Sue Records

Sue Records ("The Sound Of Soul") was founded in 1957 by Henry 'Juggy' Murray in New York City. Also within the group was Symbol Records and Sue also financed and distributed A.F.O.Records owned by Harold Battiste in New Orleans. The label's first success came with Bobby Hendricks and Don Covay and continued into the sixties with Ike and Tina Turner, The Duals' "Stick Shift" and "Mockingbird" by Inez and Charlie Foxx.

1959-1962 were good years for Sue with hits by Ike and Tina Turner, Justine "Baby" Washington, The Soul Sisters, The Duals, Jimmy McGriff and Inez and Charlie Foxx.

The hits dried up by 1963 and Sue seemed to be out of step. They never really produced records to compete with the hot new sounds of soul on Atlantic, Stax or Motown.

Murray initially released his records in the UK through Decca's London Records but switched to a licensing deal with Island Records in 1964. This deal resulted in a split in the ownership of the Sue name. Island used the label to distribute Sue in the UK. Problems began when Island also leased discs from other US labels that interested them and released them on UK Sue too - which was not in the agreement.

After failing to chart in the U.S., Murray sold the Sue masters to United Artists Records, but retained rights to the Sue name and constantly attempted to re-activate the label until his death in 2005. The Sue Records catalogue is now owned by EMI.