Parent company Warner Bros. Status Defunct Country of origin U.S. Founded 1930 | Defunct 1938 (1938) Genre Jazz, pop Founder Warner Bros | |
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Melotone Records was an American record label founded in 1930. Warner/Brunswick Records introduced the Melotone label in the U.S. and Canada as a budget subsidiary issuing 78 rpm disc records. It then became part of the American Record Corporation collection of labels in 1932. The label was disestablished in 1938. In 2010, Melotone Records was refounded as a division of Melotone Music LLC.
During the Depression, Melotone Records was a common, inexpensive label. Melotone issued popular dance tunes of the era (usually a group of studio musicians issued under pseudonyms, such as Ralph Bennett and his Seven Aces (all eleven), Bob Causer and his Cornellians, Owen Fallon and his Orchestra, Sleepy Hall and his Collegians, Vic Irwin and his Orchestra, Chick Bullock and his Levee Loungers, Vincent Rose and his Orchestra, Paul Small and his Orchestra with a variety of jazz, blues, country, Mexican, Cajun, and Hawaiian music.
Artists on Melotone included Eddie Cantor, Annette Hanshaw, Lead Belly, Blind Boy Fuller, Gene Autry, and Tex Ritter.