Label Guide: King

King Records was started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. At first it specialized in country music, at the time still known as "hillbilly music." King advertised, "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly - If it's a Hillbilly, it's a King." King started several sub-labels early in its history, including Queen Records, at the time cllaed a "race records" (African American) label, which was merged with the King label within a year or two, and most notably Federal Records, founded in 1950, which launched the career of James Brown.

In the 1950s, R&B and soul music replaced country music as the dominant force in King's business. King Records was highly successful with R&B artists like Joe Tex, Roy Brown, Jack Dupree, Otis Williams & The Charms, Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, Ivory Joe Hunter and Johnny Guitar Watson. King also bought out several other record labels, including De Luxe Records (in 1952), and Bethlehem Records.

When Syd Nathan died in 1968, King Records was acquired by Hal Neely's Starday Records and relaunched as 'Starday and King Records'. The legendary songwriting duo Leiber & Stoller bought the label in 1970, but sold it soon afterwards to LIN Broadcasting which in turn sold it to Tennessee Recording & Publishing, who sold it in 1974 to Gusto Records. King Records is now only used as a record label under the parent company, Gusto Records.