De-Lite Records , whose formal name was De-Lite Recorded Sound Corporation , was a record label specializing in R&B music from 1969 to 1985; Island Records now manages the De-Lite catalog.
27-420: De-Lite Records was founded in 1967 by Fred Vigorito ( né Frederick Gabriel Vigorito; 1922–2008), Fred Fioto ( né Frederick Alfred Fioto; 1920–1999), and Ted Simonetti ( né Ted Eddy Simonetti; 1902–1985). Prominent on their staff was veteran music producer Gene Redd ( né Clarence Eugene Redd, Jr.; 1916–1983), father of the late singer Sharon Redd and singer Penny Ford . The very first album released on De-Lite
54-498: A Harlette, Redd also provided backing vocals for Carol Douglas ("Burnin'" and "Night Fever") and Norman Connors ("You Are My Starship"). Having ended their association with Midler, Redd, Charlotte Crossley, & Ula Hedwig released an LP, Formerly of the Harlettes , in late 1977. In 1978, RCA Victor released "Love Insurance" on a 12-inch disco as Front Page with Sharon Redd. She was credited on that version. In 1979, Redd recorded
81-471: A very popular soap opera about an Australian country town, began. Bellbird finished at 6:55 pm and across Australia, each state would then insert local news into the schedule until 7:00 pm when the ABC's iconic national news started, followed by a current affairs show, This Day Tonight . Watts understood that if ABC TV started a program at 6:30 pm, viewers would have an alternative to watching
108-419: Is that many of the bands were asked to play material from their live repertoire—including cover versions—rather than their current or recent hit song/s, since it was felt that the groups would perform these better, and because it would show off other facets of their music. Because these live performances were videotaped and later transferred to film for broadcast, many of these performances were preserved, despite
135-635: The Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, including "Beat the Street", "In the Name of Love" and "Love How You Feel". After these releases, Redd returned to her successful career as a backing vocalist, most notably with the group Soirée, which also included among its members Luther Vandross and Jocelyn Brown . In early 1992, she had a UK top 20 hit with a re-recorded version of " Can You Handle It ", with "Tom's Diner" remixers DNA and appeared with
162-563: The Hank Williams song " Half as Much " to be Redd's first single. Redd's vocals, against Susser's heavy-bass track, made her presence very quickly known to R&B radio stations. Redd, as a budding actress, got a major break when she starred in an Australian production of the rock musical Hair . She was among a troupe of young African American imports to the Sydney production, a group which notably included Marcia Hines . Redd appeared in
189-581: The De-Lite catalog. De-Lite had other imprints as well: Sharon Redd Sharon Redd (October 19, 1945 – May 1, 1992) was an American singer from New York City . She was the half sister of Snap! singer Penny Ford . Redd was born on October 19, 1945, in Norfolk, Virginia , to Gene and Katherine Redd. Gene Redd was a producer and musical director at King Records , and her stepfather performed with Benny Goodman 's orchestra. Her brother Gene Redd Jr.
216-478: The commercial news broadcasts and it would of course lead them to watch Bellbird , then ABC News and This Day Tonight . Watts needed to come up with a program only ten minutes long that would run Monday to Thursday before Bellbird . Ric Birch, aged 24, the ABC-TV network's youngest ever television director, devised a program that would attract teenage viewers, and in less than six weeks, made four pilot shows. He
243-419: The disco hit "Love Insurance", released by Panorama Records under the name Front Page, her own vocals going uncredited. But she soon signed a recording contract with Prelude Records , and Redd became the label's most successful artist. Her debut studio album, 1980's self-titled Sharon Redd , was closely followed by two more: Redd Hott (1982) and Love How You Feel (1983). Redd had several charting songs on
270-539: The duo, singing live vocals, on BBC One's Top of the Pops on January 30. Following the success of this new version of " Can You Handle It ", she recorded a single entitled "All the Way to Love", with L.A. Mix's Les Adams . This was to be her last solo recording and remains unreleased. In the midst of mounting a comeback in the early 1990s, Redd died of pneumonia on May 1, 1992. Dance Music Report magazine reported that her death
297-627: The end of 1970, when he moved to the United States and then to the United Kingdom, from where he conducted interviews and sent the filmed material back to GTK in Australia. GTK ran until 1975, after which it was superseded by Funky Road . GTK and its successor Funky Road co-existed with the weekly show Countdown for a brief period. Funky Road had the same producer, Bernie Cannon, in addition to Stephen MacLean and Albie Thoms. Its duration
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#1733094263436324-491: The fact that all of the broadcast master tapes were later erased. Because full-time colour television transmissions was not introduced in Australia until early 1975 , most of GTK was shot on black-and-white film or videotape, although some segments of programs in c. 1974 are known to have been shot in colour. It was thought for many years that most of the videotapes of the program had been erased during an ABC economy drive in
351-450: The label, and Kool and The Gang's pop success began in 1973 with their first Top 40 crossover hit, "Funky Stuff." Disco pioneers Crown Heights Affair were signed to the label in 1975, and promptly released "Dreaming a Dream", which reached #5 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. They followed with the Top 20 hits, "Every Beat of My Heart," "Foxy Lady", and "Dancin'." The album "Dreaming a Dream"
378-441: The late 1970s, it was discovered during and after the closure of the old Gore Hill studio complex that much of the series had been preserved on "telerecordings", which were film recordings transferred from videotape. Estimates from the ABC have indicated that almost 100% of the series has been saved, which included interviews with Pete Townshend and Marc Bolan and colour footage of Lou Reed 's 1974 Sydney concert (including one of
