Cameo-Parkway Records
American record company
Cameo-Parkway Records was the parent company of Cameo Records and Parkway Records, which were major American Philadelphia-based record labels from 1956 (for Cameo) and 1958 (for Parkway) to 1967. Among the types of music released were doo-wop, dance hits, popular/rock, rockabilly, big band, garage rock, soul and novelty records.
Until 1962, Cameo was also the parent company name for both labels, and Parkway was a subsidiary. In 1962, the parent company was renamed from Cameo to Cameo-Parkway, to give both labels equal status. In some foreign markets, Cameo-Parkway was also a label name, issuing records by artists from both labels. The Cameo-Parkway catalogue is currently owned by ABKCO Records.
History
Cameo Records was founded in December 1956 in Philadelphia by Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann; it has no connection to the 1920s record label Cameo Records. Parkway, initially a subsidiary label, was formed in 1958.
Mann and Lowe had been a successful songwriting team prior to the start of the label, with Mann writing lyrics and Lowe the music; their biggest hit prior to starting the label was Elvis Presley's "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear". Dave Appell joined the label from its inception as A&R director, and the three worked together as a production team on many early Cameo releases.
The public source identifies “Cameo-Parkway Records” as american record company. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cameo-Parkway, Records and American.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cameo-Parkway Records” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.