T.K. Productions

incl. sub-labels like;
Sunshine Sound, Marlin, Alston, Drive and others...

One of THE DISCO labels...

T.K. Productions
495 S.E. 10th Court
Hialeah, Florida

R.I.P. Henry Stone June 3, 1921 - August 8, 2014 In loving memory of Henry Stone... Sadly the legendary King of Miami Disco, Henry Stone, passed away on August 8, 2014 at the age of 93. Mr. Stone was a man with ideas and visions far beyond everyone else. His whole life he had dedicated to music and his career in the music business spawned over seven decades and at the age of 93 he was still on top of things. He was a true legend and was one of the pioneers of Disco through his T.K. Disco releases, including acts like K.C. & the Sunshine Band, Anita Ward, Peter Brown, Voyage, George McCrae, T-Connection, Jimmy "Bo" Horne and many others. He had the first million selling 12" Disco record with Peter Brown's "Do Ya Wanna Get Funky With Me". So the world will be a little empty and we'll miss HENRY STONE T.K. Productions was the official name of the company we sometimes just refer to as "T.K. Disco". T.K. Productions was based in Miami, Florida and was started in the early 1970's. The company was owned and run by Henry Stone, until it went into bankruptcy in 1981. But the music revived in the Sunnyview and HOT labels. "T.K. Disco" was actually not an official label - "T.K. Disco" was just the umbrella to release 12" inch singles for any and all current products coming out from T.K. Records or any of the independent labels affiliated to T.K. Productions. Not many people can get credit for a career in the music business spanning over more than five decades - Henry Stone is one of the very few. And... He's still active! From September 20, 2004 Henry's a member of Dance Music Hall of Fame ! Here Henry shares his memories of T.K. and the Disco years...

Henry Stone was born in the Bronx, NY on June 3, 1921. At the age of six his father passed away and Henry was sent to an orphanage in Pleasantville, NY. It was at the orphanage his interest for music started when he began playing the trumpet, inspired by the famous jazz legend - Louis Armstrong. In 1943 Henry joined the US Army band at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. In the band he was working with many black musicians and they introduced him to black music [R'n'B], music that would always be close to his heart. In 1946 Henry was discharged from the Army and it's at this time everything really begins... Discoguy; So, How did you get involved in the Music Business in the first place? "There is a CD and Booklet for sale on HenryStoneMusic.com that tells a short story of how I got started in the music business and it includes 32 tracks and Photo. It includes stories that go back to my 1950's involvement with Ray Charles, through the Disco era and beyond to the 90's. Just to give you a glimpse into the story, it tells how I was born and raised in the tough borough of the Bronx, New York. How I always had a pull to Music. From the early age of about 12, when I began playing the trumpet. Then I played in the first integrated Army Band during World War II, at Camp Kilmer, in New Jersey. After the War I moved to California for a short time, maybe a year or so and there I found a niche selling records to Jukebox operators from the trunk of my car and I was also working as an A&R man for different companies, like Jewel Records and Modern Records. I had moved to California after the war, but it was impossible to find a place to live there so I moved to Miami in late 1947, where I had some contacts. Here I set up my first Distribution Company [Seminole Records Distributing] selling mostly to the Jukebox operators, because at that time there was only one record store here in Miami. I also had a small recording studio called Crystal Recording Company, where in the early 1950's I recorded Ray Charles, Wilbert Harrison and other gospel and blues artists. James Brown and Hank Ballard "the originator of 'The Twist' came into my story in the middle of the 1950's, when I was aligned with King Records." From Henry's move to Florida in 1947 until early 1970's, Stone built Tone Distribution, it was one of the largest independent distribution companies in the United States. Henry continues; "My greatest success came during the Seventies with the arrival of the Disco era, a genre I helped launch in it's infancy via George McCrae's 'Rock Your Baby' and KC and the Sunshine Band."
