Bomp Records 2

BOMP! RECORDS – Early History
 
 
 
 
Starting any business is a daunting task, but I dare say that goes double for a record company.  Among any number of other roadblocks to success, there is always the danger that your own taste in music won’t match up with that of the record-buying public.  And the big record companies are always sniffing around for something that looks like it might become a hit, and hardly any band is going to turn down a shot at a major-label recording contract no matter how nice you have been to them. 
 
Greg Shaw launched Bomp! Records in December 1974 with the release of the Bomp 101 single, “You Tore Me Down” b/w “Him or Me” by the Flamin’ Groovies, with the latter song being the Paul Revere and the Raiders song.  The first band signed by the new label was past UARB the Poppees, whose unabashed Beatlesque stylings were at odds with the established rock scene and the punk/new wave scene alike. 
 
As punk rock began to gain ascendancy in an underground sort of way, Bomp! Records was there to release 45’s by some of the seminal bands and artists like the Germsthe Weirdosthe Zeros, the Romantics, Devo, Josie Cotton, and Venus and the Razorblades
 
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In the early days, everything was in a 7-inch format; but it wasn’t all two-song singles, and it wasn’t all new music.  Apparently right after the first 45 by the Poppees was released, on Bomp 104-EPBomp! Records put together the first reissue of music by the Choir, a 1960’s Cleveland band that included several members of the Raspberries, which formed in 1970 and released several smart albums along with a million-selling hit single, “Go All the Way”. 
 
The five songs by the Choir on the EP called The Choir, however, did not include their September 1966 release “It’s Cold Outside”, which was picked up by Roulette Records in May 1967, hitting #1 on all three Top 40 radio stations in Cleveland and peaking at #68 on the Billboard charts.  It’s Cold Outside is one of my very favorite 1960’s garage rock songs, and this song has fans across the country and around the world.  It’s Cold Outside gained more attention when it was included on Pebbles, Volume 2 and later in the first Nuggets Box Set
 
The Bomp! Records EP by the Boston band DMZ called Lift Up Your Hood is what Greg Shaw is holding in the best known photograph of him, as shown above. 
 
Yet another early EP by Bomp! RecordsI’m Sick of You by Iggy and the Stooges is discussed in more detail below. 
 
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I wrote up several Wikipedia articles on this music, including the Choir and the Starfires; and I greatly expanded the article on the Outsiders and came up with articles on their albums as well.  Another Wikipedia article (much of whose content has been deleted, I was distressed to find out just now) was on the compilation album of music made by Dead Boys frontman Stiv Bators for Bomp! Records, called L.A. L.A., which includes a cover version of the song by the Choir, “It’s Cold Outside
 
(December 2017)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021