Don Robey
| Don Robey | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Don Deadric Robey November 1, 1903 Houston, Texas, US |
| Died | June 16, 1975 (aged 71) Houston, Texas |
| Other names | Deadric Malone |
| Occupation | Businessman, record company and nightclub owner, record producer, credited as songwriter |
| Known for | Peacock Records, Duke Records |
Don Deadric Robey (November 1, 1903 – June 16, 1975) was an American record label executive, songwriter and record producer. As the founder of Peacock Records and the eventual owner of Duke Records, he was responsible for developing the careers of many rhythm and blues artists in the 1950s and 1960s.
He was notorious for his controversial business practices; he reputedly used criminal means, including violence and intimidation, as part of his business model, though he was held in high regard by some of the musicians who worked for him. He was credited with writing or co-writing many of the songs recorded by Duke/Peacock artists, either under his real name, or under the pseudonym of Deadric Malone. However in many cases, he was merely a publisher and was not involved in the writing. Many other label owners paid little for songs and controlled the publishing, but Robey was one of the few to disguise the real writers, making it nearly impossible to assess who wrote what on Duke, Peacock, Backbeat and his other labels.
Robey was born in the Fifth Ward of Houston, Texas, to Gertrude and Zeb Robey, a chef. His grandfather Franklin, the son of a plantation owner and a slave from South Carolina, had settled in Houston where he practiced medicine and lived in the town's Third Ward. Don Robey left school early, he claimed in order to pursue a gambling career. Although he claimed to have lived almost all his life in Houston, there is evidence that he spent some time in his teens working on a cotton farm with his mother, and later worked as a dock laborer in Galveston. He also lived in Los Angeles, where he set up his first nightclub. By the age of 20, he had married and fathered a son.
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