SEVILLE RECORDS
The original American label, like most labels at the time, would try its hand at all kinds of music. It’s catalogue includes rock ‘n’ roll, doo-wop, instrumentals, m-o-r, girl groups and garage bands.
Of its artists, some were new to recording when their records were released while others came to the label with quite a track record behind them. Early signing Pat O’Day had been with MGM, RCA and Chess before coming to the label, Billy Duke similarly had been with half a dozen different labels including 20th Century Fox and Capitol before joining Seville while Billy Roxy and Lloyd McClenney were one-shot acts that came and went without making any great mark.
Earl Wade had been a member of The Cadillacs for a while before having one outing on Seville and Ronnie Mitchell was a guy with a good voice that tried for success with Atlantic before having his one release on Seville and quickly moving on.
Richard Barrett, the man who steered The Three Degrees to success had a single on the label and brought teenage duo The Casals to the label for a one-off single. The Casals included a young Jimmy Castor and Anthony Salveggi, formerly of New York doo-wop group The Four Cheers.
Dick Roman had been recording since 1955, so was certainly no newcomer when he joined Seville (from President) in mid-1965 and there were early recordings by legendary New Orleans singer / writer / producer Allen Toussaint.
The mid sixties saw a couple of releases from a Greenwich Village folk rock group with psychedelic tendencies, The Ragamuffins, that included Tom Pacheco and his brother Paul, a girl singer called Sharon Alexander along with Richard Hickman and Richard Marshall.
The label’s biggest successes came with Ernie Maresca and Marcie Blane at the beginning and the end of 1962. “Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)” and “Bobby’s Girl” both made the American Top 10.
The label also released two records by British acts. The Pageboys was an ‘invention’ of Larry Page which he sold to Seville only to find it coming back to Britain as a release on the legendary London label and The Sundae Times had been a U.K. President release, produced (and probably sung) by Eddie Grant.
Seville label, UK
President Records launched its U.K. version of Seville Records in January 1975 with many of its releases being culled from the T.K. group of labels run by Henry Stone in Florida, a source it shared with the Jay Boy label.
Other releases came from the Cotton label in New York and from the independent production company White Flame.
Ernie Maresca’s “Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)” got a re-release on the label in October 1976 and there was one other release from the American Seville catalogue, Denny St. George’s “Talk Talk (Talkin’) in July 1977. A European aspect to the label’s roster came about with the release of Chrisland’s “Blue is My Balloon” which marked the label’s last release (for a while) in January 1978.
In 1983, the label was re-activated to release two Dave Travis productions, one by American rockabilly star Johnny Carroll and a second by Carroll’s singing partner Judy Lyndsey.