DOT

            

American.  Dot was founded by Randolph Wood, in Gallatin, Tennessee.  He started a radio sales and servicing shop there after the war, and moved into record dealing in 1946 with 'Randy's Record Shop'.  The move proved successful, thanks in part to disc jockey Gene Nobles, who from the early days had a nightly show featuring records that the shop stocked which had the best selling potential.  A lot of the shop's business was done via mail order; by the end of 1949 the number of records stocked had risen from 75 to 10,000, and 25 people were employed to deal with the orders - Wood attached great importance to an efficient ordering system and a prompt response ('Billboard', 12th November 1949).  The Dot label first saw the light of day in 1950, initially as a sideline.  Its first single, The Tennessee Drifters' 'Boogie Beat Rag', was advertised in 'BB' of the 11th of February as being 'big on the boxes', and 'BB' of the 1st of April 1950 described Dot as 'one of the most recent Hillbilly lines'.  At first, Dot's records were 10" 78rpm ones, pressed in shellac, but 'BB' of the 31st of March 1951 carried an advert which said that with immediate effect all Dot singles would be manufactured with 'unbreakable plastic material'.  The first 7" 45rpm Dot singles began to appear in that year, but the 10" 78rpm shellacs were only abandoned in 1956.
By the end of 1951 Dot's output was becoming more eclectic.  'BB' of the 22nd of December reported that the company was set to enter the Country, Pop and Kiddie markets while still issuing R&B discs 'on a regular schedule'.  The article added that at that point Randy's Record Shop was one of the biggest mail order concerns in the country.  Dot records began to find their way into the Charts: in 1952 'Trying' by The Hilltoppers gave the company its first hit, and 'BB' of the 4th of April 1953 was able to describe that band and Johnny Maddox as 'regular top Pop sellers'.  There were expansion plans: Billy Vaughn had been appointed musical director of the label and a 'raft' of new artists was expected, while the store was due for its fourth expansion - mail order now accounted for 90% of its business.  A few months later 'BB' of the 29th of August revealed that Dot was to release its first six LPs in the autumn, with its first EPs coming out shortly afterwards.  Towards the end of 1953 DJ Lou Barile told 'BB' of the 28th of November that Dot's success was down to the efforts that the company's staff made to support DJs - "They are wonderful people" was his verdict. 
Dot's success began to attract attention.  Randy Wood and RCA Victor discussed the possibility of a sale in 1954, but 'BB' of the 21st of August broke the news that the talks had ended without agreement.  The record store, too, was flourishing: 'BB' of the 13th of November of that year called it 'the biggest mail order business in the country'.  By the spring of 1955 Dot was 'the hottest label around', with three of the four best-selling singles in the week ending the 5th of March ('BB').  Another set of negotiations took place, this time with American Broadcasting / Paramount Theatres, but they were broken off after reaching an advanced stage ('BB' 16th April 1955).  'BB' reckoned that Wood would have been retained in an A&R capacity but that he preferred to retain full control.  1955 was also notable for the signing of Pat Boone ('BB' 21st May), who would go on to be one of Dot's big stars.  By the winter of that year 'BB' of the 19th of November was able to describe Dot as the country's 'most sensational indie', believed to account for 12% to 15% of singles sales.  In passing, the article added that Dot serviced 2,400 DJs, when most majors didn't bother.  Finally 'BB' of the 10th of December 1955 pointed out that Dot was planning expansion with the aim of gaining status as one of the country's major labels.  An office in New York was expected to be opened soon, the launch of a subsidiary label was being considered, and it was possible that a pressing plant was on the shopping list.  There was good reason for optimism: singles sales were averaging 750,000 per month and November's figure had exceeded 1,110,000, while artists such as The Fontaine Sisters, The Hilltoppers, Johnny Maddox, Pat Boone and Billy Vaughn had become 'fixtures in the best-selling Charts'.
