Ember Records was founded in the late 1950s, by avid jazz fan
Jeffrey Kruger, owner of the
Flamingo Jazz Club. At the time, the British music industry was largely dominated by four major record companies (
EMI,
Decca,
Pye and
Philips) who, thanks to the lack of a national popular music radio station, dominated the airwaves by buying slots on
Radio Luxembourg. Therefore, the only way independent record labels could achieve any success was by focusing on specialist genres. Kruger realised that considerable success could be gained if, rather than focusing on one specific musical genre, he instead focused on a plethora of them. Releases under the
jazz,
pop,
R&B,
beat,
soul,
rockabilly, and other genres followed, and Kruger started to establish Ember as a major independent force in the UK. As Kruger explained: The first major achievement and breakthrough for the label came when Kruger realised the rising demand for American music acts in Britain and that some popular American labels had not yet had a publishing deal in the UK, despite the major British labels already having deals with the most important ones. Kruger flew out to the US and made deals with, amongst others,
20th Century Fox (a major coup for an independent at the time),
Sam Phillips, Harry Simeone Chorale’s ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ label and Syd Nathan, boss of King and Federal Records in Ohio. As Kruger recalled: Becoming the first British label to set up its own distribution and pressing facilities helped Ember cement their place in the industry. By 1963, Ember had built up a roster of UK artists such as
Matt Monro,
the Dale Sisters, Grant Tracy and the Sunsets, and the duo
John Shakespeare and Ken Hawker (recording as Carter, Lewis & the Southerners). The next big break came when composer, producer and arranger
John Barry left
EMI to join Kruger. During his time with Ember, he scored hits with pioneering folk duo
Chad & Jeremy, and "Christine" by "Miss X" (
Joyce Blair), a song which referred to the
Profumo scandal. As the decade wore on, the label continued to release records from across the musical spectrum, from film and TV themes such as the Liars (which established a young
Nyree Dawn Porter), to the soul 45 rpm singles for which the label became renowned. These featured acts such as The Casinos, the Checkmates and Lou Lawton, Stax hitmakers
the Bar-Kays,
King Curtis and the Pac-Keys. On the recommendation of John Abbey, who set up the subsidiary soul label Speciality where some of those previous releases first appeared, Kruger gave a debut to
Glen Campbell, the man who would go on to become Ember’s biggest success. Despite a considerable investment from Kruger, however, they struggled to achieve success, at least initially. It was around this time that the label became the first British
independent label to have three of its singles at the top of the American charts. ==1970s to present==