Rite Records custom pressings Cincinnati, Ohio, 1955-1985
Sonny Russell
Vangie Gonzales with Gonzales Brothers Orch.
"A Denver-based group, the Shelltones would likely have participated in the vibrant teen rock ‘n’ roll scene that extended north to Boulder and Fort Collins and south to Colorado Springs in the early and mid-‘60s.
The eerie “Blue Castaway,” written by Cary Theil, the group’s bassist, would be the Shelltones’ only commercial release. The perfect vessel for the cavernous production qualities of Band Box’s south Broadway studios, “Blue Castaway” takes the tremolo-driven atmospherics of the Islanders’ “Enchanted Sea” and the Safaris’ “Lonely Surf Guitar” and, to a certain degree, the Viscounts’ “Harlem Nocturne” to some new, lonelier place.
Flipside “Mark’s Blues,” another instrumental, features the hot fretwork of guitarist Mark Bretz. After the Shelltones, Bretz would play keyboards with Denver-area garage band the Wild Ones in the mid-‘60s before joining, as guitarist, a late incarnation of Boulder’s nationally-known rock ‘n’ rollers the Astronauts in 1967. Bretz would remain with the Astronauts through their name change to SunshineWard before settling in Denver for a career as a music teacher."
Office Naps
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Vicky Morosan, who immigrated to America in the '30s from Transylvania, Romania, answered a for-sale ad in the paper for a recording studio at East Sixth Avenue and Ogden Street called Columbine Records.
A dispute over the name with behemoth Columbia Records got Morosan to change the label's name to Band Box Records. She moved to 220 S. Broadway and went into business. Denver had its Sun Studio.
"She loved music, opera especially. So it was funny for her to get into rock 'n' roll." said Morosan's daughter, Frances. Morosan died [...] in 2006. She was 97.
"She would make demo records for whoever would come in the door," Frances said. "She loved the business so much. She put those records in her trunk and hauled them all over the country, the hard way. She was just a working old fool."
Band Box turned out about 350 masters, mostly rockabilly, country and Western, and R&B, from bands including Orlie & the Saints, Lee Chandler & the Blue Rhythms, and Jimmy DeKnight, co-writer of "Rock Around the Clock." The label nearly hit big with Freddie & the Hitch-Hikers' "Sinners" in 1961 — a song later covered by the Cramps — and with Sonny Russell's "50 Megatons" in 1963.