How and when did you come up with the idea of starting T.K.? "I was a Miami Record Distributor for Atlantic, Warner Brothers and Electra Record Companies, they decided to merge into one company called WEA and they would no longer use me as their Independent Distributor. At the time I was releasing my Alston Label through Atlantic Records, and I had given them two records that sold over a million records each - 'Clean Up Women' by Betty Wright and 'Funky Nassau' by Beginning of the End. At this point I made my decision to start my own record label for distribution, which I named T.K. Records. In 1970 Henry had his warehouse, distribution and recording companies located all together at 495 S.E. 10th Court in Hialeah, Florida. This is where the history of T.K. starts... Henry continues; "The first record released under the T.K. banner was 'Why Can't We Live Together' by Timmy Thomas." Timmy was a musician and lounge owner in Miami Beach, he first recorded his track on a small Miami label named Konduko, but that label had poor distribution and when Henry heard the track in late 1972, he saw its potential and re-released it on his Glades label and distributed it by... T.K. Records. It reached #1 in the Billboard Black Chart and it was a great start for the new T.K. company. Which was your vision for the new label? "My vision for the label at that time was to be able to continue to make Hit Records and see my company and artist's grow and be successful." What did the letters T.K. stand for? "The letters T.K. stood for the name of the engineer who built my 8 track recording studio... His name was Terry Kane and the reason we used his name was because I had a corporation set up with the T.K. initials and rather than file for a new corporate name, I decided to go ahead and use what I already had." What was the difference between T.K. Productions and T.K. Disco? "The difference between TK Productions and TK Disco was, that TK Productions was the Corporation that produced and distributed all my various different labels such as: Alston, Drive, Glades, Dash, Marlin etc. TK Disco was basically records I released on 12-inch singles that went to the clubs. TK Disco specialized in Club and DJ Mixes." As I understand it T.K. Disco was like an umbrella for releasing 12" singles of the sub-labels releases. Is that correct? "Yes, that is correct. Because regardless of the sub-label all 12" releases were put out in the very special, now famous 12" T.K. Jacket... The 12" were all club oriented disco music and that's what that T.K. Jacket symbolized." To put it another way, in the album or the 7" 45 RPM single, it will read the official label, but no matter what it was, when it's on 12", such as... Peter Brown feat. Betty Wright: "Dance With Me" [Drive-T.K., 1977] Queen Samantha: "The Letter (Ticket For An Aeroplane)" [Marlin-T.K., 1978] Anita Ward: "Ring My Bell" [Juana*T.K., 1979] Jimmy "Bo" Horne: "Spank" [Sunshine Sound*T.K., 1978] ...it would be released under the universal family name of "T.K. Disco" with the proper credit information on it telling which official label it's really on. So, tell me - Who painted the wonderful T.K. Disco 12" cover jacket and designed the famous bamboo logo? "It was conceived by myself and one of my assistants, Howard Smiley and the artwork was done by Page Wood." The first T.K. Disco 12" release was Wild Honey's "At The Top Of The Stair" during summer of 1976, it has the matrix number TKD 1. During T.K. Disco's years in production some 200+ 12" singles were released - surprisingly enough the matrix numbers runs in series up to TKD 158, the 1979 "Livin' in the jungle" by John Tropea, after this release the matrix series makes a jump to TKD 400 in Latimore's "Goodbye Heartache" which also came out in 1979. Unfortunately no one seems to remember the exact reason for this change today... One reason would probably be that the 200 serie had been assigned to K.C.'s Sunshine Sound back in 1978, as Jimmy "Bo" Horne's "Dance across the floor" is the first release [# 200] in that serie. Possibly room was made to give Sunshine Sound the chance to yield some 200 releases - i.e. series 200 + 300. That could explain the T.K. matrix jump to the 400 series. Actually many Sunshine Sound 12" releases are also found as T.K. Disco 12" releases with the same number, but only with TKD- instead of SSD- as label reference. During 1979 a '4' was added to the Sunshine Sound releases, but they would still run in the 200 series - like Jimmy "Bo"s "You get me hot" on matrix SSD-4215. Check out the matrix list in the bottom of this page... Henry was always concerned about the quality of the sound of his recordings and with the birth of the 12" single he could not only offer highest possible sound quality and a driving bass - he could also offer the 7" single hits in longer versions. These extended versions, and some times even different versions, were more suitable for Disco DJ's who quickly took the T.K. Disco 12" releases to their hearts. Still today I would say that the T.K. Disco cover jacket is the most wonderful ever designed, it's really one of a kind and a trademark in its own right. What would you say T.K. Records/T.K. Disco stood for - musically? "It was one of the first record labels to hit the dance market worldwide that became known as 'Disco'." If you would choose one song that represented what you thought T.K. Disco should stand for, which song