BELL RECORDS
Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 in New York City by Arthur Shimkin, the owner of the children’s record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benny Bell who used the Bell name to issue risque novelty records. A British branch was also active in the 1960s and 1970s. Bell Records was reorganized in November 1974, which was the birth of Arista Records. (More from Wikipedia)
The Godspell album was released in July 1971 on Bell Records and performed well on the charts. Sales began slipping until Bell released the single “Day by Day” by the original cast in 1972, with Robin Lamont singing lead. The single reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
(October 2014)
* * *
The next year, Crystal Mansion became one of the bands added to the roster of the Motown Records subsidiary Rare Earth Records that featured white acts. This album, The Crystal Mansion has virtually the same name as their 1969 album Crystal Mansion and is the one that I have. Bandmembers for this 1971 release are – in the order given on the back cover – Rick Morley (percussion), Sal Rota (organ, piano, vocal), Ronnie Gentile (guitar), Mario Sanchez (conga, vocal), Bill Crawford (bass), and Johnny Caswell (vocal, piano). Under his real name, former bandmember David White Tricker appears courtesy of Bell Records and co-wrote three of the songs.
(August 2015)
