The Arvee label was launched in 1959 and operated until the mid-sixties, as a subsidiary of Hi-Fi Records. The label was run by Richard Vaughn, based at 6087, Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood.
He had founded the High Fidelity Recordings company in 1956 to produce a series of Hi-Fi albums that covered Jazz and easy-listening Pop music. Vaughn was a pioneer, among the first to use four-track tape for his recordings (1958). Hi-Fi also released a few Pop singles. The artists were nearly all White, but an exception came with the release of two albums by Jimmy Witherspoon (1959 and 1960).
In 1957, Vaughn introduced the Orbit label to cater for the White Pop singles market, while also continuing to develop Hi-Fi Records, which continued in operation into the twenty-first century, after Vaughn sold it to Everest in 1965. There is considerable overlap between the two labels, with Orbit concentrating on singles and Hi-Fi issuing mainly albums.
Arvee (named after Richard Vaughn’s initials) was focussed on Pop and R&B music. The label used a system of serial numbers that is occasionally hard to follow. However, the main sequence is the A series, beginning with the Olympics’ “Private Eye” on A562 in 1959. The last in the series appears to be “Mr Snowman Goes To Town” by Guus Jansen on A 5085 in 1964.
Two familiar names appear at Arvee, Cliff Goldsmith and Fred Smith. They were appointed by Vaughn to be in charge of A&R. Amongst the producers that they brought in was H. B. Barnum, another well-known name after his later work with Motown.
The artists roster at Arvee included several more well-known names amongst the Black singers and musicians.
Selected Artists at Arvee
The Olympics were the most prolific of the Arvee artists, with nine singles, one EP, and three albums issued by the company between 1959 and 1962. “Private Eye”/ “(Baby) Hully Gully” got things off to a good start. Both tracks were composed by the A&R team of Goldsmith and Smith, with strong backing vocals and dance beat. The B-side launched the Hully Gully dance craze; as a result, the B-side climbed to number seventy-two on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, leaving the A-side behind at number ninety-five.
Their next five singles, “Big Boy Pete”, “Shimmy Like Kate”, “Dance By The Light Of The Moon”, “Little Pedro”, and “Dooley”, all made chart entries on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, the highest being “Shimmy Like Kate” (Goldsmith and Smith at work again!) at number forty-two. The entries are not high, but the group achieved a good level of consistency, crossing over into the Pop market. Their songs all have a dance beat and a strong sense of fun from the lyrics and the post-Doo-Wop arrangements. From late 1961, fashions were changing, however, so that their last three Arvee singles failed to chart.
Their three albums were a compilation of the early Arvee singles, a compilation shared with the Marathons and the Robins, and a collection of party songs.
The Tramps with Rene Hall Orchestra consisted of four serving members of the United States Air Force: Beamon Young, Willie King, his sister Norma King, and Bill Harris. They recorded three singles at Arvee, all with a strong flavour of Doo-Wop, aimed at the young market.
Lead singer Beamon Young also cut one solo single that featured two more Goldsmith/Smith songs with backing from the Rene Hall Orchestra. Both songs are lush romantic ballads.
The Marathon’s first single wasn’t by the Marathons! The A-side “Peanut Butter” was co-written by Goldsmith, Smith, Barnum, and Cooper. The B-side “Talkin’ Trash” was the work of Barnum and Cooper, who had recorded both songs with the Vibrations (the Jayhawks at Flash) as a demo, intending to then record them with the Olympics for release. Arvee decided to put the demo out, carefully changing the group’s name to the Marathons. When the single climbed to number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, Arvee had a problem.
The Vibrations had signed with Chess, who decided to retaliate by issuing “Peanut Butter” too, credited to “Vibrations Recorded As Marathons”. Arvee then registered the name Marathons and created a new group! All’s fair in love and music.
The Marathons recorded two more singles at Arvee, in the same up-tempo fun dance style. The two best songs are “Tight Sweater” and “You Bug Me Baby”, both co-written by Scott Christy, otherwise known as Sonny Bono.
Arvee issued a compilation of the Marathons’ songs in 1961.
The Robins recorded two singles for Arvee in 1960, following their short trip to Knight Records in 1958. Despite some big names in the list of songwriters (Sonny Bono, Jack Nitzsche, H.B. Barnum, and the Johnson brothers) the tracks are not strong.
Leonard Johnson brought a taste of the Blues to Arvee with the B-side of his 1959 single “The Bug”. The song-writing credit for the B-side “You Can’t Run Away From Love” is given to Johnson, but he wrote the A-side only. The Blues number was the work of Lucky Hawkins. It has a simple backing led by piano and guitar and is a good example of how West Coast Blues had evolved since the early work of Charles Brown.
Dudley is apseudonym for H.B. Barnum, who was given one chance to record at Arvee. He chose two songs that he had co-written with his fellow producer Phil Carter. Strangely, they are Country & Western tunes! Barnum’s parody of Marty Robbins’ “El Paso”, which he called “El Pizza”, is a joke that wears thin quite quickly. The instrumental on the reverse, “Lone Prairie Rock” is more fun.
Wally Cox was a singer who probably came from Oakland. He recorded a handful of singles in the sixties, with Arvee recording the first “I Can’t Help It”, which Cox had written. He sings in the style of Sam Cooke.
As does Tommy Mosely with hisversion of the Jazz standard “My Melancholy Baby”.
Little Joe Hinton is much better than both of them.
His voice is richer and he has the benefit of singing his own songs, “Let’s Start A Romance” and “Your Kind Of Love”, both from 1961. The A-side is well-arranged; it is a Blues-based shuffle that Hinton sings with a lot of Soul. The surprise comes at the bridge when he changes gear!
And there is more to come. Hinton’s second Arvee single pairs the Blues ballads “My Love Is Real”, written by Paul Clifton, and “Your Kind Of Love”. The B-side is another Hinton composition, which he sings with much more power this time around. The A-side is even better. The dramatic arrangement and the backing vocals set off a wonderful Soul/Blues interpretation of the song.