would it be? "I would have to choose 'Rock Your Baby' by George McCrae followed by K.C. and the Sunshine Band's Six [6] number One World Wide Records, both in Clubs and on Radio." You also owned the Marlin label, as mentioned earlier, with acts like Amant, Voyage and others, please tell me more about Marlin and its acts and lifetime? "Marlin was more of a soft disco sounding label where my other labels such as Dash, Drive and Alston, all had a little more funk to them." There were many sub-labels connected to T.K. (Alston, Glades and so on...), what was the relation to the sub-labels? "Actually, there was no relation to each different label, we had so many releases that we had to set up different sub labels to handle all the releases. There wasn't one sub-label that was more successful than the rest. Each sub-label had its own hit's. Of course, the stand out label was T.K. which had six number one worldwide hit records with K.C. and The Sunshine Band and George McCrae." As we have learned above Henry Stone was involved as owner of MANY different labels - all distributed by T.K. Productions. Some of these labels were: A.P.A. the label best known for Celi Bee & The Buzzy Bunch ALSTON co-owned with T.K.'s A&R man Steve Alaimo and the label name is an anagram of the owners names - ALaimo and STONe. Alston had distribution with Atlantic before they finally brought it into T.K. in around 1976. Betty Wright was their most famous artist AMAZON with acts like Alice Street Gang and Fantasia BLUE CANDLE Paulette Reaves and Willie & Anthony recorded here CAT where George McCrae's wife, Gwen McCrae was CLOUDS jazzy ballad singer Bobby Caldwell started his transition towards disco and soul here DASH the home of the originally Bahamian band T-Connection DRIVE most known artist was Peter Brown GLADES on which Timmy Thomas recorded "Why can't we live together" GOOD SOUNDS recorded Laura Taylor KAYVETTE co-owned with Brad Shapiro with acts like Jackie Moore, Otis Clay and Facts of Life MARLIN probably T.K.'s best-known label with acts like Amant, Voyage, Ritchie Family, Kat Mandu, Beautiful Bend, Gregg Diamond, Quartz, USA - European Connection and many others SUNSHINE SOUND specially for Harry Wayne Casey & Richard Finch productions like; Jimmy "Bo" Horne, Johnny Harris and K.C. & the Sunshine Band T.K. RECORDS you'll find acts like James Brown and Foxy on this label   There were also labels not owned by Henry which only had distribution through T.K. - labels like;   JUANA label owned by Frederick Knight and best known for Anita Ward's "Ring my bell" MALACO an independent, predominately Gospel label One other idea behind all the different labels was to let each of them have their own 'profile' and more important, get the records played on the radio. Henry had found out during his years as a distributor that radio stations had a hard time playing several hits from ONE label - even if they were huge hits. Most stations were probably worried about getting accused of some payola scandal, so the trick was to release the hit singles under different labels - then all the hits could be played (sometimes even in the same show). Anita Ward's hit song "Ring My Bell" was originally released on 7" by Frederick Knight's Juana label, but the 12" single was a top selling T.K. Disco release, tell me what you did there... "Originally 'Ring My Bell' was a slower song and we felt it needed to be remixed so we sent it to one of the top mixer's in the New York Disco scene, a New York nightclub DJ by the name of Richie Rivera. He remixed the song and titled it 'The Midnight Mix' which we released as a 12" T.K. Disco single and it became one of the biggest Disco records in the 70's..." Also Peter Brown scored many hits for T.K. and his "Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me" was the first 12" single to sell over 1 million copies - How did that feel? "It felt great!" Did you ever expect it to sell that well? "No - No way! We never expected no 12" to sell like that. But our distribution helped too to sell it that way. We had very strong distribution." Did you have any other T.K. 12"s selling more than 1 million? "No. That was the only one." Have you got some comments on Anita or Peter Brown? "Well, Peter Brown, he was never a very aggressive type of person, you know, he were sort of laid back. Even now I understand... When you said you had an interview with Peter Brown I was very very surprised." Yes, he was thinking about it for quite a while before I got it... "Haha, [laughing] ...after the whole 70's and going into the 80's he kind of disappeared and did some writing. Of course he wrote 'Material Girl' which was a huge record, a huge hit for Madonna!" But which was T.K. Disco's biggest hit? "Ring My Bell"? "'Ring My Bell' ran neck and neck with 'Rock Your Baby'." Have you got some own favorite T.K. Disco 12" releases? And/or any other favorite releases from the sub-labels? "Probably, K.C. and the Sunshine Band were favorites of mine. Sub-label favorites... T-Connection was one of my favorites." When talking about some of Henry's favorite T.K. acts, let's find out a little more about them... Most famous is without a doubt K.C. & the Sunshine Band. The brains behind the group was Harry Wayne Casey [K.C.] and Rick Finch, two white youngsters who created some of the best black music around. K.C. was around 16-17 years old and was working in a local record store when