GNP Crescendo Records

The Seeds' label, GNP Crescendo, has an amazingly varied history for one so small, and is long overdue for some retrospective investigation. Gene Norman (the GNP in the name stands for Gene Norman Presents), who has operated the label in various forms for some twenty years, has much in v, common with the men who founded Atlantic in the late '40s. A jazz fan and collector himself, he started his own, label as a means of being more closely involved with the music, and gradually broadened his roster to include rhythm & blues groups, among them the Robins, who later went to Atlantic as the Coasters.

This was on the Whippet label, an early subsidiary of GNP, which Norman might have been able to build into a large west coast R&B label on the order of Imperial or Modem. But Gene Norman never put as much effort into developing his record business as Wexler and Ertegun put into theirs, primarily because the record business was only a sideline for him. His real income came from the restaurants and night clubs he owned, with the record label as a vehicle for recording some of the acts that performed In his clubs. So after the Robins, whose "Cherry Lips" was a sizeable hit for Norman, his label was little heard of until he began signing a few of the groups that, as surf music fever struck California in 1963, were making the rounds of record companies, big and small.

Crescendo issued a few surf albums, with groups like Dave Myers & the Surftones (one of the best), the Renegalds, and the Good Guys (with their Skateboard Music), and as 1964 rollec In GNP began putting out more and more material of interest. Beetle novelties like "I'll Let You Hold My Hand" by the Booties, girl group records by the Fashionettes and the Popsicles, and foreign groups like Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs (Australian) as well as recording local |erk bands like Jay Bentley & the Jet Set, Sonny Bono oneshot deals like "The Addams Family Theme" by the Rends, and local would-be teen idols like Delaney Bramlett.

But none of this really sold, and until the Seeds broke with “Pushin' Too Hard", GNP's bread and butter came from the myriad Billy Strange and Joe & Eddie records issued by the company. As the Seeds proved new teen sounds could be successful, Norman Inked more and more local groups, and while none of them went very far, there were some very fine sounds indeed put out by the likes of Mark & the Escorts, the Bows & Arrows, (with an obscure folk-rock Dylan cover) the Lyrics (a first-rate punk band), the Other Half (whose "I Need You" was a fairly large local hit, and a fine punker), the Foremost Authority, the Trippers, the Rre Escape (with a great album Including "ikych otic Reaction", "Talk Talk", "96 To ars" and Ktm Powley's classic "The Trip") and so on.

By 1968 both the Seeds and the LA teen scene were pretty much washed up, but GNP continued issuing records of note, primarily foreign acquisitions such as Ola & the Jangiers "California Sun" and "Let's Dance" and Don Ferdon's “Indian Reservation" (the original version, and a hit, reaching 20 nationally in late '68). Around this time Norman also put out good records by the Paris Sisters and the Chantelles , and also picked up the Rumbles, Ltd, an excellent teen vocal group (sometimes reminiscent of the Four Seasons) from Omaha, who had recorded on Mercury, Capitol and Sire, as well as local labels.

If he'd had the resources, Norman could have build a group like the Rumbles Into a nationally known ac t; he could have followed up Don Pardon's success; he could have broken Ola & the Jangiers, who are huge In Europe. But It just wasn't possible. So GNP Crescendo Is still there, tn a tiny little office at the very end of the Sunset Strip. Every now and then they get a freak hit, like Python Lee Jackson's "In a Broken Dream" (another record that should, by all logic, have been much ' bigger) but the bills are still paid by Billy Strange and the other MOR product (the Mom & Dads, Mayf Nutter, Bobby Nelson, the Manzanillo Voices).

GNP Crescendo is one of the last of a nearly extinct breed of small, old-time independent record companies, and it's the kind of company we could use more of today. Even now, a group could walk In with a reasonably good record and get signed, after all the big companies have said no. Just recently, Norman's son Neil cut his first record, a weird psychedelic space-rock freakout number called "Phaser-Laser". If GNP were no longer tn business, I wouldn't have ever heard that record, which is reason enough for hoping they stay around. Someday, I have a feeling, the next Seeds will walk through the door, and once again GNP-Cnescendo will be a label to reckon with.

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ABOVE — The Rumbles, Ltd, Omaha's greatest contribution to rock & roll, along with the Coachmen ("W. Moon"), later known as Professor Morrlson’s Lollipop. With their Four Seasons harmonies and solid pop potential, the Rumbles were one of GNP's latest (1969) bids for success. The Booties, below, were one of the first, with their 1964 release, "I'll Let You Hold My Hand". But what they were offering, on record at least, nobody was buying....

DISCOGRAPHY

Whot follows is a selected label listing for GNP, eliminating all MOR, jazz and other irrelevant releases. This listing is taken from the company archives, so you may assume that every GNP release of interest Is included here.

