Syd Nathan founded the powerful King label in 1943 and ruled the operation in autocratic fashion until his death in 1968, leaving a wealth of influential records by James Brown, Little Willie John, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Wynonie Harris, Freddie King and many other blues, R&B and soul stars along with an impressive roster of historic figures in country, jazz, doo-wop and other genres. Although he added his name (or a pseudonym, Lois Mann) to the composer credits of over 200 songs (as was once a custom among record executives and associates), his crucial role lay not in creative input to the music but in his astute but controversial business practices. Indeed, he voiced vehement objections to some recordings which became hits, including James Brown’s debut. Ultimately however, the great music at King was the result of his hirings and signings. Two of his producers (then known as A&R–Artist & Repertoire–directors), Henry Glover and Ralph Bass, are already in the Blues Hall of Fame, as are numerous artists and recordings on King and its subsidiary Federal label.
Nathan, who was born in Cincinnati on April 27, 1904, worked a variety of jobs, as a salesman, drummer in a Depression-era speakeasy, wrestling promoter, elevator man, busboy and operator of a shooting gallery game that got him busted for “promoting a scheme of chance.” In 1938 he opened Syd’s Record Shop and eventually discovered not only a market for country records but a huge local talent pool. When he launched King Records he recorded only white country artists, but realized there was an underserved audience for Black music as well, leading to blues, jazz and gospel releases first on a new label, Queen, and then on King and various subsidiary labels. Nathan hired a racially integrated workforce, from laborers to studio musicians, at the company’s multi-purpose plant at 1540 Brewster Avenue. Long before Sun Records had white country and rockabilly acts covering Black blues songs and before Stax utilized an integrated studio band, Nathan’s musicians and producers had pioneered both concepts. Sometimes King’s Black performers also recorded country material.
Nathan ran the company from a self-contained facility for recording, record pressing, label and jacket printing and shipping, and developed his own network of distributors around the country. A 45 or 78 could be recorded and quickly pressed in as large or small a quantity as ordered. The system produced hundreds of hits amidst countless records that are now valued for their rarity because the few copies that were pressed failed to catch on.
Nathan’s relationship with James Brown was quarrelsome yet productive, and Brown acknowledged Nathan for supporting his rise to stardom. Opinions varied, but some artists, like Hank Ballard, felt very close to Nathan. After a lifetime of health problems, Nathan passed away in Miami Beach on July 6, 1978. His saga was brought to life in the 2025 documentary King of Them All: The Story of King Records.
As Jon Hartley Fox wrote in King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records, Nathan was a complex character who “could be obscene, loud, greedy and crude” and “abrasive, obnoxious, confrontational, bullying and coarse” on one hand, and an “expansive, fun-loving, joke-telling charismatic guy” on the other. “He was perhaps the perfect specimen of the cigar-chomping record man of the mid-twentieth century who changed American music and, in turn, changed the world.”