In line with the expansion plans a stock issue was mooted in the spring of 1956, the aim being to raise around a million dollars ('BB', 21st April).  The idea was abandoned before long, as Dot became caught up in the business of a projected move to Hollywood ('BB', 2nd June).  The following week 'BB' of the 9th confirmed that the move was to go ahead; the shop was to remain at Gallatin, with deputy vice president Gilbert Brown in charge, but all the other key personnel were to relocate with the record company.  'BB' of the 28th of July, reporting on the fact that Dot had renewed the three-year agreement with London which gave Decca the right to handle Dot's product in Britain and in several countries in mainland Europe, observed in passing that the move to Hollywood had taken place the previous week.  The move doesn't seem to have had a negative effect on Dot's fortunes: 'BB' of the 27th of October said that the previous five months had been the busiest in the company's history.  Late in 1956 there was a report that Dot intended to boost the number of albums that it released in 1957 to more than eighty, and more diversification was on the cards, this time into the Soundtrack and possibly Classical fields.  The really big news, however, came almost at the very end of the year.  'BB' of the 29th of December dropped the bombshell that Dot was almost certainly going to be sold to Paramount Pictures, for a reported sum of two million dollars.  Randy Wood was to stay on as Dot's chief executive officer under a five-year contract.  It was expected that the money would finance more branches of the company, along with the establishment of a recording studio and perhaps the acquisition of a pressing plant.  There was also the prospect of the availability of a stream of soundtracks from Paramount Pictures' films.
Talks with Paramount Pictures continued into January 1957.  'BB' of the 5th was cautious, saying that there had been no reports of progress and that completion was not expected for several weeks.  It reminded its readers that there was no current connection between Paramount Pictures and the American Broadcasting - Paramount Theatre Corporation; the theatre assets of Paramount Pictures had been divested in 1949, and a couple of years later the resulting United Paramount Theatres had been merged with the American Broadcasting Corporation.  Matters moved quickly, however, and 'BB' of the 12th was able to state that the sale had taken place - Dot Records was to be a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, and Wood was to remain at the helm.  'BB' of the 19th noted that in 1956 Dot had managed sales worth more than six million dollars and had had fourteen singles in the charts, the same number that major RCA Victor had managed.  The sale was finalized in April, when Randy Wood and Barney Balaban (for Paramount) set their signatures to it ('BB', 20th April 1957).  By that time Dot had already released its first Paramount film soundtrack, 'The Ten Commandments' ('BB', 2nd February).
Dot continued to flourish under its new ownership, thanks in no small part to Wood being left in charge.  'BB' of the 20th of May 1957 commented that many people in the industry felt that Wood was Dot's biggest asset, and called him 'one of the most effective operators the field has known'.  There were some management changes: Christine Hamilton, who had been with the company since its inception in 1949, was made vice president in the summer of that year ('BB', 12th August); while Henry Onorati, who had been heading the New York office since the start of 1956, left in early 1958 to take charge of 20th Century Fox's new record label ('BB', 10th February).  Onorati - now probable best known as one of the co-writers of 'The Little Drummer Boy' - was replaced by Bob Thiele, who had previously been with Coral Records, but Thiele left after just over a year, citing deep policy differences - Wood had withdrawn an 'off-colour' LP by Jack Kerouac which had been recorded by Dot's New York branch.  There were more artist signings: two of the biggest names were The Mills Brothers, who came on board in the autumn of 1957, and Lawrence Welk, who brought his orchestra and group of artists to Dot late in 1958 ('BB', 24th November).  Randy Wood continued to be very active on the A&R front; 'BB' of the 3rd of November 1958 reported that he had overseen the recording of eighty sides over the previous fortnight.  The licensing of masters remained an important source of material, and the company made a point of responding quickly to material that was submitted - 'BB' of the 2nd of June 1958 said that a twenty-four hour response time was being aimed for.
Dot still had an eye on expansion.  'BB' of the 2nd of November 1959 noted that Wood had had talks about buying Mercury Records but had baulked over the three million dollar asking price; a year earlier Dot had been one of the companies that had shown an interest in buying Liberty Records ('BB', 3rd February 1958), though that too had come to nothing.  The industry-wide 'Payola' scandal erupted late in 1959, with a furore about DJs being paid or bribed to play certain records on air, but Wood denied that Dot had ever been involved ('BB', 23rd November).  Nine months or so later 'BB' of the 1st of August broke the news that the Federal Trade Commission had made a complaint to Dot about payola, but Wood professed himself 'astonished' and pointed out that the complaint contained 'no specifics, no basis for any charge.'  On the artist front, 1959 saw more big-name arrivals in the shapes of Louis Prima & Keely Smith and Dodie Stevens; sales remained high, finishing at just under eight point three million dollars for the year ('BB', 1st February 1960).
