Alston Album DiscographyThe Atlantic-distributed Alston singles were given their own series, starting with #4569. The albums, however, were another matter. The first two albums, by Betty Wright and Clarence Reid, issued in 1968 and 1969, were actually issued on the Atco label, with a notation that they were part of the "Alston Records Series." Four additional albums, issued between 1972 and 1973, were on the Alston label, but were numbered as part of the Atco 33-100 series and Atco 7000 series. After the distribution agreement expired in the summer of 1974, Stone and Alaimo shifted the label to their own TK Productions for distribution, using a new (4400) series starting in mid-1974.
Betty Wright was certainly the biggest star on the Alston label, having about two dozen R&B chart hits
from 1969-1979, with many of them crossing over to the pop charts. Wright had a gospel background,
having sung with her family group, the Echoes of Joy, as a girl. She signed with Alston when she was
just 15 years old in 1968. Her first Alston single, "Girls Can't Do What the Guys Do" [Alston 4569],
written
by Alston producers Clarence Reid and Willie Clarke, reached the pop top 40 at #33, but made #15 on
the R&B charts. Her followup, "He's Bad Bad Bad" [Alston 4571], only reached #103 on the Bubbling
Under Charts and missed the R&B charts altogether. It wasn't until five singles later that she reached the
charts again, although Alston released her first album My First Time Around, in the meantime.
"Pure Love" [Alston 4587] reached the R&B top-40 in late summer, 1970. Then another miss, then back
on the charts in July, 1971, with "I Love the Way You Love" [Alston 4594], which reached #44 on the
R&B charts and #109 pop. Then in November of 1971, she had her biggest hit ever: "Clean Up Woman"
[Alston 4601], which reached #6 on the pop charts and #2 on the R&B charts. From there, a long string
of low-to-mid pop charters and a dozen more top-40 R&B hits, including the 1975 R&B Grammy-winner
"Where Is the Love" [Alston 3713, #15 R&B]. By 1981, when the label was closing down, Betty moved to
Epic Records and continued her career, on a number of labels, well into this century. She has sung with
others on several hits, including fellow-Miamian Gloria Estefan's "Coming Out of the Dark," which made
#1 on the pop charts in 1991. Her 2007 chart single with Angie Stone just suggests there are more to
come. In all, she has placed over 40 songs on the national record charts.
Another artist with hits on Alston was Clarence Reid, the ubiquitous singer, songwriter, producer,
comedian, and who-knows-what-else who crops up on most of Henry Stone's labels. His first chart hit
was an answer song to the Isley Bros.' "It's Your Thing," called "Nobody But You Babe" [Alston 4574],
which reached #40 pop and #7 R&B starting in April, 1969. His followup, "I'm Gonna Tear You a New
Heart" [Alston 4578], died at #120 on the Bubbling Under charts. He had two more hits for Alston, "Good
Old Days" [Alston 4603, 1/72, #38 R&B] and "Funky Party" [Alston 4621, 6/74, #17 R&B/#99 pop]. But
Clarence Reid was much more to the TK empire than just a recording artist. He wrote and produced
countless songs for the TK labels, and a lot of them were hits. He is also well-known as his off-color
comedian alter-ego, Blowfly, for whom an entire label, Weird World, was launched (but usually not
claimed) by Clarence Reid and Henry Stone.
Alston also signed a group in 1971 from the Bahamas, The Beginning of the End, who ended up with more albums on the label (2) than chart hits (1). Their lone hit was "Funky Nassau, Part 1" [Alston 4595], which reached #15 pop and #7 on the R&B charts.
Other artists on Alston included J.P. Robinson, George & Gwen McCrae, the Diamonettes, the Famous Crones, Dave Prater, Jimmy "Bo" Horne, Raphael Munnings, Bill Pursell, the Funky Party Band, Milton Wright, Julie Budd, Danny Randell, Salty & the Mixed Nuts, Ronnie Spector (ex-lead singer of the Ronettes and ex-wife of Phil Spector), Lew Kirton, David Hudson, Herman Kelly & Life, John Mitchell, and Charles Johnson. The label wound down, as did the other TK labels, about 1981.
