Wooden Nickel Records
| Wooden Nickel | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1971 |
| Founder | Bill Traut, Jim Golden, Jerry Weintraub |
| Status | Defunct in 1977 |
| Distributor(s) | RCA Records |
| Genre | Rock |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
Wooden Nickel Records was an American independent record label started in 1971 by Bill Traut, Jim Golden and Jerry Weintraub as a successor to Dunwich Records. Most of Wooden Nickel's releases were by acts based in the Chicago area, including the Siegel–Schwall Band, James Lee Stanley, Megan McDonough and Styx. The label had a distribution deal with RCA Records. Wooden Nickel ceased operations after its top act, Styx, signed with A&M Records in 1975. The label sued the band for breach of contract, then was formally disbanded in 1977.
Wooden Nickel singles, like the albums, started with their own numbering system, but in 1973 were put into the consolidated RCA numbering system where they shared a catalog numbering sequence with all of the RCA-distributed labels. The label design was the same as for the albums, that is, a brown, wood-like color with a buffalo nickel backdrop, and "wooden nickel" in white at the top of the label. Promotional records used the same design, with "NOT FOR SALE" printed on the label. Promo copies usually featured the same song on both sides, one mono and one stereo. The deejay numbers on the 65-0100 series were completely different (e.g., the promo issue of "Guitar Picker" was SP/SPS-45-314 vs. the commercial issue of 65-0105). The WB-10000 series deejay issues used the same numbers, but with a "JH-" prefix instead of "WB-".
The series used four prefix characters, the first of which indicated if the single was on the RCA parent label (=A) or a subsidiary/distributed label (=B). The second letter indicated the label, with "W" indicating Wooden Nickel. The third letter was mostly "B" except for a few pop artists' reissues (=A). The final character was intended to always be a "0" (zero), but was often erroneously typeset as a capital O. Since several labels shared the sequence, the Wooden Nickel numbers are not continuous.
RCA Consolidated numbering system changes to the PB-10000 sequence, with the letter prefixes pared down to the middle two letters of the four-letter combination above.
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