ABSTRACT
Jackson, Mississippi-based label founded in August 1955 by former record sales representative Johnny Vincent, which did most of its recording in New Orleans. The label is best-known for its mid-to-late 1950s hits, including Huey “Piano” Smith’s “Rockin’ Pneumonia & Boogie Woogie Flu” and “Don’t You Just Know It” (#9,1958; Ace 545), and Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise” (#14,1959; Ace 554). The later song was actually recorded by Smith’s band with his vocal, but then Vincent recut the vocal with the (white) singer Ford, in a successful bid to get airplay for it on mainstream radio. Perhaps the label’s biggest star was Jimmy Clanton, who had Top 10 hits in 1958 with the #4 pop/#1 R&B “Just A Dream” (Ace 546), 1959’s “Go, Jimmy, Go” (Ace 585), and his last major hit, 1962’s #7 “Venus in Blue Jeans” (Ace 8001). In 1962, finding it difficult to get its product to market, the label signed a distribution deal with the larger Vee-Jay label, but beset by its own problems, Vee-Jay was soon going under and the deal fell apart by 1965. Vincent got out of the record business until he revived it in 1971 to reissue his earlier hits, licensing many of his masters (and his label name) to Ace Records UK. He continued to issue reissues in the U.S. through the 1980s. In 1997, an ailing Vincent sold the label to the British company Music Collection International. Vincent also operated the Teem label for budget LP reissues during the late 1950s through the early 1960s.
