Pickwick Records

Pickwick Records was an American record label and British distributor known for its budget album releases of sound-alike recordings, bargain bin reissues and repackagings under the brands Design, Bravo (later changing their name to International Award), Hurrah, Grand Prix, and children's records on the Cricket and Happy Time labels.

The label is also known for distributing music by smaller labels like Sonny Lester's Groove Mechant, Gene Redd's De-Lite Records, Chart Records and the Swedish label Sonet Records (for which it distributed late-1960s recordings by Bill Haley & His Comets in Canada and the US). They also issued records from Britain's Hallmark Records label.

Pickwick Records (originally formed as Pickwick Sales Corporation, later Pickwick International) was founded in 1950 by Cy Leslie, whose first business was a prerecorded greeting card service that in 1946 turned into Voco Records, a label of children's records. In 1957, after successfully marketing their Cricket children's label of 78 and 45rpm records, Pickwick entered the LP market with low-priced records, beginning with their Design label. The albums from the 1960s into the early 1970s bore the "Pickwick/33" imprint.

Singer-songwriter Lou Reed once worked as a staff songwriter for Pickwick Records, and gained experience in their small recording studio. Several of Pickwick's soundalike albums from 1964 to 1965 feature Reed as an uncredited session musician. Two of his songs, "Cycle Annie" (credited to The Beachnuts) and "You're Driving Me Insane" (as The Roughnecks), both appeared on the Soundsville! compilation in 1965. "The Ostrich" and "Sneaky Pete", two earlier songs by Reed, united him with John Cale, leading to their founding the Velvet Underground.

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