Hit Records

Nashville-based label founded in 1962 by producer William Beasley which specialized in releasing cover versions on 45 RPM singles usually sold for a list price of 39 cents (less than half the price of the major label originals) in five-and-dime stores and supermarkets. They also had a sub-label called Giant Records and Country & Western Hits, the latter of which released cover versions of the country hits of the day.

Its Nashville home base gave the label access to top-notch musicians and vocalists (many of which cut their teeth working on these cover versions including Ray Stevens, Sam Moore (who was actually, Sammie Moore (known in Nashville as "Washboard Sam" and appeared on a local television show Night Train as Sam of "Sam and Dave"), Buzz Cason, Sandy Posey and Bobby Russell. Mark Dinning (of "Teen Angel" fame) also did mostly Country & Western Hits sound-a-likes. His sister, Delores Dinning Edgin (of the Dinning Sisters singing group) also recorded for Hit. Dolores was later a co-founder of The Nashville Edition, a singing group heard as backing vocalists on numerous records from the 1960s thru the early 90s, and regulars on Hee Haw.

The company, facing competition from Pickwick among other budget labels, shut down in 1969.

From the Hit Records fan website:

Buzz Cason: I sang on probably as many HIT records as anyone and was on staff with Bill Beasley for a while…When I moved to LA in ’62 my songwriting partner and later to be publishing partner, Bobby Russell took over my lead vocals. It went downhill from there…They were all pretty bad covers but Bobby was wasting his extremely talented mind doing those sessions but we all loved Bill Beasley and the money came in handy even though there were weeks Bill would kindly ask us to hold our checks for a few days. Get This, Bobby had a drawer filled with HIT checks he never cashed! My friend Bobby was very caring and generous. We lost him at age 52 way too early in his life. I look forward to the [Paul's] book…It is incredible that there is even random interest in those sound alikes especially when most of the time they didn't even resemble the original. Bergen White did all he could to teach us youngsters how to so the song right but we usually botched them. I do remember being Ed Hardin on several Elvis covers. He [Ed Hardin] was one of HIT’s salesmen, I think. Bill named HIT artists after business associates and friends which I thought was clever at the time. Later in’70,Travis Turk and I cut the first Jimmy Buffett demos on the barely adequate SPAR studios , some of which became his first album “Down To Earth”…Hope some of this is helpful in the project.

John "Bud" Preston : John (Bud) Preston was Kroger’s first Non-Foods Merchandiser (1963 – 1966) assigned to the Nashville, TN Division. As such, he came to know Hit Records and Bill Beasley. Bud had a Hit Record end cap display put in its stores in middle and East TN, southern KY and Northern AL. At 39 cents, many sold. One day Bill came to Bud and showed him a record, Blue on Blue, with the name John Preston listed as the vocalist. He asked Bud how he liked having his name on the recording.  He told Bud who recorded it but Bud no longer remembers the artist. Bud does know that many well-known artists, mostly country and Western, recorded for Hit Records under other names, many fictitious, some, like Bud’s, real people. Bud has since learned that another song, Walking Proud, carries his name. Fast forward to 2006. Bud told this story to his new wife, Gail, and explained that he was sorry that he never kept a copy of the 45. Gail went on the Internet and found a copy in Paris, France, which she ordered and gave Bud for his 70th birthday. It now graces their living room. Spike Elswick has told Bud that he has a copy of another John Preston recording that he will send him.

Titles of Hit Records that are credited to John Preston

John Preston - Blue on blue [Probably Bobby Russell ~ according to Hits historian Paul Urbahns]

John Preston - Walking proud

John Preston - Ringo

John Preston - Speaking of broken hearts

John Preston - You were gone

John Preston - Once you've been in love

John Preston - Long lonely nights

Alpha Zoe: It is very gratifying to learn that people enjoy my singing. I have been singing since I was three. Mother was an expert pianist as well as a teacher and Father was a math teacher and the Tenor in a quartet that travelled from town to town and sang in churches. I was the only child and learned to read by playing with my mother's sheet music to keep my self occupied. We lived way back in the country of Gallatin (Sumner County) Tennessee. I can remember that the barn was about one half block from the house and I would stand in the yard and sing to get an echo off the barn. I would keep going up in pitch just to see how high I could go. That was the extent of my singing training and as it turned out, I can sing from C below middle C to C above high C. I love and can sing all types of music. I have a routine that I do for charity affairs where I do a couple of songs from every venure. I can even do a little Rap (smiles). The Lord has blessed me with the ability to hear a song once and be able to sing it. It has been many years since HIT, but I do believe that I have been doubled blessed by the fact that the Gift I received has gotten even stronger.  I often wonder what would have happened if I had had the right manager and encouragment, but I could not endure the mental, physical and sexual abuse and when I turned 18, I stopped singing except, of course in church. The man that I use to sing for told me that if I stopped singing for him, he would fix it so I would never sing in Nashville again. This is Alpha Zoe in a nut shell. ~ Alpha Zoe

