Diamond records was started by brothers Joe Kolsky (born Joseph L. Kolksy on March 20, 1920 in Poland) and Phil Kahl (born Philip F. Kolsky on October 10, 1916 in Poland) in 1961. From the beginning, Diamond Records was located at 1650 Broadway in New York City, right across from the famous Brill Building. A little under five years earlier in 1957, Phil and Joe had helped co-found Roulette records with Morris Levy, the label which gave the start to the careers of Buddy Knox, Jimmy Bowen, Tommy James and the Shondells, Jimmie Rodgers, The Playmates, and many others.
The Diamond label had many big artists on its roster at one time or another. Some of their more well known artists included: Bobby Vinton, Charlie Gracie, Dickey Lee, Dickie Goodman, Gary Criss, Johnny Thunder, Del Shannon (on his own Berlee record label with distribution by Diamond), Mitch Miller, Ray Smith, Ronnie Dove, Ruby Winters, The Bobbettes, The Del Satins and the Ray Men with Link Wray and Vernon Wray.
Vernon Wray, who also went by the name Ray Vernon when working for Diamond records, was the one who spotted Ronnie Dove singing and signed him to his contract with Diamond. Link Wray wrote both sides to Ronnie's first Diamond single, Sweeter Than Sugar b/w I Believed In You (Diamond D-163).
Even though Diamond had many popular acts signed to the label during its lifespan, the label had only one act who was a constant charting artist for all of the years he was with the label. Ronnie Dove scored a number 40 hit with his second release for Diamond when "Say You" charted in 1964, and continued to have chart successes up through mid 1969 with "I Need You Now". Ronnie ended up with an impressive run of 20 hot 100 hits out of 23 released records (with one more track hitting the Bubbling Under chart). The only records of his that did not chart at all were his first and last for the label. The only other Diamond artist to come anywhere close to that kind of success was Johnny Thunder, who had a monster of a hit with Loop De Loop, his first release for the label, which got to #4 on the hot 100 in 1962, and ended up with the highest charting single the Diamond label would ever see. His only other chart hit would be "Make Love To Me", a duet with Ruby Winters in 1967 which barely dented the pop charts, but fared better on the R&B charts. His first hit was soon followed by a full album. Every other album released on Diamond after that lp belonged to Ronnie Dove.
In 1969, Diamond was sold to the Edwin H. Morris corporation, which was based at 31 West 64th Street in New York City, and by early 1970, Diamond records had been sold to the music division of the Certron corporation. Certron released a few singles and plenty of albums that bombed, which could be the reason for their demise after less than two years in business. Some of the artists that ended up on Certron were originally on Diamond (Ruby Winters for one single, The Bleus (as the Electric Hand Band on Certron, also for one single) and Ronnie Dove (who had a greatest hits lp released on the label with one previously unreleased song, but no singles). In less than two years, Certron went bankrupt and the master tapes for both the Diamond and the Certron companies disappeared. Nearly 40 years later it is unlikely that they will ever be recovered.
In 1988, Ronnie Dove resurrected the Diamond records name and a similar logo to the original label, and released 2 singles (both placed in the top 90 on the national Country charts, and one went to #1 locally in Baltimore) as well as an album titled From The Heart which is rather difficult to find in any format these days.
Both Joe Kolsky and Phil Kahl retired to Florida, Joe died in Pompano Beach on May 8, 1997 and Phil died in Boca Raton on March 13, 2000. Ray Vernon, the unofficial Diamond Records talent scout and sometimes producer (he produced a number of recordings with and without Phil Kahl) died in 1979 from a self inflicted gunshot wound. Link Wray, one of the last surviving direct connections to the behind the scenes life at Diamond records passed away on November 5, 2005.
This website is in tribute to the music and artists that made Diamond Records what it is. I hope that this website will allow me to reach more artists who recorded one-off singles for the label, as well as artists who had multiple releases, so that they may share their memories of their brief time in the spotlight with the whole world while they are still around to share the background information on their recordings. Hopefully in the near future I will be able to add more photographs of artists, and perhaps some interviews or insights from artists themselves. I also hope to find as many of the artists on MySpace as possible, to perhaps make it easier for their fans to connect with them as well. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping in at my Diamond Records tribute myspace.
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