405-686: The period. The band chosen as featured group for the week would often record their own 'cover' version of the GTK theme (composed by Hans Poulsen ), which was played at the start of each of the programs. These live performance segments were recorded to videotape in Studio 21 at the ABC's Gore Hill , Sydney complex, which had originally been used for drama during the early days of live-to-air production. Groups were called in early on Monday mornings, and four songs/pieces were recorded, with one segment broadcast each day. Another aspect that makes this GTK footage important
432-750: The production from its June 6, 1969, premiere through 1971. As Redd was becoming famous in Australia, she was interviewed by Barry Sloane on a 1971 episode of GTK . Her popular adverts for Amoco led to her own television special. Redd and Hair co-star Teddy Williams were asked to leave Australia by the Immigration Department in April 1971 for reasons they believed were race-motivated. Aside from Hair , Redd also appeared in Ti-Jean and His Brothers and, in 1974, traveled to London to star in an American production of The Wedding of Iphigenia . In 1977 Redd played
459-462: The role of Sherrye in the U.S. sitcom television series Rhoda . 1978 also saw Redd feature as a guest in the musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . In the mid-1970s, Bette Midler was looking to replace Merle Miller and Gail Kantor, both of whom had left after Midler's 1973 tour to pursue their own interests. Midler auditioned over 70 performers, but Redd landed the job, becoming one of Bette's Harlettes . Aside from performing as
486-430: Was AIDS -related. The virus had weakened her immune system, which had become ineffective following the singer stepping on broken glass on stage. In 1993, Redd's vocals featured on the duet track "Under Pressure", as found on her half-sister Penny Ford's self-titled album. Despite not being as recognized as other stars, Redd was able to establish herself as a Diva on the disco scene in the late 70s and early 80s. Redd
513-528: Was Kool and the Gang , who originally appeared on a precursor label, Red Coach. Their eponymous instrumental single was their first big R&B hit, in the year 1969 ("Kool & The Gang"/"Raw Hamburger", Red Coach R 601; later released as De-Lite 519-0). Kool and the Gang was the most successful act for De-Lite, scoring many hits on the R&;B and pop charts. In the 1970s, Pickwick International took over distribution of
540-450: Was 30 minutes instead of the previous 10 minutes and moved to a 10:30 pm slot. GTK' s magazine-style format included interviews, reports, music film-clips ( music videos ) and occasional footage of local and visiting international acts in concert. A feature of every episode was the daily live-in-the-studio performance segment, especially recorded by GTK . These segments featured notable and lesser-known Australian acts of
567-500: Was a songwriter and producer for Kool & the Gang and the band BMP. Her half-sister Penny Ford is also a singer with two solo albums to her credit and known for her work as the main singer for Snap! , Soul II Soul , and the S.O.S. Band . She began her recording career with four singles in 1968 for the United Artists label, three written and all four produced by songwriter and record producer Bobby Susser . Susser chose
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#1733094263436594-491: Was an Australian popular music TV series of ten minute episodes, produced and broadcast by ABC Television from 1969 to 1975. The series title was an initialism of the phrase "Get To Know". Officially, it was said that GTK was created by the ABC to address the perception that the Australian youth audience was being poorly served by commercial radio and TV, and that international music and especially Australian popular music
621-464: Was being ignored by commercial TV and radio at that time. Ken Watts, ABC's Director of Television, had a problem at 6:30 pm time slot. Because ABC-TV was non-commercial, 30-minute American programs only ran 24'30" without ad breaks, which created a programming problem when the commercial networks started their news broadcasts. ABC TV had been running an American sitcom across the 6:30 pm to 6:40 pm timeslot, after which Bellbird ,
648-497: Was followed by "Do It Your Way" (1976), "Dream World" (1978), "Dance Lady Dance" (1979), and "Sure Shot" (1980). After PolyGram purchased Pickwick in 1977 it took over distribution of the De-Lite label, which maintained the imprint for Kool And The Gang's releases. In 1985, De-Lite was absorbed into PolyGram sublabel Mercury Records , and Kool and the Gang were transferred there as well. In 1998, Polygram merged with Universal Music Group ; their subsidiary Island Records now manages
675-447: Was given the go-ahead to start production and continue until the end of November, when the network went into summer break programming. Writer Stephen MacLean , who also worked at the surf/music magazine Go-Set , worked on the show. GTK premiered on 4 August 1969 and achieved higher ratings than Bellbird within three weeks. Watts authorised the show to continue throughout the following year. Birch produced and directed GTK until
702-578: Was honored by the National AIDS Memorial , in an online exhibit to commemorate Black History Month along with other celebrities like Sylvester and Arthur Ashe . In 2011, Redd was posthumously honored at the 2011 Divas Simply Singing music benefit. Her name was among the number of celebrities featured on a special made red quilt displayed during the event. ‡ Denotes tracks from US Dance -charting LP Redd Hot which included all cuts. GTK (TV series) GTK (standing for "Get to Know")
729-513: Was in 1968: catalog number DE-2001, The New Sounds of the Louis Prima Show , featuring Louis Prima , Sam Butera and the Witnesses, Gia Maione , and Little Richie Varola ( né Richard Varhola; 1943–1974). De-Lite's first single was by an unknown singer named "Mr. Ginger Ale" in 1968, "That Old Feeling"/"Love Walked In", catalog number 509. One of the label's first signings for popular music
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