1. Hit #31 Alpha Zoe - You beat me to the punch
2. Hit #36 Alpha Zoe as "Gleams" - He's a rebel
3. Hit #38 Alpha Zoe as "Dacrons" - Don't hang up
4. Hit #41 Alpha Zoe - Keep your hands off my baby
5. Hit #44 Alpha Zoe - Everybody loves a lover
6. Hit #54 Alpha Zoe - Let's turkey trot
7. Hit #55 Alpha Zoe as "Clara & Cleftones" - Our day will come
8. Hit #57 Alpha Zoe as "Dacrons" - He's so fine
9. Hit #65 Alpha Zoe - Da doo ron ron
10. Hit #65 Alpha Zoe as "Clara Wilson" - Foolish little girl
11. Hit #70 Alpha Zoe - Hello stranger ["Hello Stranger" available on CD at Budget Doo Wops, The Best of Vol. 1 Dead Dog Records]
12. Hit #229 Alpha Zoe - Lover's concerto
13. Hit #80 Alpha Zoe as "Dot Hester" - My boyfriend's back
14. Hit #124 Alpha Zoe as "Peggy Gaines" - Every little bit hurts
15. Stardust #115 Alpha Zoe - Hello stranger ["Hello Stranger" available on CD at Budget Doo Wops, The Best of Vol. 1 Dead Dog Records]
16. Hit #61 Alpha Zoe as "Connie & Clara" - I will follow him
17. Hit #121 Alpha Zoe as "Mary Jones" - Walk on by
18. Hit #81 Alpha Zoe as "Dacrons" - Then he kissed me
19. Hit #124 Alpha Zoe as "Peggy Gaines" - Every little bit hurts

Collector and Historian Paul Urbahns top 10 Hit List:

• 1- Hit 72 MEMPHIS by The Music City Five with special insert card only sold in the Memphis area.
• 2- Hit 99 JOHN KENNEDY (SPECIAL RELEASE) Comment: issued NOV 63 A 7 inch, 45 rpm Memorial Album issued with special picture sleeve. The record contained the complete Inaugural Address and an excerpt from his final speech on November 22, 1963 at Fort Worth, Texas. Both sides run approximately 8 minutes each. Total Time approximately 16 minutes. Written By David Cobb and Bill Beasley, Narrated By David Cobb. These are actually excerpts from a Modern Sound album MS-519 titled John Fitzgerald Kennedy A Memorial Album.
• 3- Hit 15 SNAP YOUR FINGERS by Benny Lattimore Comment: First commerical recording by soul artist Lattimore
• 4- Hit 20 SPEEDY GONZALES by Tom Walls Comment: Features Mexican voice by Nashville funnyman Ray Stevens
• 5 - Hit 63 REV MR BLACK by Bobby Russell Comment: Rare Hit label credit for Nashville songwriter (1432 Franklin Pike Circle hero) who performed lead vocal on the most Hit sound-a-likes.
• 6- Hit 76 WIPE OUT by Music City Five Comment: Highly acclaimed recording in various collectors magazines of the surf instrumental
• 7- Hit 125 NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO by Sammie Moore. Comment:Sammie Moore was Sam of "Sam And Dave" fame.
• 8- Hit 187 I'M SURE GOING TO MISS HER by The Chellows Comment: Not a sound-a-like.This is the original demo recording of the Gary Lewis and the Playboys hit, issued almost a year before the Gary Lewis version.
• 9- Hit 221 I GOT YOU BABE by Wayne and Dee Comment: Sounds like two guys singing the Sonny and Cher hit. This is back in the days when "gay" was not acceptable.
• 10- Hit 229 KEEP ON DANCIN' by The Gentrys Comment: Due to a mixup in the office staff, label miscredited to the original group, The Gentrys.
• 11- Hit 253 RHAPSODY IN THE RAIN by Fred York Comment: Used the original "banned" lyric. MGM withdrew the original Lou Christie version and removed the references to "making out", Hit continued to sell the original.

