Randy Wood (record producer)

Randy Wood
Background information
Birth name	Randolph Clay Wood
Born	March 30, 1917 McMinnville, Tennessee, United States
Died	April 9, 2011 (aged 94) La Jolla, California, United States
Occupation(s)	record Producer, company founder

Randolph Clay Wood (March 30, 1917 – April 9, 2011) was an American record producer and the founder of Nashville-based Dot Records, one of the most successful independent record labels of the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life

He was born in

Wood was the grandfather of political activist and media personality John Wood Jr.[3]

Career

He became co-owner of a local radio station,

By 1955, Wood realised that there was a market for R&B songs re-recorded by white singers, which would allow them to be played on pop music stations catering for a white audience. At the time, many pop radio stations in the US would not play records by black musicians, despite the growing popularity of artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry among white teenagers.^[1] He signed young singer Pat Boone to Dot, and had him record cover versions of R&B songs, including "Ain't That a Shame" — originally titled "Ain't It a Shame", and which Boone at one point wanted to retitle "Isn't That a Shame" — and Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti". The songs were hits and, although Boone gave up recording such cover versions in 1956 in order to record more ballads — mostly orchestrated by Billy Vaughn of the Hilltoppers, who had become Dot's musical director — he remained associated with the watering-down of R&B records for a wider audience.^[1][4]

In 1956, Wood moved Dot Records to Hollywood, and found further commercial success with records by actor Tab Hunter, whom he signed because of Hunter's appeal to young women without regard to his musical inadequacies. Wood sold Dot Records to Paramount Pictures in 1957, while continuing as the label's president for a further decade. Increasingly he bought or leased recordings from small independent labels, before leaving the label in 1967.^[1][2]

He then started another label, Ranwood, with Larry Welk, the son of musician Lawrence Welk. The company remains in business as part of the Welk Music Group. Randy's Record Shop in Tennessee also continued in business until 1991, and has since been declared a historical site.^[2]

Death

Wood died from complications from a fall at his home in

He was not related to Randall "Randy" Wood, president of Vee-Jay Records and founder of the Mira label, who died in 1980.^[4]

References