About
Defunct American budget record label, active 1947 to 1962. Also appears as "Tops" on releases.
Tops Music Enterprises was formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1947 by Carl Doshay and Sam Dickerman, two "rack jobbers" who sold used jukebox 78 RPM records to grocery stores, drug stores, five-and-dime stores and the like when they decided to enter the record business by recording and releasing "knockoff' cover version records featuring session musicians and vocalists at a list price of 39 cents as opposed to 79 cents from the major labels.
By the mid-1950s, the company, now based in Hollywood, hired Dave Pell as house producer and arranger as the company's success was starting to overwhelm Doshay. It also began recording artists such as Lena Horne, Mel Tormé, Pee Wee Hunt, the The Pied Pipers, Kate Smith (2), and The Ink Spots.
In 1958, Doshay sold the company to Geiger counter manufacturer Precision Radiation Instruments, Inc. (P.R.I), primarily to ease its tax burdens. Later that year, Tops hired publicist Bob Blythe, who promptly ran Tops aground through a series of bad business decisions. A year later, Doshay suffered a heart attack and decided to sell the company for $1 million. Blythe, who wanted to acquire the company to begin with, and a team of investors bought Tops/P.R.I. in 1960. Blythe took over, fired Doshay and overspent the company into bankruptcy. The investor group fired Blythe but it was far too late.
Tops and its catalog were sold to Pickwick International, Inc., and by 1963, its former rival folded the Tops/Mayfair/P.R.I. labels into its own operations.
Please see Tops Music Enterprises, Tops Music Enterprises, Corp., or Tops Music Enterprises Inc., for company credits.
The address is the same as the later companies of the Bihari Brothers shows. Most likely they acquired this part of the company when they went bankrupt.
Note that many releases were issued under three labels — "Tops Records, Mayfair Records and Golden Tone" — yet hold the same content and often the same release info or catalog numbers (e.g., ). Also see Tops Mayfair Records.
Tops Music Enterprises was formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1947 by Carl Doshay and Sam Dickerman, two "rack jobbers" who sold used jukebox 78 RPM records to grocery stores, drug stores, five-and-dime stores and the like when they decided to enter the record business by recording and releasing "knockoff' cover version records featuring session musicians and vocalists at a list price of 39 cents as opposed to 79 cents from the major labels.
By the mid-1950s, the company, now based in Hollywood, hired Dave Pell as house producer and arranger as the company's success was starting to overwhelm Doshay. It also began recording artists such as Lena Horne, Mel Tormé, Pee Wee Hunt, the The Pied Pipers, Kate Smith (2), and The Ink Spots.
In 1958, Doshay sold the company to Geiger counter manufacturer Precision Radiation Instruments, Inc. (P.R.I), primarily to ease its tax burdens. Later that year, Tops hired publicist Bob Blythe, who promptly ran Tops aground through a series of bad business decisions. A year later, Doshay suffered a heart attack and decided to sell the company for $1 million. Blythe, who wanted to acquire the company to begin with, and a team of investors bought Tops/P.R.I. in 1960. Blythe took over, fired Doshay and overspent the company into bankruptcy. The investor group fired Blythe but it was far too late.
Tops and its catalog were sold to Pickwick International, Inc., and by 1963, its former rival folded the Tops/Mayfair/P.R.I. labels into its own operations.
Please see Tops Music Enterprises, Tops Music Enterprises, Corp., or Tops Music Enterprises Inc., for company credits.
The address is the same as the later companies of the Bihari Brothers shows. Most likely they acquired this part of the company when they went bankrupt.
Note that many releases were issued under three labels — "Tops Records, Mayfair Records and Golden Tone" — yet hold the same content and often the same release info or catalog numbers (e.g., ). Also see Tops Mayfair Records.
Catalog
2,111 releasesDixieland
Matty Matlock & His Dixie-Men*
Singin' And Swingin'
Steve Allen (3) Presents Carole Simpson · 1959
Dave Pell Plays Duke Ellington's Big Band Sounds
Dave Pell · 1960
Red Nichols And His Five Pennies
Red Nichols And His 5 Pennies* · 1958
Music From Michael Todd's Around The World In 80 Days
Lew Raymond* · 1958
Singin' And Swingin'
Steve Allen (3) Presents Carole Simpson · 1959
Prelude To A Kiss
Mel Tormé · 1989
All-Time Favorites
Tops All-Star Orchestra · 1957
Harmonica Favorites
George Fields · 1959
Scheherezade
The International Symphonic Orchestra Conducted By Gustave Stern, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
The Ink Spots In Hi-Fi
The Ink Spots
Percussion Exotique
Robert Drasnin · 1960
Twelve Top Tunes
Various
Dave Pell Plays Duke Ellington's Big Band Sounds
Dave Pell · 1960
All-Time Favorites
Tops All-Star Orchestra · 1957
Irving Berlin Hits
Various
Harmonica Favorites
George Fields · 1959
Perez Prado Dance Party
Dave Pell & His Orchestra · 1962
Envy / Bongo Minor
Roy Cordell And His Orchestra / Glenn Henry And His Orchestra
Got A Weddin’ Date In Texas / I Love You Because
Del Gillman, The Western Buddies
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer / Winter Wonderland
Bud Roman With Frankie Martin Orchestra
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer / Winter Wonderland
Bud Roman With Frankie Martin Orchestra
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer / Christmas Favorites
Bud Roman With Frankie Martin Orchestra / The Choraleers*
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Bud Roman
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Also "Christmas Favorites"
Bud Roman With Frankie Martin Orchestra · 1954
White Christmas / Silent Night
Cliff Holland
White Christmas / Silent Night
Cliff Holland
Train Sounds
No Artist
Blue Skies / Blue Moon
John Laurenz Featuring Figgy McGrath At The Piano*
For Sentimental Reasons / Among My Souvenirs
Barclay Allen
Showing 30 of 2,111 — open Recordz for the full list