External references

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit_Records

https://www.45cat.com/label/hit-us

https://www.discogs.com/label/113951-Hit-Records-4

http://www.hitrecordsofnashville.com/

A summary of some Hit questions from Jeffrey Lemlich, archived online:

JP wrote:  <<it appears that Hit was based out of Nashville, TN. I've seen releases dating between roughly '62 and '68, judging by the hits covered. Around 1969, they seem to have mutated into the Spar label, where names like the Jalopy Five and other Hit refugees were resurrected. >>

The Hit, Spar, and Modern Sound labels all operated in the 60s out of Nashville... the common link is a guy named William Beasley, who gathered a load of area musicians at Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville to recreate hit songs of the day.  When there was time he let some of the regulars record the occasion original tune.  Benny Latimore, Sam Baker, Sammy Moore, and Bobby Cash (King recording artist) all recorded using their real names (Latimore cutting "Snap Your Fingers", which he later remade on Glades.  He used to play with Joe Henderson, before moving to Florida, thus the connection).

There was some great talent in the Hit/Spar stable.  Sam Moore flipped when I showed him his "Hit" 45, cut right after he and Dave Prater hit Tennessee. Most prolific among the Hit artists was BOBBY RUSSELL, who unfortunately is no longer with us.  This is the same Bobby Russell who created the amazing "Freakout USA" with Buzzy Cason (Communication Aggregation), both moonlighting from the recording version of Ronny & The Daytonas.  I believe Cason is on several Hit recordings, but he's tougher to pin down than Russell.  There is no doubt that ALL Beagles recordings are Russell;  he even had a "legit" single on Spar as "Bobby Russell & The Beagles".  (Spar did have "legit" singles, including JIMMY TIG & THE ROUNDERS, from Pensacola, Florida, the group that included Jimmy Tigner, Mighty Sam McClain, and Ben Moore, the "second" "Bobby Purify").

If you dig out the low-budget album "FROM BRITAIN WITH BEAT" (Modern Sound 544) you'll find 7 cover versions of Beatles, Nashville Teens, Stones, Manfred Mann, etc. songs, mixed with three Bobby Russell originals.  Of course there are no credits.  The cover is hysterical, showing four guys wearing very bad Beatles wigs!  But what is actually on this album are a mixture of Hit label singles, by made-up bands such as the Jalopy Five (Bobby Russell on vocals on "Satisfaction"), the Beasts (Russell singing "Sha La La"), The Doodles (Russell singing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"), plus the Beagles (Russell again) and the ever-present "Come On On", a Russell original first issued under the name "Jackie & The Giants", and later appearing on the Chords' album "Groovy Is", as well as "The Now Generation" album on Spar.  Russell's "This Town" is also on both albums).

Another Hit label album, "Current Hits Vol. 27" (includes the FIRST version of "I'm Going To Miss Her", the Bobby Russell song that was turned into a hit two years later by Gary Lewis & The Playboys (as "Sure Gonna Miss Her"). It was apparently issued on a single under the name the Chellows, stuck on the B-side of "Bye Bye Baby" (the 4 Seasons song).  This album also included the fab "Ford G.T." by Jackie & The Giants, with Russell (and maybe Cason) basically extending the work they were doing with Ronny & The Daytonas on this and on "California Street".

(NOTE:  Gary Lewis songs are confusing since Leon Russell was in the fold, but it was BOBBY RUSSELL, not Leon, who wrote "Sure Gonna Miss Her".)

So yeah, there are some very groovy records on Hit, Spar, and Modern Sound... albums, too, by the Jalopy Five, Chords, and others. Unfortunately, success spoiled Bobby Russell, as he was never the same after the divinely disgusting "Honey" became one of the biggest songs of 1968.  He had a solo hit that year with "1432 Franklin Pike Circle Hero" (on Buzzy Cason's Elf label), married Vicki Lawrence, wrote "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia", etc. etc.  If only he was here to tell his story, pre-"Honey/Little Green Apples", because what a story it would be.

(Another aside:  with Russell's success, the Hit label had a field day covering his songs!  Their "26 Top Hits" album had "Honey" in giant letters, as the top-billed song, but on the album were 3-YEAR-OLD Russell tracks tacked on!  Even "Come On On"! And on a later 1968 album, with psychedelic hits such as "Hello I Love You" and "Sunshine Of Your Love", the 4-year-old Russell original recording of "Sure Gonna Miss Her" gets recycled!

Hit label artists covering themselves!!!  You'd better believe it!  Even a group called the Gentrys doing "Keep On Dancing" (Hit 229)!

"If you want something to say, freakout, freakout" (Russell/Cason), Lemlich, https://www.limestonerecords.com/