Dore Records

Doré Records
Parent company	Era Records
Founded	June 1958
Founder	Lew Bedell Herb Newman
Distributor(s)	Ace
Genre	Pop, rock and roll, novelty, comedy
Country of origin	U.S.
Location	Los Angeles, California

Doré Records, pronounced "dorrie" and with an accent on the "e", was a record label founded in Los Angeles, California in 1958 by Lew (or Lou) Bedell and his cousin Herb Newman.

In 1955 Bedell and Newman had set up Era Records, which had several hits with such artists as Gogi Grant ("The Wayward Wind") and Art and Dotty Todd ("Chanson d'Amour"). However, Era had failed to break into the rock and roll market, which Bedell was anxious to do.

Bedell and Newman set up Doré Records in June 1958, with the support of record distributor George Jay. The label was named after Bedell's young son Doré, who himself had been named for Bedell's grandmother Dora Newman. The label's first big hit was "To Know Him Is to Love Him" by The Teddy Bears, written by Phil Spector who was a member of the group. Bedell insisted on releasing the record as it had been recorded, though Newman wanted to overdub strings. This disagreement contributed to Bedell and Newman deciding to end their partnership in 1959, with Newman retaining control of Era and Bedell running the Doré label.

Among the early staff at Doré were Herb Alpert and Lou Adler. The Doré label had several major pop and novelty hits over the next few years, including "Baby Talk" by Jan and Dean, and "Percolator (Twist)", credited to Billy Joe & The Checkmates but actually recorded by session musicians directed by Ernie Freeman. The label also released singles by John and Judy (John was John Maus, later of The Walker Brothers), Little Ray, Ronnie Cook ("Goo Goo Muck", later covered by The Cramps), and many others.

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