Perfect Records was a
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
based
record labelIn the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
of the 1920s and 1930s. It was a subsidiary of
Pathé RecordsPathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
, producing standard lateral cut
78 rpm disc recordsA gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
for the US market.
Many issues of Perfect records were pressed in red-brown
shellacShellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes , which are dissolved in ethyl alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish...
as opposed to the more common black shellac of the era. Audio fidelity was about average for the era, but being a cheap label, the records tend to wear easily.
Artists who recorded on Perfect included
Cliff "Ukelele Ike" EdwardsCliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...
,
Annette HanshawCatherine Annette Hanshaw was born at her parents' residence in New York City on October 18, 1901. [Ed. While Annette sometimes gave her birth date as 1910, nephew Frank W. Hanshaw III confirms 1901 as the date on Annette's birth certificate.]-Biography:...
,
The Ponce SistersThe Ponce Sisters, Ethel and Dorothea , were a popular singing sister duo in the mid-1920s and early 1930s...
,
Willard RobisonWillard Robison was an American composer of popular song. Born in Shelbina, Missouri, his songs reflect a rural, melancholy theme steeped in Americana. Their warm style has drawn comparison to Hoagy Carmichael...
,
Cab CallowayCabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
,
Gene AutryOrvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
,
Vernon DalhartVernon Dalhart , born Marion Try Slaughter, was a popular American singer and songwriter of the early decades of the 20th century. He is a major influence in the field of country music.-Early life:...
,
Lee MorseLee Morse was an US jazz and blues singer and songwriter whose most popular years were in the 1920s and early 1930s, although her career began around 1917 and continued until her death in 1954...
, Boyd Senter,
Al BernardAlfred A. Bernard was an American vaudeville singer, known as "The Boy From Dixie", who was most popular during the 1910s through early 1930s.-Life:...
,
Tito SchipaTito Schipa was an Italian tenor. He is considered one of the finest tenori di grazia in operatic history...
, and
Morton DowneyMorton Downey was a singer popular in the United States, enjoying his greatest success in the 1930s and 1940s. Downey was nicknamed "The Irish Nightingale".-Early years:...
.
Perfect Records was part of the merger that created
American Record CorporationARC, the American Record Company, also referred to as American Record Corporation, or as ARC Records, was a United States based record company...
(ARC Records ) in July 1929.
The Perfect Records label was revived in 1993 by Dean Blackwood and issued recordings pressed on 78 r.p.m. vinyl by
Sun City GirlsThe Sun City Girls were an American experimental rock band, formed in 1979 in Phoenix, Arizona. From 1981 the group consisted of Alan Bishop , his brother Richard Bishop , and the late Charles Gocher . Their name was inspired by Sun City, Arizona, an Arizona retirement community...
,
Charlie FeathersCharles Arthur "Charlie" Feathers was an influential American rockabilly and country music performer.-Biography:...
,
Junior KimbroughDavid "Junior" Kimbrough was an American blues musician. His best known work included "Keep Your Hands Off Her" and "All Night Long". Music journalist Tony Russell stated "his raw, repetitive style suggests an archaic forebear of John Lee Hooker, a character his music shares with that of fellow...
, the Balfa Brothers, and
John FaheyJohn Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the...
.