlin' Wolf,¹³ who stayed with the label until his death in 1976. Musical figures created for Chess by Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and others were the basis of much subsequent rock and roll. Many songs created by Chess artists were later covered by many rock artists, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, the Beach Boys and Eric Clapton.

In 1952, the brothers started Checker Records as an alternative label for radio play (radio stations had a policy of playing only a limited number of records from any one imprint).¹⁴ In December 1955, they launched a jazz and pop label, Marterry, a name created from the first names of Leonard and Phil's sons, Marshall and Terry.¹⁵ This was quickly renamed Argo Records, but the name was changed again in 1965 to Cadet Records to end confusion with an existing British spoken-word label.

In 1953, Leonard Chess and Gene Goodman set up Arc Music BMI, a publishing company, which published songs by many rhythm and blues artists.¹⁶

In the mid-1950s, the Chess brothers received two doo-wop groups by Alan Freed, the Coronets and the Moonglows; the former group was not very popular but the latter achieved several major crossover hits including "Sincerely", which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.¹⁷ Several of Chess's releases gave a writing credit to Alan Freed.

During the 1950s, Leonard and Phil Chess handled most of the recording production themselves. They brought in producer Ralph Bass in 1960 to handle the gospel output and some of the blues singers. Bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon was also heavily involved in organizing blues sessions for the label and is now credited retroactively as a producer on some re-releases.¹⁸ During the 1960s, the company's A&R manager and chief producer for soul and R&B recordings was Roquel "Billy" Davis, who had previously worked with Motown founder Berry Gordy on songs for Jackie Wilson, Etta James, Marv Johnson and other early Motown releases.

In May 1957, the Chess brothers moved to a building at 2120 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The studio at 2120 was designed by audio engineer and business partner Jack Weiner. Opened in late 1957, it originally operated under the moniker of "Sheldon Recording Studios". Weiner moved out in 1959 and the studio was renamed "Ter-Mar Studios". "Ter-Mar" was an anagram of Leonard Chess' 2 sons names, Terry and Marshall. The studio would operate at this location until 1967 when they relocated to 320 East 21st Street. ¹⁹

In 1958, Chess began producing their first LP records²⁰ which included such albums as After School Session by Chuck Berry, The Best of Muddy Waters, The Best of Little Walter, and Bo Diddley.

Chess Records was also known for its regular band of session musicians who played on most of the company's Chicago soul recordings, including the drummer Maurice White and the bassist Louis Satterfield, both of whom later shaped the funk group Earth, Wind & Fire; the guitarists Pete Cosey, Gerald Sims and Phil Upchurch; the pianist Leonard Caston, later a producer for Motown; and the organist Sonny Thompson. In 1962, Chess Records was sued by Peacock Records for recording their artists Reverend Robert Ballinger and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi.²¹

In 1969, Chess Records established a subsidiary label in the U.K., Middle Earth Records, which was distributed by Pye Records. The subsidiary specialized in Psychedelic rock and was a joint venture with the Middle Earth Club in London. The Middle Earth label released only four albums and about a dozen singles before it closed in 1970.²²

Chess moved to a larger building in 1968, located at 320 East 21st Street in Chicago. The facility housed a pressing plant & new home for Ter-Mar Studios. The company was briefly run by Marshall Chess, Leonard's son, in his position as vice president between January and October 1969 and then as president following its acquisition by GRT, before he went on to found Rolling Stones Records.

Under GRT and All Platinum

In early 1969, the Chess brothers sold the label to General Recorded Tape (GRT) for $6.5 million. In October 1969, Leonard Chess died and by 1972, the only part of Chess Records still operating in Chicago was the recording studio, Ter-Mar Studios. Following the sale of Chess to GRT, Phil left the label to run radio station WVON. In the 1970s, Chess Records and its publishing arm, Arc Music, were successfully sued by Muddy Waters²³ and Willie Dixon²⁴ for nonpayment of royalties due to them. Ter-Mar Studios continued to operate at the 320 E. 21st St. building until its closure in 1979.²⁵

Some of the other artists who contributed to the legacy of Chess Records were the Flamingos, the Moonglows, Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, the Dells and the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

Later incarnations

In the early 1980s, noticing that much of the Chess catalogue was commercially unavailable, Marshall Chess was able to convince Joe and Sylvia Robinson, who ran All Platinum, to reissue the catalogue themselves under his supervision (All Platinum had been licensing selected tracks to other companies, which ultimately resulted in the disappearance of some original master tapes).²⁶ The reissued singles and LPs sold well, but by the mid-80s All Platinum had fallen into financial difficulties, and the Chess master recordings were acquired by MCA Records, which itself was later merged with Geffen Records, a Universal Music imprint.