Henry first met him. K.C. used to come to Henry's warehouse to pick up new releases for the shop, one day he asked Henry for a job in the warehouse and this was the start for a very successful relationship. K.C. was also interested in writing and playing music and Henry set him up with a young engineer in the T.K. Studio - Rick. Together they were allowed to "play around" in the studio during nights when no one was using it. Close to midnight a night in April 1974 the two came bursting into Henry's office (he was often in the office very late at nights), they were both excited by a track they just had written and recorded. Henry really liked what he heard, but since the track was all instrumental, he told the guys they needed to come up with some lyrics to go with it. K.C. and Rick named the song "Rock your baby" and when adding George McCrae's vocals (since K.C. couldn't sing it as it was too high), the new team had their first worldwide #1 hit, selling over 6.5 million copies. This with a song they had recorded the music in under one hour at a cost of only 20 dollars (if the studio time and tape is not counted). But there were many more hits to come... The successful team of Casey & Finch, under the guidance of T.K. owner Henry Stone, scored many hits both under their own band name - K.C. & the Sunshine Band - and as writers and/or producers for other acts like; Jimmy "Bo" Horne, Paul Lewis and Johnny Harris among others. We all remember hits like "Get down tonight", "That's the way (I like it)", "(Shake shake shake) Shake your booty", "I'm your boogie man", "Please don't go", "Dance across the floor", "Spank", "Odyssey" and lots of other top tunes. I had noticed that some K.C. tracks were released on both T.K.Disco and Sunshine Sound, for example Johnny Harris' "Odyssey" was both on TKD-4216 and SSD-4216 - I asked Henry about it and Mr. Stone replies; "T.K. again, basically, if you've noticed, everything that came out on the T.K. 12" were dance records and lets say on Sunshine Sound we put a 45 or an LP and when we put it on 12" it would be on T.K. Because the DiscJockey's they recognized when they received that jacket with the palm trees and the T.K. logo on it, that it had to be a hit record. So anything that we wanted to promote through the Clubs and the DiscJockey's we put out on the T.K. 12"." I understand, but then why are some releases also found on Sunshine Sound 12"s? "Right, initially that's the way K.C. wanted it, you know. But then he changed his mind when he realized that T.K. was that important to the clubs and DJ's." That explains why there's both T.K.Disco and Sunshine Sound 12" singles of some releases. As Henry mentions above, another of his favorite T.K. acts was T-Connection. This was a band from the Bahamas formed by Theophilus [T.] Coakley, the bands main songwriter, together with his bother Kirkwood Coakley and they brought along Anthony Flowers and David Mackey, later even Monty Brown and Berkeley Van Byrd joined the group. Henry was introduced to the band in early 1977 by the T.K. producer Cory Wade, who also produced Peter Brown, and already in March the same year they released their first hit on the Dash label - "Do what you wanna do". A track that's today considered a true classic, even Nona Hendryx was involved in a cover of this tune only 5 years after its original release. "Do what you wanna do" was also one of the first ever commercial released 12" singles, before that the T.K. Disco releases had been DJ promo's only. In early 1979 T-Connection had 2 more worldwide successes when they released "At midnight" followed by "Saturday night" - both with wonderful breaks and bongos just as their previous hits. T-Connection was not the first Bahamian band Mr. Stone had recorded, already in 1971 he recorded Beginning of the End's "Funky Nassau" on his Alston label. Just the other day I listened to Jimmy "Bo" Horne's "Dance across the floor" and T-Connection's "Saturday night" and it struck me that it's almost the exact same horns in these two songs. Do you recall... "I think that's strictly co-incidental you know, because the horns that we used in K.C. stuff, which was 'Dance across the floor', was completely different to all the T-Connection stuff. But... I'm not sure, maybe we did use the same horns." Yes, because both have this "Dum-da-da-ti-da-da..." [ Listen ] "Yes, you're right - that is very possible, but I'm not sure." When already into some of the T.K. acts and songs - let's mention a few other notable ones (beside the ones already mentioned earlier)... There was of course George McCrae along with his wife Gwen McCrae. T.K. also had their own 'house band', together they recorded as Foxy - which included Ish Ledesma (writer, producer and lead vocals), Arnold Pasiero (bass), Richie Puente Jr. (percussion), Charlie Murchiano (keyboards) and Joe Galdo (drums). Foxy had hits like "Get Off" and "Party boys". Another of the T.K. house writers/musicians was Clarence Reid, most people probably remember his naughty X-rated Blowfly alias better. Even Jimmy Castor was to be found on the T.K. label in the later 70's. Bobby Caldwell had been a jazz and ballad singer until he joined the T.K. roaster. It was with T.K. and on the Cloud label he started his transition towards disco, soul and dance music. A move I don't think he regrets. In 1979 he released the lovely classic, "What you won't do for love", which has become