American. Specialty was formed by Art Rupe in 1944, in Los Angeles, California; the company moved to Hollywood in 1949. Specialty's repertoire consisted of Blues, Gospel, R'n'B, Jazz and Rock 'n' Roll. Its biggest star, Little Richard, was signed in 1955; it also had successes with records by Lloyd Price and Larry Williams. By 1960 the label had all but closed down; thanks to public interest in early Rock 'n' Roll it was reactivated in 1969, and items from its back-catalogue were repackaged and re-released. Specialty was sold to Fantasy records in 1990.
As far as Britain is concerned, a number of Specialty records by Little Richard were licensed to Decca in 1957-58 and came out on the London label. Specialty eventually made its debut as a label in its own right here towards the end of the 1960s, when Swedish firm Sonet signed a licensing deal which entitled it to issue Specialty product in Europe. The first mention in 'Record Retailer' of a UK Specialty release came in the issue of the 8th of November 1969, which said that Sonet had issued Little Richard's 'All Time Hits' album and a single from it, 'Good Golly Miss Molly' b/w 'Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay' (SON-5000). A second Little Richard single, 'Poor Boy Paul' b/w 'Wanderin'' (SON-5001; 1970) followed. During that period Sonet records were handled by Transatlantic (q.v.); in addition to its own efforts Transatlantic called upon Selecta and Lugton to help with distribution in the first few months of the decade - EMI replaced them from the 1st of September 1970. The first issue of SON-5000 was pressed by CBS (1); 5001 however was definitely pressed by EMI: it had an EMI-style matrix number in the run-off and perforated copies had the narrow perforations distinctive to EMI at that time (2). In April 1972 Sonet moved from Transatlantic to Pye for manufacture, marketing and distribution, taking the Specialty label with it. Later in 1972 Sonet and Specialty joined together to form a London-based company which would represent Specialty here and in Europe, presumably in a move to promote the increasing amount of Specialty material which was being made available - by that time nine albums had been issued and there were twelve more scheduled for release over the coming nine months ('Billboard', 18th November).
Following the move to Pye the first two singles were mentioned in the 'New Singles' leaflet for the issue of the 7th of July 1972; they appear to have been re-pressed and reissued at that point. The next releases took a while to appear. 'Music Week' of the 7th of October reported that Sonet was planning a 'Golden Oldies' series, which would retail at 50p and would feature material by Little Richard, Lloyd Price and Sam Cooke, but nothing happened for six months or so. Then on the 17th of March 1973 'MW' announced that the company was putting out eleven Rock 'n' Roll / R'n'B singles on Specialty that week, including ones by those artists. According to the article one of the series, Jerry Byrne's 'Lights Out' b/w 'Honey Baby' (SON-5011), would be getting its first UK release in single form. Only ten singles, SON-5002 to 5011 were listed on the 'MW' 'Releases' page for that week, but SON-5000 to 5012 featured in a Pye advertisement a couple of months or so later. During the next twelve months SON-5013 to 5015 were issued. These first sixteen singles all had the yellow-and-black label design, but there were variations in the positioning of some of the credits. The first pressings of 5002 to 5012 have the second type shown above, with copyright credits to Specialty and Sonet at the bottom along with the country of manufacture (3). SON-5016, which was undated, had the third type of label, which had 'A Specialty Records Inc. Recording' under the logo; it also had 'Made in England' at three o'clock, and the artists' names were in capitals. In addition the copyright reference at the bottom had been changed to a publishing one (4). Some earlier singles can also be found with this label as well: I've seen 5003, 5011, 5013 and 5015 with it. Presumably these were re-pressed at around the same time that 5016 came out. There were a couple of minor variants as well. In 1976 the yellow label was replaced by a black-and-white one that resembled more closely the American original (5). The final two singles, SON-5017 and 5018, seem to have had only this kind of label, as did the EP. Many other records in the series can be found with it: presumably they, too, are re-pressings, and they were done in or after 1976 - the black-and-white copy of SON-5012 has '1978' on it. There may well have been an effort to market them as a batch, but if there was 'Music Week' didn't mention it. As a result of all this activity at least two singles, SON-5011 and 5015, can be found with all three kinds of label.
As far as I know only one Specialty single appeared in promo form: some copies of the first (EMI) pressing of Little Richard's 'Poor Boy Paul' can be found with a hollow 'A' on them (6). A similar marking was used by Transatlantic for promos on its 'Big T' label during the last quarter of 1970 and the first quarter of 1971 (approximately), which suggests that 'Poor Boy Paul' was first issued during that period. The American single came out in November 1970, so a UK release around that time sounds reasonable. Singles came in plain white sleeves; there were no Specialty company sleeves in the UK. The dates given in the discography below refer to when the singles were first released - as stated above, many singles were re-pressed and re-promoted several times.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.