Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Bobby Smith on Fox



Bobby Smith

Fox 104

CP-2797 ~ Bevy Mae

CP-2798 ~ She's Gone From Me


One of the last record on this Detroit label, owned by George Braxton


★ ★ ★

Detroit, Michigan, 1957. Don Davenport, a member of the Romeos, a local vocal group, knew a guy named George Braxton, who owned a real estate agency and was also a director of a local magazine for kids, called Teen Life. Don convinced him to record them. As a result, George Braxton started the Fox label

Braxton was a guy, says Don, who "wanted to get into the business. He thought he could sing (and even attempted to cut a record on Brax called 'Hey Ellen'). George also liked getting into anything where he thought there was money."

Seeking more involvement, Don even drew the picture of the fox for the Fox label. The company was called "Fox" because, says Don, "George always made jokes about being sly as a fox. So he came up with the name, and I drew the label pic." The label was headquartered at 15836 Plymouth Road in Detroit, which just happened to be the address of the real estate agency.

More George Braxton labels followed, between 1957 and 1960 :

Teen-Life (Jimmy Kirkland, The Serenaders, Nick Forrest)

Brax (The Five Dapps, Woodie Davis, Mike Hanks and the Contours)

Chant (The Four Imperials, Lucky Lee, Tom Clay and the Rayber Voices)

and Dial (Danny Zella, The Four Imperials, The Sabres)


Credits : Rockin' Country Style (label pictures)
Marv Goldberg - The Romeos
Buffalo Bop CD 55028 (Date Bait) (audio files)




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1 comment:

  1. Killer Piece!!,I've got one of the Brax 45's.Thanks For Posting!!

    ReplyDelete