311 The Booties - Til Let You Hold My Hand/Never Till Now
318 Oliver Morgan’-Who Shot the Lalc/Hold Your Dog
322 Fashionettes - Daydreamin' of You/Only Love
325 Bema-Dean - This is the City/What's That You Got
326 Good Guys - Asphalt Wipe-Out/Scratch
328 Delaney Bramlett - Heartbreak Hotel/You Never Looked Sweeter
329 Ambertones - Charlena/Bandldo
331 Mr. Lee - Lucille,Lucillq/lt's a Sin to Tell a Lie
332 Jay Bentley & the Jet Set - Watusi 64/1'11 Get You
335 The Rends - Jheme From 'The Addams Family'/Quetzal Quake
336 Popsicles - I Don't Want to Be Your Baby Anymare/Baby IMtss You
339 Delaney Bramlett - Liverpool Lou/You Have No Choice
340 Billy Thorpe Over the Ralnbcw/That I Lave
345 Gene & the Esquires - Space Race/Rave On
346 Aztecs - Summertime Blue Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It
347 Jay Bentley & Jet Set - Come On-On/Everybody's Got a Dancing Partner
348 Sieve Wilson - Pretty Little Angel/When Will I Learn Not To Cry.
350 Mark & the Escorts - Get Your Baby/Tuff Stuff
354 Seeds - Can't Seem to Make You Mine/Dalsy Mae
356 Bows & Arrows - I Don't Believe You/You Know What You Can Do
357 Ray Brown & the Whispers - Fool Fob! Fool/Pride
358 Mark & the Escorts - Dance With Me/Stlly Putty
359 Billy Thorpe & Aztecs - Twilight Time/Му Girl Josephine
361 Gene Norman Group - Masters of Wor/bon't Think Twice
362 Challengers - Man From UNCLE/The Streets of London
363 Delaney Bramlett - Better Man Than Me/Without Your Love
364 Seeds - Youfre Pushing Too Hard/Out of the Question
368 Challengers - Walk With Me/ How Could I?
370 Seeds - The Other Place/Try to Understand
371 Billy Lee Riley - Gonna Find о Cevo/Thaf's the Bag I'm In
372 Seeds - Pushln' Too Harc/Try to Understand
376 Challengers - Wtpeout/North Beach
377 Billy Lee Riley - Way I Feel/St. James Infirmary
378 Other Holf - I've Come So Far/Mr. Pharmacist
381 Lyrics - My Sor/So Glad
383 Seeds - Mr. Farmer/No Escape
384 Fire Escape - Love Special Delfvery/Blood Beat
385 Delicatessen - The Red Baron's Revenge/The Dog Fight
386 Fourmost Authority - Dance, Donce/Left Hand Lawyer
387 Trippers - Taking Care of Business/Chorleno
393 Lyrics - Wait/Mr. Man
394 Seeds - March of the Flower Children/А Thousand Shadows
396 Challengers - The Water Country/Everything to Me
398 Seeds - The Wind Blows Your Hair/Six Dreams
400 Challengers - Before You/Color Me In
403 Foremost Authority - Childhood Friends/Woe is Me
404 Graduates - Listen to the Muslc/(The Shape of) Things to Come
405 Don Ferdon - Indian Reserve tlon/breaming Room
406 Tony Ritchie - Cornin' On Strong/Could You Really Live Without Her
407 Renaissance - Goombay/The HI-Way Song
408 Seeds - Satisfy You/90 Million People Dally
410 Paris Sisters - Stand Naked Clown/llgliest Girl tn Town
412 Challengers - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang/Lonely Little Girl
414 Tony Ritchie - Has Anyone at the Party Seen Jemey?/ You Can't Win
415 Chantelles - Out of My Mind//Логе to Come
416 Fourmost Authority - Go For What You Know/I Can't Get A By
418 Don Fardon - Take a Heart/How Do You Break a Broken Heart?
421 Don Fardon - Sally Goes Round the Moon/How Do You Break a Broken Heart?
422 Seeds - Wild Blood/Falitn' Off the Edge of My Mind
423 Ola & Janglers - Let's Dance/Strolling Along
424 Don Fardon - Running Bear/Ruby's Picture
426 Flying Circus - Hayride/Early Morning
427 Ola & Janglers - What a Way to Die/rhafs Why I Cry
429 Johnny Apollo - I Don't Need No Doctor/Good,Good Woman
430 Rumbles, Ltd. - Try a Little Harder/Califomio My Way
432 Ola & Janglers - California Sun/Baby, Baby, Baby
449 Python Lee Jackson - In a Broken Dreom/Doin' Rne.
462 Rod Stewart - Cloud Nlne/Rod's Blues
473 Nell Norman - Phaser-Laser
475 Bill Haley - I'm Walkln'/Crazy Man Crazy

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