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Duke and Peacock Records
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Duke and Peacock Records

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Written by
Charlie Gillett
(d. 2010) Radio presenter and director, Oval Records and Music, London. Author of The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll; Making Tracks: Atlantic Records and the Growth of a Multi-billion-Dollar...
Charlie Gillett
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Article History

A decade before the ascendance of Motown, Houston’s Duke and Peacock record labels flourished as an African-American-owned company. Don Robey, a nightclub owner with reputed underworld connections, founded Peacock Records in 1949 and ran it with an iron hand. In 1952 Robey and James Mattias of Duke Records (founded in Memphis, Tennessee, earlier in the year) formed a partnership. A year later Robey became the outright owner of Duke and centralized its operation in Houston. The company’s staples were gospel (the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi) and gospel-oriented blues (Bobby “Blue” Bland and Junior Parker, with arrangements by Joe Scott ...(100 of 169 words)

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