Trash or Treasure? A Picker's Guide to 78 RPM Records on the Paramount Label

Jon R Warren

History of Paramount "Race" Records

Paramount Records was contracted to press discs for Black Swan Records. When that company floundered, Paramount bought out Black Swan and thus got into the business of making recordings by and for African-Americans. These so-called "race music" records became Paramount's most famous (and most valuable to record collectors).

Paramount's "race record" series was launched in 1922 with a few vaudeville blues songs by Lucille Hegamin and Alberta Hunter. It had a large mail-order operation that was a key to its early success.

Most of Paramount's race music recordings were arranged by Black entrepreneur J. Mayo Williams. "Ink" Williams had no official position with Paramount, but was given wide latitude to bring African-American talent to Paramount recording studios and to market Paramount records to African-American consumers. Williams did not know at the time that the "race market" had become Paramount's prime business, and he was essentially keeping the label afloat.

Problems with low audio fidelity and poor pressings plagued the label. Blind Lemon Jefferson's big 1926 hit, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues", had to be hurriedly rerecorded in the superior facilities of Marsh Laboratories and subsequent releases used that version; since both versions appear on compilation albums, they may be compared.

In 1927, Mayo Williams moved to competitor Okeh Records, taking Blind Lemon Jefferson with him for just one recording, "Matchbox Blues". Paramount's recording of the same song can be compared with Okeh's on compilation albums, to Paramount's detriment. In 1929 Paramount was building a new studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, so it sent Charlie Patton — 'sent up' by Jackson, Mississippi storeowner H.C. Speir — to the studio of Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana, where on June 14 he cut 14 famous sides which led many to consider him the "Father of the Delta Blues".

Charlie Patton on 78 RPM Paramount
Son House on 78 RPM Paramount
Willie Brown on 78 RPM Paramount
Tommy Johnson on 78 RPM Paramount
Charlie Spand on 78 RPM Paramount
Robert Peoples on 78 RPM Paramount
Blind Lemon Jefferson on 78 RPM Paramount
Alberta Hunter on 78 RPM Paramount

Jon Warren of iCollectRecords.com is one of the top buyers of rare blues records on the Paramount label. He can be reached at 1-800-428-6580 or by visiting his website.

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