As the rock’n’roll era took shape in the late 1940s, emerging from a raucous new blend of blues and jazz played for dancers in the night clubs of black America, the executives at major record labels initially turned up their noses. It was left to such figures as Art Rupe to exploit the opportunity and provide the means of getting the music to a wider audience via juke boxes and radio stations.
Rupe, who has died aged 104, was a record man, as the founders of such independent companies as Atlantic, Chess, Savoy, King and Modern were known. His own label, Specialty Records, became the vehicle for the early hits of Little Richard – including Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally and Rip It Up – and the recordings with which Sam Cooke conquered the gospel-music audience as the young lead singer with the Soul Stirrers.