Business increased in 1960, with established Dot artists contributing a lot of it.  'BB' of the 15th of February observed that 130,000 copies of the new Billy Vaughn album had been ordered by dealers even before it had been cut, while the issue of the 21st of March said the twenty-one Lawrence Welk LPs were slated for release before the end of the year.  Sales were boosted by the opening of several more regional distribution offices; 'BB' of the 5th of December noted that Dot had just opened its tenth distribution office in the last eighteen months, and 'BB' of the 19th was able to add an eleventh to the list.  In what proved to be a dead end, the summer of 1960 saw a stir when Capitol proposed to release 33 1/3 rpm singles alongside 45s, in both mono and stereo.  The other companies were unanimously in favour of a standardized speed, but their practical reactions varied.  According to 'BB' of the 27th of June, which reported the development, Columbia and Victor were 'considering' the matter, and Decca was 'not greatly interested' as yet, while Dot was watching the situation.  Several companies did in fact release 33 1/3 rpm singles, but not usually alongside 45rpm equivalents.  Dot was one of them.  'BB' of the 21st of November 1960 revealed that it was ready to release its first batch, which were all by established artists, and went on to say that from the start of the new year it planned simultaneous releases in both speeds for records by major artists, with slower-speed copies of 'breakers' being added when required.  The article added that this was partly in the hope of revitalizing a 'flagging' singles market.  Some twenty-nine of the slower-speed singles were released in 1960, and around fifteen more over the following four years, with decreasing frequency, but the idea failed to catch on.
There weren't many notable developments over the next few years.  In the Spring of 1964 Dot introduced a budget-priced album label, 'Hamilton' ('BB', 25th April), named after Christine.  Then in the autumn it introduced a mail-order Record Club, a step which Wood described as one of the most significant developments in the history of the label.  The aim was to duplicate the speed and efficiency of the original record shop and to improve on other clubs by not deluging customers with unwanted LPs and not sending LPs after customers had terminated their contracts ('BB', 17th October).  Dot's expanded distribution network started handling other labels in 1965, while in 1966 a distribution agreement was signed with Snuff Garrett and Ed Silvers' newly-formed Viva Records which enabled Viva to be 'well financed' by Dot; Viva product was to be 'non-competitive' with that of Dot ('BB', 25th June).  Later that same year there came a really big development: Gulf + Western Industries bought Paramount Pictures along with its subsidiaries, including Dot.  The New York Times of the 14th of September reported that  G+W had bought an 'additional' 108,427 shares of Paramount Pictures, and by the 13th of November the Palm Beach Post was able to refer to Paramount as 'owned' by G+W.
Dot started off positively under G+W's ownership.  Randy Wood had been doubtful about the longevity of the Teen market ('BB', 9th January 1965), but 'BB' of the 5th of November 1966 revealed that he had changed his mind: a new product acquisition department had been launched under Kenny Myers, and a search for Teen and 'contemporary' material to licence had begun.  The search was successful, and Dot launched a new Teen-orientated label 'Acta', in February 1967 ('BB', 11th).  'BB' of the 4th of March was able to say that Myers was acting as general manager of Acta; he had made his first signing - a group called The American Breed - and the first single had been released.  All was not well, however.  'BB' of the 10th of December 1966 had remarked that Wood's contract with Paramount had afforded him autonomous control over Dot, with the result that if G+W wanted to flex its muscles where Dot was concerned it would have to 'hurdle' that contract.  As it transpired, G+W did indeed want to flex its muscles, and Wood was apparently less than satisfied with the result.  'BB' of the 29th of July 1967 reassured its readers that he was to continue as President of Dot and also as vice president of G+W's 'Famous Music' company, but a little over a month later came news that he had resigned, bringing an era to an end ('BB', 2nd September).  Wood went on to found the Ranwood label ('BB', 20th January 1968).
Following the departure of Wood, G+W appointed Arnold Burk as president of Dot; he had been with Paramount Pictures for three years.  He was joined by Richard Peirce as general manager, and the two of them soon undertook a re-evaluation of the label's functions and services ('BB', 16th September 1967).  Almost immediately Christine Hamilton resigned as executive vice president of Dot; she had been with Wood and Dot for seventeen years ('BB', 23rd September) and she went on to rejoin him at his new Ranwood Records.  A few months later Snuff Garrett resigned as vice president in charge of A&R in order to concentrate on his own label, Viva ('BB', 2nd March 1968).  On the artist front, Billy Vaughn re-signed with Dot for the long term ('BB', 14th October 1967), but before long Lawrence Welk followed Hamilton to Ranwood, taking his artists and his back-catalogue of recordings with him ('BB', 20th April 1968).  Another departure was that of Dot's record club, which was discontinued early in 1968 ('BB', 20th January).
