(61) ROULETTE RECORDS - MORRIS LEVY

Roulette Records was where I was signed by Morris Levy. Morris Levy had once owned the famous Birdland jazz club in New York City and had offices in the Brill building. The very first record he had ever released on his Roulette Label (#4001) was Jimmy Bowen's "I'm Stickin' With You" (#4002) and the second was Buddy Knox's "Party Doll", both hits in 1957, and of course I was friends with both and performed at various venues with both artists.

My friend Jimmie Rodgers was also on Roulette.

I did a single for Roulette, which was "Melodie D'Amour," (The A side) and "I Guess I'll Never Know" (The B.) When I had the demo made, I ran into Ersel Hickey. He was heading over to Theresa Brandie's flat. "Let's Listen to it over there," Ersel said, so we went over, put it on the turn table, and Ersel thought "You have a hit."

Ersel wasn't the only person who loved "Melodie D'Amour." Elvis did too. He played it over and over again without another song in between, which is what he did when he really loved a song. I had to wonder if this had something to do with the fact that Dewey Phillips had played "That's All Right Mama" over and over again - with no record in between - when he played Elvis' record on his Red Hot and Blue radio program, which started Elvis' fame and fortune. One of the entourage told me that Elvis had even sung along with my record. When he got back to Los Angeles, he had it put in his juke box, and when it was spent from being played in the juke, he gave it to one of the entourage to keep.

When I stayed over at Elvis' he had a cute way of waking me up after a long party. He would put one of my own records on the turntable, turn it up loud, then stand over me, and say "I though that'd wake you up!"

The history of Roulette Records, a small label, by David Edwards and Mike Callahan here is comprehensive and we're really impressed with what they have to offer researchers in their "stereo newsletter" about other labels as well. Link above!

VIDEO ADDED JULY 2013