Opinion | Vee-Jay was no sleeper label

The Feb. 4 Arts & Style article “Operation U.S.A.” described Vee-Jay, the Beatles’s original American record label, as “an obscure, Chicago-based, Black-owned record company.”

This is flatly wrong and racially insensitive. It’s a disservice to one of the great independent labels.

Ever heard of the Four Seasons? Vee-Jay was the label that had introduced Frankie Valli’s vocal group. “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man” were all No. 1 on the pop charts — and all were released on Vee-Jay. The Four Seasons appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” long before Sullivan had even heard of the Beatles.

Vee-Jay also hit No. 1 on the pop charts with “Duke of Earl” by Gene Chandler. Other Vee-Jay hits: John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” Betty Everett’s “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss),” Jimmy Reed’s “Big Boss Man” and “Bright Lights, Big City,” and the Staple Singers’ “Uncloudy Day.” The very first song ever recorded at Vee-Jay, the Spaniels’ “Baby It’s You,” was a Top 10 R&B hit in 1953.

Brian Epstein knew what he was doing when he went to Vee-Jay. And the label would have had no problem launching the Beatles into superstardom if Epstein had only brought it his lads’ tapes a couple of years earlier. What Epstein didn’t know was that Vee-Jay President Ewart Abner had allegedly been secretly pillaging the company treasury to pay off his gambling debts. The money needed to make the Fab Four fab was simply no longer there.

Andy Viner Seiler, Washington