12/29/2021 - EMBARGOED TO 0001 WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 29 Undated file photo of 12 inch vinyl records. Vinyl sales grew to their highest level in more than three decades in 2021 as consumers turned to the format during the coronavirus pandemic. More than five million vinyl albums were purchased in the UK over the past 12 months, up 8% on sales in 2020, according to figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Issue date: Wednesday December 29, 2021. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA/Sipa USA) *** US Rights Only ***
Vinyl sales
NEW YORK (AP) — A pioneering record executive who helped launch the careers of Little Richard and Sam Cooke has died. Art Rupe died Friday at his Santa Barbara, California, home at the age of 104.
Rupe was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
The Greensburg, Pennsylvania, native was a contemporary of Jerry Wexler, Leonard Chess and other businessmen-producers who helped bring Black music to a general audience.
He founded Specialty Records in Los Angeles in 1946 and worked on such early rock classics as Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” and Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.”