When the dust settled, Dot began to build momentum again.  'BB' of the 18th of May 1968 observed that staff producer Tom Mack, who had been with the company for eleven years, was recording contemporary singles and albums and was bringing new artists in; it added that he was enjoying his most successful period so far, in Chart terms.  The same issue reported on a change that was to prove highly significant: Dot was beginning to get busier on the Country music front.  Richard Peirce had signed an agreement with Jim Halsey of Singin' T Productions which would bring a 'flock' of recordings produced by Joe Allison to the label, recordings by artists of the stature of Hank Thompson and Roy Clark.  Peirce, who by that time was serving as vice president and general manger of Dot, was appointed executive vice president not long afterwards ('BB', 10th August).  Perhaps as a sign of the new direction Dot was given a new logo, which incorporated that of Paramount Pictures ('BB', 6th July 1968).
The autumn of 1968 found Dot moving 'full blast' into the Country market.  'BB' of the 19th of October noted that, while the company had only begun to show any particular interest in the genre a year ago, Dot's Nashville office was now actively recruiting under Henry Burt and a deal had been agreed with Tree Music to produce records for Dot there.  In addition Country artist Bonnie Guitar, who was in her second spell with the company, had begun producing records as well as providing best-sellers ('BB', 23rd November 1968).  Mike Nesmith came on board in April 1969, signing a five-year exclusive contract for his American Witchita Company to supply a minimum of fifteen masters for Dot each year - he had produced, written and arranged an album for Dot the previous year.
The new emphasis on Country proved to be a shrewd move.  'BB' of the 4th of March 1972 said that 68% of Dot's releases had hit the Charts in the previous year, as against 35% the year before that.  Hank Thompson's career had been 'revived', Tommy Overstreet and Diana Trask were being 'developed' as artists, while a big promotional effort was to be put behind Joe Stampley, Donna Fargo and the Compton Brothers.  The push must have worked: 'BB' of the 17th of June 1972, describing Dot as 'The Country arm of Famous Music', said that it had been 'particularly successful' over the past few months, and that Overstreet and Fargo had scored No.1 Country singles.  Efforts were made to broaden the music's appeal.  'BB' of the 17th of February 1973 commented on Dot's having managed to achieve a crossover from Country to Pop with Fargo, Overstreet and Stampley, and quoted marketing director Larry Barnach as saying that the label was gearing its Country product in that direction.  Dot enjoyed its first 'double top' in the Country charts in May 1973, Roy Clark's Come Live With Me' topping the singles lists and Donna Fargo's 'My Second Album' topping the albums.  An advert for the company in 'BB' of the 20th of October justifiably described Dot as the top Country label, 'dedicated to Country and only country'.
The picture was rosy, but Dot's identity as an individual entity was soon to come to an end.  'BB' of the 10th of August 1974 broke the news that G+W's 'Famous Music' labels had been bought by ABC for an estimated five-and-a-half million dollars.  Dot was thought to be the prime motivator behind the deal, but the Paramount, Neighborhood, Blue Thumb and Ember labels (q.v. all) were also involved.  An employee of Famous told 'BB' anonymously that G+W were never really interested in the music business, as the big money was in Paramount Pictures.  He said that the record division was left to fend for itself, and was even charged by G+W for floor space, postage, furniture and the like.  ABC already had its own label, and it proceeded to link Dot with it.  The final Dot single came out in September 1974, subsequent releases being on the 'ABC Dot' label.  In January 1978 ABC Dot was dropped in its turn, and its artists were switched to the main ABC label.
