Chess brothers' company single Leonard Chess bought a stake in
Aristocrat Records in 1947 and slowly bought out other owners. The Chess brothers became the sole owners of the company in 1950 by buying out founder Evelyn Aron. They renamed the company Chess Records. The first release from Chess was "My Foolish Heart", backed with "Bless You", by
Gene Ammons, issued as a
78 RPM single in June 1950. It became the label's biggest hit of the year. In 1951, the Chess brothers began an association with record producer
Sam Phillips of the
Memphis Recording Service (the forerunner of
Sun Records). and was inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 in recognition of its influence on rock and roll. Upon release, the record was attributed to
Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, but the band was actually called
Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm. Howlin' Wolf's first release with Chess was "
Moanin' at Midnight"/"
How Many More Years", which both charted on the
Billboard R&B charts, reaching 4 and 10 respectively. He stayed with Chess until his death in 1976, releasing hits like "
Smokestack Lightning", "I asked for Water", and "
Spoonful". In December 1955, they launched a
jazz and
pop label, Marterry, a name created from the first names of Leonard and Phil's sons, Marshall and Terry. In the mid-1950s, the Chess brothers received two
doo-wop groups by
Alan Freed, the Coronets and
the Moonglows; the former group was not very popular but the latter achieved several major
crossover hits including "
Sincerely", which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1958, Chess began producing their first
LP records which included such albums as
After School Session by Chuck Berry,
The Best of Muddy Waters,
The Best of Little Walter, and
Bo Diddley. Chess Records was also known for its regular band of session musicians who played on most of the company's Chicago soul recordings, including the drummer
Maurice White and the bassist
Louis Satterfield, both of whom later shaped the
funk group
Earth, Wind & Fire; the guitarists
Pete Cosey, Gerald Sims and
Phil Upchurch; the pianist
Leonard Caston, later a producer for Motown; and the organist Sonny Thompson. In 1962, Chess Records was sued by
Peacock Records for recording their artists Reverend Robert Ballinger and the
Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. In 1969, Chess Records established a subsidiary label in the U.K., Middle Earth Records, which was distributed by
Pye Records. The subsidiary specialized in
Psychedelic rock and was a joint venture with the
Middle Earth Club in London. The Middle Earth label released only four albums and about a dozen singles before it closed in 1970. Chess moved to a larger building in 1968, located at 320 East 21st Street in Chicago. The facility housed a pressing plant & new home for Ter-Mar Studios. The company was briefly run by
Marshall Chess, Leonard's son, in his position as vice president between January and October 1969 and then as president following its acquisition by GRT, before he went on to found
Rolling Stones Records.
Under GRT and All Platinum In early 1969, the Chess brothers sold the label to
General Recorded Tape (GRT) for $6.5 million. In October 1969, Leonard Chess died and by 1972, the only part of Chess Records still operating in Chicago was the recording studio, Ter-Mar Studios. Following the sale of Chess to GRT, Phil left the label to run radio station
WVON. In the 1970s, Chess Records and its publishing arm, Arc Music, were successfully sued by
Muddy Waters and
Willie Dixon for nonpayment of royalties due to them. Ter-Mar Studios continued to operate at the 320 E. 21st St. building until its closure in 1979. In February 1997, MCA started releasing eleven
compilation albums for the 50th anniversary of Chess Records. In the 2000s, Universal's limited-edition reissue label,
Hip-O Select, began releasing a series of comprehensive box sets devoted to such Chess artists as
Muddy Waters,
Howlin' Wolf,
Little Walter,
Bo Diddley and
Chuck Berry. In July 2008, the
2008 Universal Studios fire burned down a warehouse filled with
Universal Music Group recording masters, including many albums and songs released by Chess. These masters, by artists such as Chuck Berry, were "priceless" and irreplaceable; while UMG claimed at the time it had copies, later investigative reporting questioned this, with the truth emerging that all the masters were destroyed. Chess Records was the subject of two films produced in 2008,
Cadillac Records and
Who Do You Love?. In addition to the Chess brothers, both films feature portrayals of or characters based on
Willie Dixon,
Muddy Waters,
Little Walter,
Chuck Berry,
Howlin' Wolf and
Etta James.
Cadillac Records was directed by
Darnell Martin and features an ensemble cast including
Adrien Brody (as Leonard Chess),
Mos Def (as Chuck Berry),
Beyoncé Knowles (as Etta James) and
Jeffrey Wright (as Muddy Waters).
Who Do You Love was directed by
Tony Award winner
Jerry Zaks and stars
Alessandro Nivola playing
Leonard Chess "as a complicated, driven man, hard on both his musicians and his family, yet with a real love for some of America's greatest music." The world premiere of the latter film was at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 11, 2008. ==Discography==