Gusto Records

Gusto Records is a Nashville, Tennessee based record company specializing in reissuing and licensing recordings from its vast catalogue of music from acquired record labels and their own studio recordings.

The catalogues Gusto owns include those of King Records (except for recordings by James Brown & of Bethlehem Records), Starday Records, Scepter Records (except for recordings by Dionne Warwick and the pre-RCA recordings of The Guess Who), Wand Records (except for recordings by The Kingsmen), Musicor Records, Chart Records, Federal Records, Audio Lab, Ovation, Step One Records, Atteiram Records, and others. Gusto Records is believed to maintain the largest independently owned collection of record masters.

History

Gusto was founded in 1973 by Moe Lytle and songwriter Tommy Hill, who owned the Stop Records label. Gayron "Moe" Lytle bought Tommy Hill's interest in the company, along with the Stop Records label. Tommy Hill operated the business while Moe was still in St. Louis. In 1974, Moe Lytle moved to Nashville, and bought Tommy Hill's portion shortly thereafter. It acquired Starday-King Records from Tennessee Recording & Publishing, which was owned by Freddy Bienstock, Hal Neely, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1975. In the late 70's, Gusto purchased the Chart and Ovation catalog. Gusto acquired the Musicor, Scepter and Wand catalogues from the bankrupt Springboard International Records in 1984 from Jay-Koala, along with many masters that were recorded by Springboard themselves. Gusto also acquired Little Darlin' Records, and a large classical catalog in the same purchase. The Indigo and Audiograph masters were added in the '80s. The most recent acquisitions were the Mel Street masters, the Step One master catalog, and the Atteream masters which included a large bluegrass catalog.