a highly sought for track and it has been sampled numerous of times, especially in the Hip Hop scene, as it seems. The picture here to the right show, as it says in a sticker on the cover; 'the first Heart Shaped Red Vinyl hit'. This single came in a 10" cover and it's a real collector's item. You should look out for it - both for the special heart shaped vinyl and also because it's a great song. Celi Bee shouted for "Superman" and "One love" together with the Buzzy Bunch in 1977 and she returned on her own in "Love drops" in 1979. Actually Celi's "Superman" was re-used by disco writer/producer Patrick Adams when he worked with Herbie Mann. Patrick tells me in my interview with him; "The mission was to produce a Dance oriented LP featuring the cut 'Superman'. John Williams had done the score of the movie... When we arrived for the first session at the Power Station Studio I was shocked to hear that across the hall Meco Monardo was already recording the Superman theme. He even had the original musical score sheets courtesy of John William. All I had was a cassette... It was bad enough that I had to go out behind John Williams but then to go against MECO, who had scored the huge success with Star Wars too, That was too much!! Without consulting with anyone I decided to take a big gamble. I put all of the Album resources into redoing 'Superman' by Celi Bee. This way we could put out our 'Superman' record 2 weeks before anyone else. I took a lot of flack for that, But it worked! Herbie had his biggest POP single ever." To follow up on the Superman and space theme... The Johnny Harris song "Odyssey" was used in the science fiction TV-series Buck Rogers in the 25'th Century, in the episode - Space Rockers, which was originally aired Feb. 21, 1980. There were also acts like Uncle Louie (written and produced by Walter Murphy) and one of my own personal T.K. favorite songs "Plato's retreat" by Joe Thomas, with additional vocals by the lovely Jocelyn Brown. Boris Midney was a Russian born writer and producer who used several different names (and labels) for his releases. For T.K. he recorded as USA-European Connection and Beautiful Bend. T.K. also signed other non-US bands, European and Canadian acts which were often brought in by the T.K. promotions man, Ray Caviano (who later opened up his own RFC Records label). Acts he help signing were for example Voyage, with the hits "Souvenirs", "Tahiti, Tahiti" and "Let's fly away", Kat Mandu's "the Break" (written by Denis Le Page who was also behind the group Lime) and Quartz - "Beyond the clouds". T.K. originally released the Ritchie Family, which was a group owned, written and produced by Henri Belolo & Jacques Morali for their Can't Stop Productions. Henry was negotiating to sign up their latest act - Village People, when Jacques and Ray Caviano had a huge fight - which resulted in Henri & Jacques signing up with Casablanca and moving all their acts there. As mentioned earlier Peter Brown had the first million selling 12" single with his "Do you wanna get funky with me", which was produced by Cory Wade for the Drive label. But I also need to mention his wonderful "Dance with me" (feat. Betty Wright) along with "Can't be love (do it to me anyway)" and "Crank it up (Funk Town)". But please read more about Peter and his career in my own interview with the man... Finally I'll mention Anita Ward, who by many have been regarded as a one hit wonder, but she had a second hit called "Don't drop my love" - even if it didn't reach the heights of "Ring my bell". But since "Ring my bell" is one of the top Disco songs people remember, it's always hard to follow up. But both were written and produced by Frederick Knight for his Juana label, which only had distribution through T.K. But check out my Anita interview for more details. What might be funny to know though, is that Frederick himself later recorded his own follow up to "Ring my bell" called "Let me ring your bell again". As you understand there were LOTS of other great T.K. acts - but as always you can't mention them all... What about the record releases - Have you got a personal copy of all of your record releases? "I hate to tell you, but I don't." Oh No, I guess you would have loved that today? "Yes, but you get so involved in what you're doing and of course a lot of people that I know now are collectors and they collect, I was just involved in making hit records and moving on to the next hit record without thinking that someday it would be history. That this whole thing would become history, I just thought this was the way I did things to make them work and I made it work." Back in the days... Was there any difference in being a Florida based company compared to the NYC and LA based labels? "T.K. was the creator of the Miami sound. Motown was the creator of the Detroit sound and Philly International the sound of Philadelphia, Stax had the Memphis sound. New York and L.A. had a mixture of different sounds, they weren't really distinctive." Talking about the Miami sound, you have been called "The Godfather of the Miami Sound"... "That's right!" How would you describe the Miami sound? "Well, the Miami sound at that time in the 70's when we were working with KC, Latimore, Timmy Thomas and all those people I used for my sessions - we had a sound which integrated Island music and R'n'B. I favor melodic Bass lines with a groove, something that all my music had. It