Steeltown Records
American record company
Steeltown Records was an American record company in Gary, Indiana. The company was founded in 1966 by William Adams (a.k.a. Gordon Keith; deceased) and co-owned with Ben Brown (deceased), Maurice Rodgers, Willie Spencer (deceased), and Lou "Ludie" D. Washington (deceased). The record company was mostly active from 1966 to 1972. Steeltown gave the Jackson 5 their start in the music industry. The Jackson 5's first record was released on the Steeltown label in early 1968, before Motown signed the group in 1969.
Two Jackson 5 singles were recorded for Steeltown at a South Chicago recording studio in 1967, "Big Boy"/"You Changed" and "We Don't Have to Be Over 21 (to Fall in Love)"/"Jam Session". "Big Boy", Michael Jackson's first song, was released on January 31, 1968, by Gordon Keith, who was the manager and producer of the Jackson 5 and their songs. "Big Boy" was played on Chicago-Gary area radio stations and became a local hit. The following March, Keith signed a contract with Atlantic Records to manufacture and distribute the "Big Boy"/"You Changed" record nationally.
“Steeltown Records” enters the record as american record company. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Steeltown, Records and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Steeltown Records” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Steeltown, Records and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3972237. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1972, 1968 and 1969.
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This entry incorporates text from “Steeltown 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.