Jewel was started by Stan "The Record Man" Lewis in Shreveport, Louisiana. Lewis started his careerselling newspapers at the age of 9 in Shreveport. He saved his money, and quite a few years later, in1948, he bought five juke boxes and placed them in the neighborhoods around town. When a little store(8 feet by 12 feet) became available, he and his wife Paula bought it and started Stan's Record Shop,located at 728 Texas Street in Shreveport. Paula originally worked in the store while Stan worked otherjobs to make ends meet. Eventually, they did well enough with the records so they could buy a slightlylarger store next door and expand (see photo at right).Stan started meeting the record promoters from the independent labels, as they would drive throughtown and wholesale records to Stan's store from their car trunks. Stan's record store stocked lots of R&Bmusic and some country music, so he dealt with the new record companies like Chess, Modern,Specialty, Imperial, and others, and got to know the owners. Lewis started promoting the records in hisshop and started a 15-minute radio program in Shreveport. By the end of the 1950s, he was sponsoringa one-hour show every night on a powerful station, drawing listeners from the entire South. He also hadautograph sessions for his customers in his record shop at, including Elvis Presley when he was in town. By the mid-1950s, Stan was also producing sessions and recording artists, including sides like DaleHawkins' "Susie-Q." These were recorded at the local radio station in the middle of the night while theywere off the air.It was his friend Leonard Chess who finally persuaded Stan to start his own record label. He was visitingChess in Chicago when he noticed the local supermarket chain, Jewel Tea Company, which had lots ofstores in Chicago, and thought that Jewel would be a good name for his record label. He started JewelRecords in 1963, and followed that with Paula Records (obviously named for his wife) in 1965. Notsurprisingly, early Jewel/Paula LPs were manufactured by Chess.Up to the time that Paula was established, Stan Lewis' Jewel label was essentially a blues label. In 1965,when he started Paula Records as his pop entry, he moved John Fred and his Playboy Band over to thenew label along with a new group, the Uniques, who were more pop in style, and country singer NatStuckey. The next year, 1966, Lewis started a gospel singles series (the 100 series) on Jewel, andfollowed that with the establishment of Ronn Records in 1967, as an outlet for "uptown R&B and jazz."The album discographies for the Jewel, Paula, and Ronn labels are on the pages linked below.Stan Lewis was active with his labels well into the late 1990s, when he sold them to an internet musiccompany, who subsequently sold the labels to Fuel 2000/Westside.We would appreciate any additions or corrections to this discography. Just send them to us via e-mail. Both Sides Now Publications is an informationweb page. We are not a catalog, nor can we provide the records listed below. We have no associationwith Jewel/Paula Records. Should you be interested in acquiring albums listed in thisdiscography (which are all out of print), we suggest you see our Frequently Asked Questions page and Follow theinstructions found there. This story and discography are copyright 2006 by Mike Callahan.
Jewel was a house label for recordings done at Rusty York's studio in Mt. Healty, a suburb of Cincinnati. Jewel was the primarylabel, but several subsidiary names were used like Teen (for the teen garage bands)and Log Cabin (for country, although most of the Jewel records were country).Jewel records used several numbering systems but the primary ones were the 700series and the early 900 series. There are many overlapping numbering systems,which are detailed below. In 1975 the numbering changed so the year (75, 76,etc) became the first two digits of the numbers. There is no connection betweenthis Jewel and the New Orleans based label (which was primarily soul) that useda nearly identical 700 numbering, long a source of confusion for discographers.
Jewel Records
In 1965 the first real custom records were released on the 900 series.Records in this series were issued on Jewel, Teen, Log Cabin, and a coupleone-off names. The last known record in this series is #930.
At the start of 1975, as mentioned above, the numbering system changed tohaving the first two digits as the year (starting with 75) and the last twodigits incrementing for each release during the year, starting at 01. Somecustom label names were used, but all the custom records have Jewel references,the Rite pressing account or the publishing.
The 58xx,59xx were supposed to be S-8xx, S-9xx, forstereo records. The first stereo record was corrected listed as S-892 but the Swas changed to a 5, probably a misreading of the pressing order. At some pointall the records were stereo so the 59xx was dropped.
"?RIP ?REST N PEACE ?@iamjewellcaples IM SAD THIS REALLY HURT BUT JEWELLZ PASSED THIS MORNING," his post read. "WOW DEATHROW FOR LIFE. WE GONE MISS HER ??? CLASSIC MUSIC ? FAMILY OVER EVERYTHING."
A near-death experience prompted Johnny Jewel to destroy 15,000 CDs and 10,000 vinyl records of the long-promised Chromatics album Dear Tommy, Jewel's manager Alexis Rivera revealed yesterday on Twitter, as originally reported by Pitchfork.
HOLIDAY SHIPPING: To receive your records before Christmas, place your orders before November 28. If you order after this date, select priority shipping for estimated arrival before Christmas.No purchases shipping from December 16, 2022 to January 3, 2023. 2ff7e9595c
Comments