-
Henry Stone, Founder Of TK Records, Dead At 93
August 11, 2014 at 4:05 AM (PT)
What do you think? Add your comment below. -
HENRY STONE, whose TK RECORDS released several of the biggest hits of the disco era and who released or distributed records by RAY CHARLES and JAMES BROWN, among many others, died THURSDAY (8/7) in MIAMI of natural causes at 93, reports the MIAMI HERALD.
STONE moved from LOS ANGELES to MIAMI in 1948, founding CHART, ROCKIN', and GLORY RECORDS and recorded RAY CHARLES in 1952 on the ROCKIN' label; he created DELUXE RECORDS and had a hit with THE CHARMS' "Hearts of Stone" before working with JAMES BROWN and helping get BROWN's first hit "Please, Please, Please" released on KING RECORDS' FEDERAL imprint. He launched more labels, including DADE, GLADES (which released TIMMY THOMAS' "Why Can't We Live Together"), MERLIN, and ALSTON (which hit with BETTY WRIGHT's "Clean Up Woman" and BEGINNING OF THE END's "Funky Nassau"), and distributed records in the SOUTHEAST.
In 1972, he founded TK RECORDS, named after engineer TERRY KANE with former singer STEVE ALAIMO as VP; TK was the label for KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND's run of chart-topping hits as well as several other hit records on TK and subsidiaries CLOUDS and JUANA by artists like PETER BROWN, BOBBY CALDWELL, and GWEN MCRAE.
When the label ran into financial difficulty, STONE and ROULETTE's MORRIS LEVY created SUNNYVIEW RECORDS; later, STONE sold the TK masters to RHINO RECORDS.

