Apollo Records (1944) - LPs and After

LPs and After

Apollo employed a very modest campaign of LPs, and never issued a stereo recording; appearing at the rate of only one or two releases a year from 1954 forward and these were almost exclusively reissues of material that had already appeared as singles, or masters leased from other labels. Mahalia Jackson figured very prominently in this reissue program, and one of Apollo's last releases from 1962 were two LPs titled Apollo Records Requests the Honor of Your Presence at the Command Performance of Mahalia Jackson, Re-Creating Her European Concert Tour. Packaged to look like a live recording taken from Jackson's 1961 tour—and therefore, competing directly with Columbia album Mahalia Jackson Recorded in Europe During Her Latest Concert Tour -- it consisted of recordings made for Apollo in the 40s and early 50s.

Apollo Records closed for good in 1962, but as soon as the "closed" sign went over the door a mysterious subsidiary, Kenwood Records, appeared. Over the next decade, the label—which never issued a stereo recording—reissued practically all of the Apollo Records albums and added a few more compilations, hanging around long enough to release a Mahalia Jackson memorial album when she died in 1972. While the owner or partner in the Kenwood concern is not known, it is assumed that Bess Berman was also the likely party behind this label. While the Apollo records catalog has seen little exploitation in the digital era, several doo-wop compilations have been coming out since the 1980s through Relic Records and also some of Apollo's jazz material has appeared on Delmark Records. Berman herself died in 1997; in a sense, Cash Box had already memorialized her in 1954 by stating that Berman "was the only woman ever to break through with outstanding success in the male-dominated recording industry."