Ollie McLaughlin
| Ollie McLaughlin | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ollie Anderson McLaughlin |
| Born |
March 24, 1925 Carthage, Mississippi, US |
| Died | February 19, 1984 (aged 58) Detroit, Michigan, US |
| Genres | Jazz, R&B, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Record producer, record label owner, DJ |
| Years active | Late 1940s–1984 |
Ollie Anderson McLaughlin (March 24, 1925 – February 19, 1984) was an American record producer and record label owner. He discovered Del Shannon, and also organized or produced recordings by Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Dorothy Ashby, Barbara Lewis, and the Capitols, among many others.
He was born in Carthage, Mississippi, but moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a child. After graduating and serving in the US Army during World War II, he studied at Columbia College in Chicago before returning to Ann Arbor in the late 1940s to work as a DJ on radio station WHRV. He also promoted jazz and R&B concerts. In March 1954, he promoted a concert by the Dave Brubeck Quartet in Ann Arbor, parts of which were released on the album Jazz Goes to College, and two months later he organized Chet Baker's concert, issued as the LP Jazz at Ann Arbor.
In 1960, he heard a country band led by Charles Westover, known at the time as Charlie Johnson, and recorded the band's demos, which he sent to Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik of Talent Artists in Detroit. As a result, Westover was signed by Bigtop Records, and agreed to change his name to Del Shannon. McLaughlin had Shannon re-record one of his songs in New York City, using band member Max Crook's Musitron as lead instrument, and the resulting single, "Runaway", reached #1 in the Billboard chart in April 1961. McLaughlin also produced several of Shannon's later hits, including "Hats Off to Larry".
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