Era Records

Era Records was an independent American record label in Hollywood, California. It was founded by Herb Newman and Lou Bedell in 1955 as a pop, country and western, and jazz label. In 1959 Bedell sold his interest in the label to Newman. Era had a No. 1 hit in 1956 with Gogi Grant's "The Wayward Wind" written by Newman. Musicians with hits on Era include Ketty Lester ("Love Letters"), Larry Verne ("Mr. Custer"), Donnie Brooks ("Mission Bell"), Dorsey Burnette ("Tall Oak Tree"), Art & Dotty Todd ("Chanson D' Amour"), and The Castells ("So This Is Love"). Era distributed other labels, including Monogram, Gregmark, and Eden. From 1969 to 1971, Era was associated with Happy Tiger, which reissued and distributed some of Era's oldies. In 1972, Newman added the RTV label which released the psychedelic album Mu. In the mid-1970s Newman sold the Era label and catalog to K-tel. In 1993, K-tel began reissuing some of the early Era material using the original Era label and logo.