Sue was formed by Henry "Juggy" Murray in New York City in January, 1957. Juggy Murray, along with Bobby Robinson, were the two most successful black record label proprietors in New York City. Most of the albums on the Sue label were jazz, for example by the Ray Bryant Combo, Ernestine Anderson and Jimmy McGriff.

The Matadors gave Sue Records its first regional hit in 1957 with "Vengeance" [Sue 700]. The next year, Sue had two more hits: "I Feel Like a Million," by Mamie Bradley [Sue 702] and "Itchy Twitchy Feeling," by Bobby Hendricks [Sue 706]. The latter hit the top 25 on the national pop charts and established Sue as a national label. Hendricks was a veteran of R&B groups by that time, having been in the Swallows in 1956 and the Flyers (Atco) in 1957. His big step to stardom came as a member of the by-then-disintegrating original Drifters in 1958, where he sang lead on the hit "Drip Drop" before he left the group to go solo. Hendricks used his Atco/Atlantic/Drifters connections many times over the next few years. "Itchy Twitchy Feeling" is backed by the Coasters, label mates at Atco. His second hit, "Psycho" [Sue 732] in 1960, was co-written by ex-Drifter Clyde McPhatter, and features a "Name Game"-like babbling give-and-take with "psychiatrist" Dr. Jive, a New York deejay. (Incidently, this was years before the Shirley Ellis record, and may have been an influence on that hit.) By 1964, Hendricks had rejoined the Drifters.

The non-jazz mainstay of the Sue label in the early 1960s was Ike and Tina Turner, in the days when they were doing one night stands in the black clubs known as the "chittlin circuit." Starting in 1960, the duo hit the pop charts with "A Fool In Love" [Sue 730, #27], and within two years had added five more national hits: "I Idolize You " [Sue 735, #82], "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" [Sue 749, #14, backed by Mickey & Sylvia], "Poor Fool" [Sue 753, #38], "Tra La La La La" [Sue 757, #50], and "You Should'a Treated Me Right [Sue 765, #95].

In 1961, Murray picked up an instrumental by a couple of Californians (Henry Bellinger and Johnny Lageman) calling themselves the Duals. The record, "Stick Shift," had originally been out on Star Revue 1031, but was issued on Sue 745 for national distribution, and it made the top 25. Instrumentals are difficult to place for most people, since there are no words to associate with the title, but the screeching tires throughout the song and the memorable squad-car pullover at the end are remembered by almost everyone who listened to the radio at the time. It was an early prototype of the surf/car song genre from California.

Symbol Records was a subsidiary of Sue, and had the biggest hit yet, "Mockingbird" [Symbol 919, #7] by Inez Foxx in the summer of 1963. Inez and her guitarist brother Charlie had several other chart records for Symbol during 1963-64.

Justine "Baby" Washington had her first major pop hit on Sue in 1963 with "That's How Heartaches are Made" [Sue 783, #40], then followed it with six additional hits that charted between #50 and #100 nationally. The Soul Sisters hit with "I Can't Stand It" [Sue 799] and two others in 1964, and Tina Britt hit the R&B charts with "The Real Thing" that same year [on subsidiary Eastern 604]. In late 1969, Wilbert Harrison revived his career with "Let's Work Together, Part 1" [Sue 11, #32], a song that would be remade by the Canned Heat a few years later. In the 1970s, Juggy Murray himself had a few records out, including "Built for Speed," and "Inside America," in 1972 and 1976 respectively.

The A.F.O. label was formed in New Orleans by Harold Battiste in 1961. Juggy Murray bankrolled the label and was the national distributor for the label. The name A.F.O. stands for All For One. The label was intended to be a co-operative of the session musicians that were playing on most of the records being recorded in New Orleans. A.F.O. had a big hit with Barbara George called "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)". When Juggy Murray signed Barbara George away from A.F.O. to his own Sue label, A.F.O. lost it's biggest star and the label declined.

Sue Records is still in business today in New York, and still being run by Juggy Murray.

The original Sue label was orange with black printing. On the left side of the label at the top and bottom are white and black vertical stripes, between the stripes is the words "Sue RECORDS" in white with a child's silhouette in black. The second Sue label was orange with black printing. On the left side of the label at the top and bottom are black vertical stripes, between the stripes is the words "Sue RECORDS" in black with a child's silhouette in black. A variation on this label adds the words "THE SOUND OF SOUL" above the silhouette. The label used on Sue 8801 was red with black printing, "SUE" at the top of the label above the center hole.

As for stereo, except for the late '60s Wilbert Harrison album, and possibly some jazz albums, Sue, Symbol, and AFO have been essentially a washout. The rock and roll albums that were issued in stereo tended toward rechanneled stereo. Even the 1994 4-CD box set, The Sue Story, [EMI 7243 8 28093 2 6] was all mono. In the discography below, where we have found a stereo listing for an album, we have used the "STLP-" prefix. Those albums which have no indication of a stereo release use the "LP-" prefix. Those for which we are fairly sure were released in mono only will say so in the track contents.

We would appreciate any additions or corrections to this discography. Just send them to us via e-mail. Both Sides Now Publications is an information web page. We are not a catalog, nor can we provide the records listed below. We have no association with Sue, Symbol, or AFO Records. Sue Records is still active in New York City. Should you be interested in acquiring albums listed in this discography (which are all out of print), we suggest you see our Frequently Asked Questions page and Follow the instructions found there. This story and discography are copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 by Mike Callahan.