ends up being a happy sound with a groove which in turn became the famous T.K. Disco Sound heard around the world. We had people coming over from Japan, from Germany, from France, from all over the world, just to go look at the T.K. Studios and all. At that time and to this day - the Miami T.K. sound still remains the basic hit sound of Miami. Of course we've got Emilio [Estefan] with Gloria down here now, some of the latin stuff, but I mean, we had 21 Gold and Platinum records around the world where I think they've had one with Gloria." Henry's wife Inez adds; "Didn't they also record for you one time Henry?" "Initially - Yes." OH - They did!? I didn't know that. "Yeah, Miami Sound Machine recorded for T.K. in the very early years. Years before they went out and did their own thing, when they were still doing weddings and other things like that." That was interesting news!		Download the FREE basic RealPlayer... CLICK to hear some T.K. Disco songs... If there's love Amant Don't drop my love Anita Ward Ring my bell Anita Ward That's the meaning Beautiful Bend Funky Nassau Beginning of the End What you won't do for love Bobby Caldwell Superman Celi Bee & the Buzzy Bunch Get off Foxy Rock your baby George McCrae Dance to the drummer's beat Herman Kelly & Life Dance across the floor Jimmy "Bo" Horne Spank Jimmy "Bo" Horne Plato's retreat Joe Thomas Odyssey Pt. 2 Johnny Harris Boogie shoes K.C. & the Sunshine Band Get down tonight K.C. & the Sunshine Band I'm your boogieman K.C. & the Sunshine Band Please don't go K.C. & the Sunshine Band Shake your booty K.C. & the Sunshine Band That's the way (I like it) K.C. & the Sunshine Band the Break Kat Mandu Can't be love (Do it to me anyway) Peter Brown Crank it up (Funk Town) Peter Brown Dance with me Peter Brown Do you wanna get funky with me Peter Brown Fantasy love affair Peter Brown Beyond the clouds Quartz At midnight T-Connection Do what you wanna do T-Connection Saturday night T-Connection Full-Tilt Boogie Uncle Louie Sky High Uncle Louie Come into my heart / Good loving USA-European Connection At the top of the stairs Wild Honey CLICK to compare HORNS of 2 songs... Dance across the floor vs. Saturday night CLICK to hear some related songs... Bad girls Donna Summer Hot stuff Donna Summer I feel love Donna Summer Last dance Donna Summer Love to love you baby Donna Summer MacArthur Park Suite Donna Summer Let me ring your bell again Frederick Knight Superman Herbie Mann Give me a break Ritchie Family Don't leave me this way Thelma Houston Can't stop the music Village People Go West Village People In the Navy Village People Macho Man Village People Y.M.C.A Village People Click cover to buy Disc 1: St. Pete Florida Blues - Ray Charles Sweet black angel - Earl Hooker Goin' back home today - Willie Baker Walkin' the streets - Lightnin' Hopkins Heart of stone - Otis Williams & the Charms Two hearts - Otis Williams & the Charms Very truly yours - the Evergreens Mexico bound - the Champions the Twist - Hank Ballard & the Midnighters Please, please, please - James Brown Mashed potatoes - Nat Kendrick & the Swans Funky Nassau - Beginning of the End Every day I have to cry - Steve Alaimo Hold on, I'm comin' - Sam & Dave Clean up woman - Betty Wright Why can't we live together - Timmy Thomas Rock your baby - George McCrae Get down tonight - K.C. & the Sunshine Band Disc 2: That's the way (I like it) - K.C. & the Sunshine Band Get off - Foxy Rockin' chair - Gwen McCrae Let's straighten it out - Latimore Party down - Little Beaver Ring my bell - Anita Ward Do what you wanna do - T-Connection Dance with me - Peter Brown Jam on it - Newcleus Funky little beat - Connie Fascinated - Company B Sally, that girl - Gucci Crew Cars with the boom - L'Trimm Oy! It's so humid - 2 Live Jews Click to buy from Come into My Heart/Good Loving - USA-European Connection That's the Meaning - Beautiful Bend If There's Love - Amant Girl You Need a Change of Mind - Paul Lewis the Break - Kat Mandu All Day, All Night - Margaret Reynolds Star Cruisin - Gregg Diamond Black Water Gold - Sunshine Band Plato's Retreat - Joe Thomas Love Machine - Tempest Trio Full Tilt Boogie - Uncle Louie Beyond the Clouds - Quartz Odyssey - Johnny Harris Dance to the Drummer's Beat - Kelly Herman Click to buy from Disc 1: At the Top of the Stairs - Wild Honey Disco Magic - T-Connection Lady Fingers - Tony Middleton Let's Love - Foxy Hey Sexy Dancer - Rocky Mizell We Got Love on Our Side - Silver Blue Funk Machine - Funk Machine Do What You Wanna Do - T-Connection Do Ya Wanna Get Funky With Me - Peter Brown Music to My Heart - Julie Budd Superman - Celi Bee The Way You Do the Things You Do - Foxy Disc 2: One Love - Celi Bee Don't Turn Away - Midnite Flite Harlem Nocturne - Wildflower On Fire - T-Connection Heavenly - Eli's Second Coming Dance With Me - Peter Brown Funk Reaction - Lonnie Smith Get Off - Foxy Two Doors Down - Joe Thomas Bertha Butt Encounters Vader - Jimmy Castor Bunch Hold Your Horses, Babe - Celi Bee And The Buzzy Bunch (Not listed on the cover) Plato's Retreat - Joe Thomas Dance to the Drummer's Beat - Kelly Herman Click cover to buy Rockin' Chair Rock You Baby What You Won't Do for Love Jazz Freak Please Don't Go Let's Straighten It Out Keep It Comin' Love Why Can't We Live Together 90% of Me Is You Clean Up Woman Party Down Misty Blue Honey, Honey You Gotta Love Me (Like I Love Me) Rockin' Chair For more T.K. Disco CD's... Click here!
