Founded 1987 | ||
Diamond Records was a record label, based in New York City, which was founded in 1961 by former Roulette Records executive Joe Kolsky. Another Roulette exec, Kolsky's brother Phil Kahl, joined Kolsky in the venture the following year.
Success for the label was slow but they got their first big hit in 1962 with "Loop De Loop" by Johnny Thunder. That record led to a distribution deal with EMI to distribute Diamond recordings on Stateside Records in the UK. Diamond recordings were issued in Canada by Apex Records until roughly 1967, when a Canadian version of Diamond was set up. All releases after that had the same logo design as the U.S. releases. The only consistent hit maker for the label was Ronnie Dove who had a string of hits for Diamond from 1964 to 1969, mostly produced by Kahl.
Kolsky and Kahl sold their interest in Diamond Records in 1968 to the Edwin H. Morris Corporation which sold it in 1970 to Certron Corporation. The label folded by 1972. The fate of the Diamond catalog is unknown, but Ronnie Dove's recordings are widely available on CD, mostly from Collectables Records.
Gary Criss, who later fronted the group The Glass Bottle, recorded several singles for Diamond in the early to mid 60's. None of these records charted. Criss would later have a disco hit with the song "Rio de Janeiro" for Salsoul Records. Other notable artists who have appeared on Diamond Records include:
The label released a total of eight albums in its entire history. The first album was by Johnny Thunder and the remaining albums were all by Ronnie Dove.
In 1987 Dove revived the label to release a couple of singles and another album. He claims ownership of his own recordings made for the label.