A British Country label, dating from 1969-c.70. According to 'Record Retailer' (9th August 1969) Lucky was a joint venture between Cliff Cooper's 'Orange' (q.v.) company and Opry music magazine, and it was due to release its first five records on the first of September, via mail order only. The article stated that the new label was to be the first British one to be dedicated to Country music, and said that the five records were to be by Phil Brady, the Cody Nash Outfit, Brian Chalker, Country Express, and Hickory Wind - the first four duly appeared but there's no sign of a Hickory Wind release. 'RR' of the 4th of October revealed that Orange had taken over Opry magazine and had thus gained sole ownership of the Lucky label. Manufacture of Lucky records was by Pye; distribution was still by mail order only at that point, but Clifford Cooper of Orange was quoted as saying that because of the reaction to the label 'a more permanent arrangement will shortly be made'. The article claimed that Willie Nelson had heard a couple of Lucky releases and had been so impressed by the sound of them that he was flying to London in November to record an album at Orange. The distribution deal referred to by Cooper was reported in 'RR' of the 27th of December 1969: there was to be a relaunch of the label in February, with the release of six mid-price (19s 11d) albums which would be distributed by Pye.
The relaunch duly took place. 'RR' of the 2nd February 1970, commenting on it, said that the company had signed a worldwide distribution agreement with Pye and that Gordon Smith, the founder of the Country Music Federation, was Lucky's executive producer. The first six LPs were now available, and it was expected that in the future selected album tracks would be issued as singles. The manufacture of a batch of six singles was reported in 'RR' of the 21st of March: 500 copies each of records by Cody Nash, Dave Plane & Lisa Turner, Ian Russell, Country Fever, the Hillsiders and Ron Ryan had been made specially for the second Country Music festival at Wembley, the tracks being taken from Lucky's first six LPs. There's no sign of the Ron Ryan single, but LU-109 is missing from the discography below so, it's possible that it may yet turn up - it took me twelve years to track down the Hillsiders' single. All six appear to only have been pressed as promos; I have yet to see any of them with a pink 'issue' label. Lucky's final mention in 'RR' came in the issue of the 28th of March 1970, which mentioned that while the company's LPs were available through Pye its singles remained mail-order only - perhaps that may explain why there aren't an awful lot of them around. It did however continue to release records into 1971. A couple of singles featuring Lucky artists and produced by Gordon Smith came out on Pye in July 1970, which suggests that the company had given up on that particular medium by that point and had licensed the material to Pye; the records concerned were Country Fever's 'A Picture Of You' b/w 'Too Far Gone' (7N-17963) and 'The Exeter By-Pass' b/w 'Papa' by Phil Brady & The Ranchers (7N-17964).
Lucky's roster of artists included several acts which were highly regarded in their particular field. The company's main interest was in albums, of which more than twenty were released, including a double sampler, but catalogue numbers suggest that some fifteen singles were issued as well, in an LU-100 numerical series. Ian Russell's 'Love Locked Out' (LU-112; 3/70), a faux-mediaeval folk song about a chastity belt, was an odd departure from the usual Country fare. Labels used the same label design throughout, but towards the end the usual pink colour (1) was replaced by a brown one (2); LPs always had brown labels. Promotional copies were in the standard Pye format of the time (3). If anyone can fill the gap in the discography I'd be pleased to hear from them.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.