It's said the company was going into bankruptcy in 1981, Is that correct? And then why - what caused it? "Yes, that is correct. I was going strong as a company, with hit after hit and then came the anti-Disco movement in Chicago and that spread around the country. Then the CBS television news program, 60 Minutes, picked up on it and said, 'Disco Is Dead'. I had the number one record in the world at the time with KC's first ballad 'Please Don't Go', but the impact of the bad media crippled my company financially. It was not long after that, that T.K. was shut down. All of it was shut down not just parts of it." After T.K. - Sunnyview Records and Hot Productions seemed to re-release and/or own the T.K. songs. What was their relation to T.K.? "I formed a new company after T.K. with Morris Levey of Roulette records, we formed Sunnyview Records... Sunnyview retained the rights to some of the T.K. masters, thus releasing T.K. material in the 80's. After Sunnyview I formed Hot Production's releasing more T.K. material in compilations." Hot Productions later released 12" singles and CD's of AVI Records and many other small Disco labels releases, how come? "I owned Hot Production's and felt in the mid 1980's that there was a need for compilations of the 1970 Disco Master's. I made arrangements to lease a good deal of these Disco classics from all the various Disco Companies, thus being one of the first companies to put out compilations on these great disco classics." What happened to HOT Productions? Is it still active? "No, it is not active. I sold it 4 years ago. The whole business had started to change, in a large part due to lack of good distribution among other things. You know, HOT records was the first company about, let's say, 15 years ago to put out all those Disco compilations. We must have had 800 to a 1000 releases on 12" and CD. Thanks to all the contacts I made through the years with all these people who had all these Disco classics." So you should check out any HOT releases you can find - lots of great tracks from many of the smaller independent labels, tracks that are extremely hard to find today! I have got this question many times to my web page - Who owns the rights to the T.K. catalogue today? Is it Rhino or EMI? "Actually, Both Rhino and EMI own the catalogues. Rhino for the United States and EMI Worldwide. All the Master tapes were turned over to Rhino and EMI." But as I understand from your web page - T.K. has revived, right? "Yes, T.K. has been revived." Do you still own the T.K. company name? "Yes!" What kind of material can we expect to hear from the revived T.K.? "Well, I'm not gonna go back... You can't go back. 'Cause you can't go back to the great songs and everything. I mean, you can't beat those songs. All the songs that were hits in the 70's... So, I gotta try to come up with something new and of course I was always involved, indirectly with Rap music, because even in the 70's I was involved with Joe Robins and stuff. Then in the 80's I had Sunnyview records where I had NewCleus, which was one of the biggest Rap records, you know "Jam on it" and "Wicki wicki"." When you started hearing "Disco" songs in the early 70's, what did you think about and did you feel it was going to be such a huge success? "In the early years while recording young artists such as George McCrae, K.C., Foxy and others, these records were recorded as great groove and dance records which the early disco started to pick up on. I had no idea of the impact of this music until it started to hit the disco's around the world. The success was way beyond what I ever thought it would reach at the time." Did you like Disco music during that time? "Yes, I liked the Disco music because it was very melodic, very happy, very up and great to dance to." Do you ever listen to the T.K. stuff today? "Yes, I do listen to the T.K. music today. I listen to it for personal enjoyment and often when I'm doing interviews, they play the music and I'm very pleased to hear what a great sound my music from 25 years ago still has today..." What about your competitors? Did you have any own favorite Disco labels - other than T.K.? "I guess, Neil Bogarts - Casablanca, it was very very early into disco. I liked his stuff, it did very well. And... the Village People, I like the way Jacques Morali produced records, it was really interesting what he did together with Henri Belolo. It's pretty much that... and the T.K. stuff... I was very much into my records, very much into it. 'Cause, I wasn't interested in competition and I don't think there was any competition. Also I guess one of my real favorites was Barry White, because I liked his influence with the R'n'B - I love the R'n'B music." Could you name some of your favorite Disco songs? Not of your own T.K. tracks? "I guess Barry White, the Village People, Donna Summer and Thelma Houston." What kind of music do you personally prefer? "I prefer Rhythm and Blues, but I really do enjoy Disco." So, what do you think of today's dance music? "Well, it's strictly club - super super club music you know. There's no sales to today's dance music - no record sales. It's all mixed down and there's no definition on the records, but I guess for the young kids for today, it's what they want. And every once in a while you hear some retro stuff, you go to discos and you hear the old 70's sound and it sounds GOOD." Inez adds; "Yeah, and everybody gets up to dance!" My next question, obviously, is - what do you think about sampling? "Oh, for some people it's been great, they've made a lot of money..." Yes, sure. But what do you think of it in general, if they sample some old T.K. records? "Which they've done. They've sampled all... They sample and sample and sample... But well, again, it's the changing of the times and there's nothing much you can do about it. Other than collect whatever little royalties there might be." Do you still know or have contact with any of your old Disco acts/artists or DJ's from the late 70's early 80's? "At the present time I still have contact with some of my old T.K. artists like K.C. and George McCrae. K.C. is on the road a lot. I can put you in touch with his office, or you can check