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Got You On My Mind
, and The Du Droppers tore through a pair of hit houserockers in
’53,
I Wanna Know
and its inevitable answer
I Found Out (What You Do When You
Go ‘Round There).
Launching a subsidiary imprint exclusively spotlighting R&B artists must have
seemed a mighty attractive proposition for the Victor brass as the genre’s popularity
grew exponentially. RCA boasted a major advantage over the feisty indie labels that
dominated the idiom - it operated three recording studios of its own at 153-161 East
24
th
Street in New York City, eliminating any need to book recording time elsewhere.
Much of the distribution for the new label, which fell under the aegis of RCA’s Label
“X” division, would be handled by outside distributors rather than in-house. Groove’s
eye-catching black-on-light-green label layout would remain consistent through its
three-year run.
The man who would initially head Groove was already on RCA’s payroll as an
R&B A&R man. Just prior to hiring on at Victor, Danny Kessler had enjoyed
considerable success in a very similar role at OKeh, bringing histrionic white vocalist
Johnnie Ray and Atlanta blues shouter Chuck Willis onto its roster and producing
huge hits on both. Danny inherited the cream of RCA’s R&B crop - Piano Red, The
Du Droppers, Crudup, Greer, Milt Trenier, Melvin Smith, Buddy Lucas, and saxman
Sam Butera - to populate Groove’s initial roster.
Despite all that, Groove wasn’t an immediate success. That August, Kessler left
RCA’s employ. Early reports had him defecting to Decca, but he opted to focus on
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PREVIEW