Jack Kapp
Jack Kapp | |
---|---|
New York City, New York | |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Record company executive |
Known for | co-founder of Decca Records |
Jack Kapp (born Jacob Kaplitzky; June 15, 1901 – March 25, 1949) was a record company executive with Brunswick Records who founded the American Decca Records in 1934 along with British Decca founder Edward Lewis and later American Decca head Milton Rackmil.[1] He oversaw Bing Crosby's rise to success as a recording artist in the early 1930s, and, four decades later, Crosby still gave appreciation to Kapp for diversifying his song catalogue into various styles and genres,[2] saying, "I thought he was crazy, but I just did what he told me." Kapp could not read or sing music, but to his talent he stressed the credo, "Where's the melody?"
Biography
He was born in
Kapp also worked with artists on the Brunswick label; it was over the company's objection that he had
Record sales had plunged during the Depression, and Kapp decided that Decca discs would sell for 50 cents instead of the usual 75 cents to a dollar. When Brunswick shifted its back catalogue to a 25-cent subsidiary label in an effort to sink the fledgling company, Kapp further reduced the price to 35 cents per disc. Crucially, he also pursued the then-new jukebox market. In 1938, Decca began releasing record sleeves with cover artwork; other innovations such as liner notes and Broadway cast albums followed (although Jack Kapp pioneered this practice in 1933 by recording the entire "Blackbirds of 1928" and "Showboat" scores and issuing them in album sets). By 1939, the company was on its feet; 18 million of the 50 million records sold in the United States that year were issued by Decca.
Jack Kapp died in New York City, of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1949 at the age of 47. After his death, his brother Dave Kapp took over American Decca. Dave Kapp later founded Kapp Records, based in New York.
References
- ISBN 0-252-02041-3.
- OCLC 31611854. Tape 1, side B.
- ISBN 978-0812247305.
- ISBN 0-316-88188-0.