his web site and see where to reach him. George McCrae is living in Holland and he also has a web site. As far as old DJ's I don't really have any currant contact." To get an even better view of all the different music and acts Mr. Stone has been involved in during the years, I think his own compilation Heart of Stone - the Henry Stone Story is an excellent excursion in time. This double CD is taking us from blues by Ray Charles in 1951, through Doo-Wop, "the Twist", some Rock-n-Roll, Soul, Funk, (of course) Disco, Electro, House/Dance to end up with Rap in 1990. Every song is a classic in its own genre and it shows the variety of styles coming out of Henry's roaster, plus how ahead of time he has been in picking up new trends. Besides the music the CD comes with a 50+ pages booklet where Henry tells something about each track and/or act. Click the signed cover [left] to buy the CD... Full track listing: Disc One "St. Pete Florida Blues" Ray Charles "Sweet black angel" Earl Hooker "Goin' back home today" Willie Baker "Walkin' the streets" Lightnin' Hopkins "Heart of stone" Otis Williams & the Charms "Two hearts" Otis Williams & the Charms "Very truly yours" the Evergreens "Mexico bound" the Champions "the Twist" Hank Ballard & the Midnighters "Please, please, please" James Brown "Mashed potatoes" Nat Kendrick & the Swans "Funky Nassau" Beginning of the End "Every day I have to cry" Steve Alaimo "Hold on, I'm comin'" Sam & Dave "Clean up woman" Betty Wright "Why can't we live together" Timmy Thomas "Rock your baby" George McCrae "Get down tonight" K.C. & the Sunshine Band Disc Two "That's the way (I like it)" K.C. & the Sunshine Band "Get off" Foxy "Rockin' chair" Gwen McCrae "Let's straighten it out" Latimore "Party down" Little Beaver "Ring my bell" Anita Ward "Do what you wanna do" T-Connection "Dance with me" Peter Brown "Jam on it" Newcleus "Funky little beat" Connie "Fascinated" Company B "Sally, that girl" Gucci Crew "Cars with the boom" L'Trimm "Oy! It's so humid" 2 Live Jews What are you up to today? "I'm putting together some material for after the first half of the year 2004. Also, working on my book, 55 years in the music industry." Inez Stone continues; "We're gonna try start working on a serious documentary this year on Henry and all of his years in the recording industry, so there might be something you could help us out on. We're gonna be looking through archives for old footage and photos, things we don't have and putting our format together. So, we'll let you know..." It sounds very interesting. "Yes, we're excited about the idea." Yes, I'm looking forward to hear more about that... Henry - Thank you for taking your time answering my questions. I have learned so much and I'm very happy to have got this opportunity to get to know you and more about T.K. "Thank You for Your interest in me, my work and my contribution to the Music Industry. Anything else I can do to be of help to you will be my pleasure. I am happy to hear your interest in the Disco era and I agree it is very important to preserve the history. And that's what is great about people like yourself, that you're documenting a lot of this history, because when it's not down it gets forgotten." Yes, that's my hope to be able to do with my pages... "Yes, you're doing it and from what I've read from the Disco era you've got it down pretty good." Inez fills in; "Everything was pretty right on target" and she continues; "and your questions were good, they were a little different which was interesting for us." OH, Thank you very much - both of you. It has a pleasure talking to you. "OK! Thank you!" Thank you very much... "Ciao!" In August of 2006 Henry Stone Music release the CD - Gwen McCrae sings T.K., which is Gwen's new interpretation of 13 classic T.K. Disco/Funk/Soul hits of the 70's. Besides Gwen's own "Rockin' chair" (in both new and original versions), this release include tracks originally performed by George McCrae, Betty Wright, Latimore, Little Beaver, Bobby Caldwell, Timmy Thomas and K.C. & the Sunshine Band. As that wouldn't be enough... Henry Stone even managed to bring in most of these people to add their talents to these new recordings. So, you'll find Gwen performing with Latimore, K.C., Timmy Thomas and David Hudson. In the background you'll hear (among others) Little Beaver on guitar, Sophia McCrae (Gwen's daughter) on background vocals and George 'Chocolate' Perry on bass and drums. 'Chocolate' is also the producer along with Henry. You'll also get a brand new song - "You Gotta Love Me" performed by Gwen & K.C. The release comes with a booklet with information on Gwen and the other T.K. guys who worked on making this new recordings happen. All the info and liner notes are written by Henry and Inez Stone and in the end of it there are photos from the recording sessions. These are the classic tracks that have got this Soulful makeover: "Rockin' Chair" (w. a tase of Latimore) "Rock You Baby" "What You Won't Do for Love" "Jazz Freak" "Please Don't Go" "Let's Straighten It Out" (w. Latimore) "Keep It Comin' Love" (w. K.C.) "Why Can't We Live Together" (w. Timmy Thomas) "90% of Me Is You" "Clean Up Woman" "Party Down" "Misty Blue" "Honey, Honey" (w. David Hudson) "You Gotta Love Me (Like I Love Me)" (w. K.C.) "Rockin' Chair" Today Henry still lives in Florida, in Coconut Grove. He's married to Inez and loves to spend time with his children and grandchildren as well as travel. Beside this he has now revived his T.K. label and is still as active in the dance music business at an age of 80+ as ever before. In a ceremony in September 20, 2004 in New York, Henry receives a Lifetime Achievement Award and a place in the new Dance Music Hall of Fame! Others who also were voted into the Hall of Fame are Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer, Bee Gees and the late Barry White. It's not for nothing he's labeled - "The Godfather of the Miami Sound". For latest news of his projects - the book, new music and more - check out: HenryStoneMusic.com. As Henry explains himself on why he has been on top in the business for over 50 years... "I'm a pure music junkie."

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