Jewel Records (Shreveport record label)

Jewel Records was an American independent record label, founded in 1963 by Stan Lewis (July 5, 1927 – July 15, 2018^[3]) and based in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Jewel Records
Founded	1963 (1963)
Founder	Stan Lewis
Defunct	1999 (1999)[1]
Status	Defunct
Genre	Blues, Pop, Country, R&B, Gospel[2]
Country of origin	U.S.A.
Location	Shreveport, Louisiana

It had two subsidiary labels, Paula (established in 1965 and named after Lewis's wife Pauline^[1]) and Ronn (established in 1967).

Overview

The first of many retail record stores, called Stan's Record Shop, was opened in 1948 in Shreveport. The store expanded, and Lewis built connections with record label owners who were dropping by at his store. By mid 1950s, Lewis began to record artists.^[2]

Leonard Chess of Chess Records was a friend of Lewis's, and it was him who persuaded Lewis to start his own record label.^[2] In the early days of label, its LPs were manufactured by Chess Records.^[2]

Lewis started the label in 1963, and named it Jewel after seeing a flourishing supermarket in Chicago named Jewel Tea Company.^[2]

Later, Stan Lewis purchased and reissued the catalogues of Cobra Records, Chief Records, USA Records and JOB Records.^[4]

At one time, Jewel (along with Ronn and Paula) was a division of Shreveport-based Sue Records^[5] (unrelated to the New York–based Sue Records).

In 1999, Lewis sold the rights for master recordings of Jewel and its subsidiary labels to EMusic.com.^[1] Fuel 2000 subsequently purchased the rights, and owned and managed the Jewel/Paula/Ronn catalogues.^[2] The private IP holding company, 43 North Broadway, LLC., purchased the Jewel/Paula/Ronn catalogues through its acquisition of Fuel 2000 in 2015.^[6]

Artists

The artists who recorded for and/or released records from Jewel (or Paula, Ronn) include The Bad Boys with their hit "Black Olives", released on Paula 254. It made the Record World national R&B chart, peaking at no. 28 on 28 January 1967.^[7][8]

Others artists were, Buster Benton, Frank Frost, Lowell Fulson, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Fred and his Playboy Band, Toussaint McCall, The Uniques, Jerry McCain, Memphis Slim, Little Johnny Taylor, and Justin Wilson.