Dot was never anywhere near as big in Britain as it was in the States.  Its products were licensed to Decca here until the summer of 1964; they were issued on the London label, and they enjoyed a reasonable amount of success during that period.  Pat Boone was undoubtedly the company's star as far as this country is concerned: he scored twenty-eight Chart hits during the years 1955-63, including eleven Top Tens and a Number One in the form of 'I'll Be Home' b/w 'Tutti Frutti' (HLD-8253; 3/56).  Tab Hunter supplied Dot's second and last No.1 with 'Young Love' b/w 'Red Sails In The Sunset' (HLD-8380; 2/57), and added a No.5 with his follow-up 'Ninety Nine Ways' b/w 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' (HLD-8410; 4/57) before disappearing from the Charts for good.  Wink Martindale's 'Deck Of Cards' b/w 'Now You Know How It Feels' (HLD-8962; 10/59) managed to be a hit on three separate occasions, in 1959, 1963 (when it got to No.5) and - with a different catalogue number and 'B' side - in 1973.  Other hits came courtesy of The Hilltoppers (three times), Jim Lowe, Billy Vaughn (twice), and Robin Luke in the '50s, with Chantays, The Surfaris and Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs all registering once in the '60s, but only The Hilltoppers and The Surfaris cracked the Top 5.  The success rate nosedived after Dot parted company with Decca.  'Bend Me Shape Me' b/w 'Mindrocker' by The American Breed got to the No.24 spot after being licensed to EMI and coming out on the Stateside label (SS-2078; 1/68), but the only single on the actual Dot label to ever feature in the Charts was the 1973 reissue of 'Deck Of Cards' b/w 'Just A Closer Walk With Thee' (DOT-109), which peaked at No.22.
Initially Dot's singles were given numbers from the standard London HL-8000 series and their origin wasn't noted on the labels, but in November 1954 they were given their own particular prefix, 'HLD'.  Then in the spring of 1955 the text 'Recorded by Dot, Gallatin' was added to the labels.  In August 1955 the address changed to Hollywood (1).  From August 1962 records licensed from Dot were given a 'headstone' label with a credit to the company on it (2, 10), as had previously been done with Atlantic records and would later be done with those of Monument (q.v. both).  HLD-9588, 'My Blue Heaven' b/w 'Spinnin' My Wheels' by The String-A-Longs, was the first Dot single to receive one, though re-pressings of some earlier singles can be found with them.
Dot moved to Pye in the summer of 1964; a couple of its singles were issued on Pye International before it made its debut as an actual label (3, 11) in November of that year.  Two series of catalogue numbers were used: records with American equivalents were numbered in the DS-16000s, with the numerical part being the same as that of the American issue, while records with no American equivalent were numbered in a DS-26750 series.  The gold print on the labels was replaced by silver in the summer of 1966 (4).  The agreement with Pye ran out in 1967.  A new deal was sought, and eventually signed, with EMI; an interim agreement with that company led to a couple of Dot singles, 'The Penthouse' b/w 'Born To Lose' by Lyn Roman (SS-2079; 11/67) and the American Breed record referred to above, being issued on the Stateside label ('Record Retailer', 3rd January 1968).  EMI launched Dot as a label in its own right on the 25th of March 1968, with one single and a couple of albums ('RR', 28th February).  The move was marked by a change of label design, to one with the twin Dot / Paramount logo (5), and of catalogue numbers, to the DOT-100s.  Dot was joined at EMI by other G+W labels Paramount in 1969 and Famous in 1970 (q.v. both).  It renewed its deal with EMI in 1970 ('RR', 4th July), and, under its UK manager Alan Warner, continued to lead what appears to have been a fairly uneventful existence as part of the EMI family - the Country market here was far less important and far less lucrative than it was in the USA.  Over the course of the next four years Dot released just nine singles.  It failed to register in the Charts except for the repackaged 1973 'Deck Of Cards', and it expired along with Paramount in the summer of 1974, following the purchase of G+W's record operation by ABC - the Famous label had bitten the dust in 1972.  From that point artists whose records had been released on Dot here found themselves on the ABC label.
There were some minor changes of label design during the EMI period.  The 'Sold in the U.K.' legend (5) disappeared in the summer of 1969.  Then with the release of DOT-143 in March 1973 the 'Paramount' part of the logo was cut out, though it remained on the company sleeve and on the demo labels - perhaps this was a case of using up existing stock.  As can just about be seen on the scan (6), it was replaced by a reference to the Famous Music Corporation, in small letters, under the label name.  There was one other, smaller, alteration: for what turned out to be the final release, DOT-147, the reference to 'The Gramophone Co' at 9 o'clock in the perimeter text changed to 'EMI Records' (7, 13) - a similar change took place on most of the other EMI labels at or around the same time.  Demo labels conformed to the style used by the licensing company at the time: Decca 'headstones' were generally yellow with a hollow silver 'A' (10); Pye ones were white and were of a very basic design (11); while EMI ones started out as green with a white 'A' (12) and ended up as overprinted issue labels for the last issue or two (13).  The company sleeves also differed, the Pye ones (14) again being plainer than the EMI ones (15).  Thanks to John Timmis for the scan of the London 'headstone' demo.  The discography below only covers the EMI era.

Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.