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Bear Family Records is a Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
-based independent record label
Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels....
 that specializes in reissues of archival material ranging from country music
Country music

Country music is a blend of popular American music forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in Traditional music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s....
 to 1950s rock and roll
Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
.

The label has been in existence since 1975
1975 in music

Events*January 2 - New York City U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen rules that former The Beatles John Lennon and his lawyers can have access to Department of Immigration files pertaining to his deportation case....
, founded by collector Richard Weize, and has become known for its extravagant (and expensive) box sets. The company describes itself as "a collector's record label" due to its primary business, which is reissuing rare recordings in CD format in small amounts.






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Bear Family Records is a Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
-based independent record label
Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels....
 that specializes in reissues of archival material ranging from country music
Country music

Country music is a blend of popular American music forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in Traditional music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s....
 to 1950s rock and roll
Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
.

The label has been in existence since 1975
1975 in music

Events*January 2 - New York City U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen rules that former The Beatles John Lennon and his lawyers can have access to Department of Immigration files pertaining to his deportation case....
, founded by collector Richard Weize, and has become known for its extravagant (and expensive) box sets. The company describes itself as "a collector's record label" due to its primary business, which is reissuing rare recordings in CD format in small amounts. Their material has only limited availability in the U.S., mostly through mail order sources.

Among the many artists who have been the subject of extensive box set releases by Bear Family are Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Primarily a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll , as well as blues, folk music and Gospel music....
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson

Willie Hugh Nelson is an United States country music singer-songwriter author, poet and actor. He reached his greatest fame during the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, but remains Cultural icon, especially in American popular culture....
, Dean Martin
Dean Martin

Dean Martin was an United States singer, film actor and comedian of Italians descent. He was one of the best known musical artists of the 1950s and 1960s....
, Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets

Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was one of the earliest groups of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of white America and the rest...
, Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan

Louis Jordan was a pioneering United States jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s....
, the Everly Brothers, Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins

Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins was an influential American guitarist and record producer.His picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul, brought him admirers both within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally....
, Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret

Ann-Margret is a Sweden-born American actress, singer and dancer. She has won the Golden Globe Award five times, and has been nominated for the Academy Award, Emmy Award and Grammy....
, Pat Boone
Pat Boone

Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an United States singer, actor and writer who was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s....
, Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful United States musician, singer and songwriter whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire " in 2005....
, Doris Day
Doris Day

Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff is a German-American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate known as Doris Day. Able to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she became one of the biggest box-office stars....
, Burl Ives
Burl Ives

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an United States actor, writer and folk music singer. The prominent music critic John Rockwell has been quoted in the New York Times as saying that "Ives's voice......
, the Carter Family
Carter Family

The Carter Family was a country music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass music, country music, southern gospel, popular music and rock musicians as well as on the Folk & blues revival of the 1960s....
, Fats Domino
Fats Domino

Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino is a classic Rhythm and blues and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter....
, Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney was an United States singer and actor. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers "Botch-a-Me " , "Mambo Italiano ", and "This Ole House", songs which tended to obscure her talents as a jazz vocalist....
, Connie Francis
Connie Francis

Connie Francis is an United States pop singer best known for several international hit songs including "Who's Sorry Now?", "Where the Boys Are", and "Stupid Cupid"....
, Lesley Gore
Lesley Gore

Lesley Gore is an United States singer-songwriter of the "girl group era". She is perhaps best known for her 1963 pop music hit, "It's My Party ", which she recorded at the age of 16....
, Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson

Eric Hilliard "Ricky" Nelson, later known as Rick Nelson , was an United States singer, musician and actor. With more than 50 Billboard Hot 100 hits, Nelson was second to Elvis Presley as the most popular rock and roll artist of the late 1950s....
, Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an United States musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist....
, Johnny Sea
Johnny Sea

Johnny Sea is an American country music singer. His first hits came in the late 1950s, and his career saw a resurgence in the mid-1960s, particularly with the release of his spoken word single "Day For Decision"....
, Joe Dowell
Joe Dowell

Joe Dowell was an American pop singer. He was born in Bloomington, Indiana, but moved to Bloomington, Illinois, as a child. He first performed at a ninth-grade talent show, and later attended the University of Illinois....
, and Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer, songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame....
.

Bear Family has also made a habit of producing thorough compilations of artists with a more limited fanbase, such as two separate five-CD Johnnie Ray
Johnnie Ray

John Alvin Ray was an United States singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage persona....
 collections, six-CD box sets of Slim Whitman
Slim Whitman

Slim Whitman is an United States country music singer and songwriter. Whitman lives in Middleburg, Florida, Florida....
 and The Orioles
The Orioles

The Orioles were a successful and highly influential United States Rhythm and blues group of the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of the earliest such vocal bands who established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound....
, a seven-CD Rod McKuen
Rod McKuen

Rod McKuen is a bestselling American poet, composer, and singer, instrumental in the revitalization of popular poetry that took place in the 1960s and early 1970s....
 set, eight-CD collections of Lonnie Donegan
Lonnie Donegan

Lonnie Donegan Order of the British Empire was a skiffle musician, possibly the most famous of them all, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name....
, Del Shannon
Del Shannon

Del Shannon , was an United States rock and roller who had a Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1961 hit ,"Runaway ", in 1961....
, Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka is an United States pop music singer, pianist, and songwriter often associated with the Brill Building. He teamed up with Howard Greenfield to write hits for himself and others....
 and Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent

Gene Vincent, real name Vincent Eugene Craddock, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and, especially, rockabilly....
, or a nine-CD omnibus of Johnny Burnette
Johnny Burnette

John Joseph "Johnny" Burnette was a Rockabilly pioneer. Along with his older brother Dorsey Burnette and a friend named Paul Burlison, Johnny Burnette was a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio....
.

The company has also released several hundred "Various Artists" compilations, organized by theme or genre. These include such projects as a ten-CD political protest song
Protest song

A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre....
 box set, an eleven-CD set of the Jewish and Yiddish performers of the mid-1930s, a seven-CD box featuring 195 different versions of the song "Lili Marleen
Lili Marleen

"Lili Marleen" is a Germany love song which became popular on both sides during World War II.The words were written in 1915 during World War I by Hans Leip , a school teacher from Hamburg who had been conscripted into the Imperial German Army....
," compilations of music based on and from the TV series "Bonanza
Bonanza

Bonanza is an United States television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons, it is among the longest running Western television series and continues to air in syndication....
," a four-CD collection of British music hall
Music hall

Music hall is a form of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to# A particular form of variety show entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and #Speciality Acts....
 songs of the early 20th century, a ten-CD set of late-1930s calypso
Calypso music

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music which originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the beginning of the 20th century....
 music, and a 52-CD "History of Pop Music" set.

See also

  • List of record labels
    List of record labels

    This is a list of notable record labels.Owing to the large number of entries, the list has been divided by the first letter of the label's name, with labels starting with a number added to this page:...


External links

  • - Bear Family Records Reviews - (Updated Often)
  • -Site with information on the 2005 Bear release.