Gold Star Records

Gold Star Records
"Jole Blon"
Parent company	Quinn Recording Company
Founded	1941
Genre	Cajun, country, blues, rock, R&B, hip hop
Country of origin	United States
Location	Houston, Texas, United States

Gold Star Records is an American independent record label, which was founded in 1941.

Gold Star Recording Company originated as a recording studio in Houston, Texas, and was founded in October 1941 by Bill Quinn under the name Quinn Recording Company. In 1950, Quinn changed the name of the studio to Gold Star Studios and, as such, remains the oldest registered recording studio in the Southeastern United States.

The studio was important in launching the careers of such artists as Lightnin' Hopkins, Harry Choates, George Jones, Eddie Noack, The Sir Douglas Quintet, Roy Head, and Freddy Fender. At that time, the operation was renowned for inventive recording equipment and its reverberation chamber room.

Quinn would also release several Cajun songs on his Opera label.

Gold Star Records featured blues, country music, (then still commonly known as hillbilly music) and cajun music. In his first few years of business, Bill Quinn also recorded radio commercials and added a novelty offering recorded birthday greetings.

The most significant change was the release of its first hit record, "Jole Blon" by Harry Choates, a swing and dance tune that and became the first and only Cajun record to reach the Billboard Top Five. His local pressing plant could not keep up and he authorized other independent labels to produce copies of this record across the country, such as Modern Records (#20-511), Starday(#187), D Records (#1024) and the Deluxe label. Lightnin' Hopkins' "T-Model Blues" and "Tim Moore's Farm", both became top 10 national hits in 1948, helping to provide Gold Star with a string of hits throughout the late-1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

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