In the 1990s, MCA Records sued Charly Records for selling CDs which contained copyrighted material by Chess artists.²⁷

In February 1997, MCA started releasing eleven compilation albums for the 50th anniversary of Chess Records.²⁸

In the 2000s, Universal's limited-edition reissue label, Hip-O Select, began releasing a series of comprehensive box sets devoted to such Chess artists as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry.

In July 2008, the 2008 Universal Studios fire burned down a warehouse filled with Universal Music Group recording masters, including many albums and songs released by Chess. These masters, by artists such as Chuck Berry, were "priceless" and irreplaceable; while UMG claimed at the time it had copies, later investigative reporting questioned this, with the truth emerging that all the masters were destroyed.²⁹³⁰

Chess Records was the subject of two films produced in 2008, Cadillac Records and Who Do You Love?. In addition to the Chess brothers, both films feature portrayals of or characters based on Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf and Etta James. Cadillac Records was directed by Darnell Martin and features an ensemble cast including Adrien Brody (as Leonard Chess), Mos Def (as Chuck Berry), Beyoncé Knowles (as Etta James) and Jeffrey Wright (as Muddy Waters). Who Do You Love was directed by Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks and stars Alessandro Nivola playing Leonard Chess "as a complicated, driven man, hard on both his musicians and his family, yet with a real love for some of America's greatest music." The world premiere of the latter film was at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 11, 2008.³¹

Discography

Chess LP-1425 to LPS-1553 (1956–1970)

The original Chess LP series started with LP-1425 and included albums on both the Chess and the Checker labels. After 1437, the series was used exclusively for the Chess label; the Checker label switched to a 2970 series.³²

Chess Vintage Series

The Chess Vintage LP series started with LP-407 and featured 9 albums released in 1970/71 with an additional three albums released in 1975.³³

GRT consolidated Chess/Cadet album discography (1971–1975)

In 1971 Chess Records was purchased by General Recorded Tape, also known as GRT Corporation, which consolidated both the Chess and Cadet labels into a single labeling number sequence.³⁴

External links

• [1]
• Marshall Chess in-depth interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' August 2010
• [2]
• The Chess Story, by Mike Callahan and David Edwards
• Chess Records at history-of-rock.com
• Chess Records in the Encyclopedia of Chicago
• Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation
• Chess Records: How Two Polish Brothers Made Music History
• Chess Records on the Internet Archive's Great 78 Project

References

1. Cub Koda (August 23, 1967). "Chess Blues, Various Artists | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved October 19, 2016. /wiki/Cub_Koda ↩

2. Cohodas, Nadine (2000). "Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records". Bluestogold.com. New York: St. Martins. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170204194237/http://www.bluestogold.com/index2.html ↩

3. Cohodas, Nadine (2000). "Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records". Bluestogold.com. New York: St. Martins. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170204194237/http://www.bluestogold.com/index2.html ↩

4. "Ter Mar Studios". Discogs.com. Retrieved October 15, 2019. https://www.discogs.com/label/289765-Ter-Mar-Studios ↩

5. "Chess Producing Corp., est. 1947". MadeInChicagoMuseum. 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2019. https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/chess-records ↩

6. "Chicago Landmarks - Landmark Details". Webapps1.chicago.gov. https://webapps1.chicago.gov/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1267 ↩

7. "Historic Chess Studio". Bluesheaven.com. http://www.bluesheaven.com/historic-chess-studio.html ↩

8. Adams, Ginger (December 22, 2015). "Architecture, Food and Music Keep Tourists Coming to Chicago". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 19, 2016. http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/architecture-food-music-tourists-coming-chicago-article-1.2473972 ↩

9. White, George R.; Campbell, Robert L.; Kelly, Tom. "The Chess Label Part I (1950–1952)". Clemson, South Carolina: Clemson University. Retrieved March 12, 2011. http://campber.people.clemson.edu/chess1.html ↩

10. White, George R.; Campbell, Robert L.; Kelly, Tom. "The Chess Label Part I (1950–1952)". Clemson, South Carolina: Clemson University. Retrieved March 12, 2011. http://campber.people.clemson.edu/chess1.html ↩

11. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles (1942–2004). Record Research. p. 800. /wiki/Joel_Whitburn ↩

12. "Grammy Hall of Fame". Recording Academy. Archived from the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110122042616/http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/hall-of-fame ↩

13. Leonard Chess and Howlin' Wolf interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969) https://digital.library.unt.edu/search/?fq=str_title_serial%3A%22The+Pop+Chronicles+%28John+Gilliland+Collection%29%22&sort=date_a&start=3 ↩

14. Dahl, Bill Chess Records and the Ten 73s That Helped Shape Modern Music Vinyl Factory. August 5, 2015. http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-releases/chess-records-and-the-ten-7s-that-helped-shape-modern-music/ ↩

15. Cohodas, Nadine (2000). "Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records". Bluestogold.com. New York: St. Martins. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170204194237/http://www.bluestogold.com/index2.html ↩

16. "Chess, Goodman in New Firm". Billboard. August 1, 1953. p. 16. Retrieved December 31, 2010. https://books.google.com/books?id=VwoEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Checker+Records%22+Artists&pg=PA16 ↩

17. "Grammy Hall of Fame". Recording Academy. Archived from the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110122042616/http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/hall-of-fame ↩

18. Cohodas, Nadine (2000). "Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records". Bluestogold.com. New York: St. Martins. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170204194237/http://www.bluestogold.com/index2.html ↩

19. "Chess Records Office and Studio" (PDF). Chicago.gov. Retrieved July 30, 2024. https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Chess_Records_Office_and_Studio.pdf ↩

20. Howard Mandel, ed. (2005). The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues. Billboard Books. pp. 176, 182. ISBN 0-8230-8266-0. 0-8230-8266-0 ↩

21. "Accuse Chesses in Court Suit". Billboard. December 8, 1962. p. 11. Retrieved December 31, 2010. https://books.google.com/books?id=OBgEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Checker+Records%22+Artists&pg=PA11 ↩

22. "Middle Earth Records Discography". Rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved March 21, 2012. http://rateyourmusic.com/label/middle_earth/ ↩

23. "American Masters: Muddy Waters – Can't Be Satisfied". PBS. May 24, 2006. Retrieved March 21, 2012. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/muddy-waters/cant-be-satisfied/730/ ↩

24. Snowden, Don (1990). I Am the Blues. DaCapo Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0306804151. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

25. "Ter Mar Studios". Discogs.com. Retrieved October 15, 2019. https://www.discogs.com/label/289765-Ter-Mar-Studios ↩

26. Cohodas, Nadine (2000). "Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records". Bluestogold.com. New York: St. Martins. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170204194237/http://www.bluestogold.com/index2.html ↩

27. Holland, Bill (October 8, 1997). "MCA Is Victor in Supreme Ct. Refusal to Hear Charly Case". Billboard. p. 7. Retrieved December 31, 2010. https://books.google.com/books?id=nAkEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Chess+Records%22+1997&pg=PA7-IA4 ↩

28. Reece, Doug (December 7, 1996). "Vital Reissues – A Selected Guide to Fourthcoming Releases". Billboard. p. 52. Retrieved December 31, 2010. https://books.google.com/books?id=uAkEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Chess+Records%22+1997&pg=PA52 ↩

29. Chokshi, Niraj (June 11, 2019). "Recordings by Elton John, Nirvana and Thousands More Lost in Fire". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/us/master-recordings-universal-fire.html ↩

30. Rosen, Jody (June 11, 2019). "The Day the Music Burned". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html ↩

31. Anderson, John (September 17, 2008). "Who Do You Love - Review". Variety. Retrieved November 6, 2012. https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117938406?refcatid=2863 ↩

32. Both Sides Now: Chess Album Discography, Part 1: LP-1425 to LPS-1553 and CHV-400 Vintage Series accessed July 23, 2019 https://www.bsnpubs.com/chess/chess/chess1425.html ↩

33. Both Sides Now: Chess Album Discography, Part 1: LP-1425 to LPS-1553 and CHV-400 Vintage Series accessed July 23, 2019 https://www.bsnpubs.com/chess/chess/chess1425.html ↩

34. Callahn, M. and Edwards, D. GRT Consolidated Chess/Cadet Album Discography (1971-1975), Both Sides Now Publications, accessed October 19, 2012 http://www.bsnpubs.com/chess/chessconsolidated.html ↩