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Roulette Records was an American record company and label founded in 1957 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Kahl, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed director.
A part owner of Roulette Records, Vastola was the listed songwriter on several doo-wop hits from the 1950s and 1960s, including The Valentines song "Lily Maebelle", The Cleftones song "You Baby You", and The Wrens song "Hey Girl". During this period, Vastola also engaged in the counterfeiting of music records, netting him a $500,000 profit.
While a Roulette artist had great creative control when recording for the company, the lack of payment for those efforts was difficult. [49] [51] [52] James estimated that Roulette owed him $30–40 million in unpaid royalties. [49] [48] James said Roulette was a front for organized crime, [53] and functioned as a money laundering operation. In ...
In December 1988, Canterino and Morris Levy, president of Roulette Records, were convicted of conspiring to extort $1.25 million from Pennsylvania record producer Frank LaMonte in Camden, New Jersey. [3] Canterino was sentenced to 12 years in prison. [4] On May 31, 1990, Canterino was indicted for racketeering in the Windows Case. [5]
As most sources such as Robert Plante claim, however, the releases on Tiger Lily were usually unauthorized--Tiger Lily being, in fact, a tax scam operated by Morris Levy, the Mafia connected head of Roulette Records. The fact that several of these tracks are copies of tracks which appeared on an album that Pryor had previously released also ...
In his 2010 biography Me, the Mob, and the Music, singer Tommy James wrote that Morris Levy, the Mafia-connected head of Roulette Records, had arranged the attack in response to Rodgers' repeated demands for unpaid royalties he was due by the label. All of Rodgers' most successful singles had been released by Roulette, who were notorious for ...
Isgro then went to work for Schwartz Bros., the largest independent record distributor whose clients included Motown, A&M Records, RCA Records, Chrysalis Records and Arista Records. In 1974, Roulette Records hired Joe as the National Director of Promotion. Isgro led the promotional staff and oversaw the company's publicity and advertising ...
Klein acquired a reputation as a tough negotiator who could bring money to his clients. Two of them, rockabilly singers Knox and Bowen, were owed royalties by Roulette Records. Morris Levy, co-owner of Roulette, was feared because of his organized crime connections. He was known to pay artists as little as possible.