Record mogul backed Black artists

His label signed Little Richard, Sam Cooke

Art Rupe, a record mogul whose independent Specialty label became a force in early rock, soul and gospel music and who helped discover Little Richard and Sam Cooke, died April 15 at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 104.

His death was announced by the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation. The cause was not disclosed.

Rupe, whose father was a Jewish immigrant from eastern Europe, grew up in a working-class, mixed-race community near Pittsburgh. He ascribed his lifelong interest in Black music to childhood, when he heard the sounds of a gospel choir from a nearby church wafting through the windows of his house.

He lit out for Los Angeles in 1939 to make his fortune in the movie industry. When that fizzled, he tried music. His first effort, making pop records, was a bust because of his inability to compete with the promotional and distribution machinery of the major labels.

He then decided to focus on “race music,” then the

... THE CRUMBS OFF THE TABLE OF THE RECORDING INDUSTRY.

term for rhythm-and-blues and gospel. It was a market largely overlooked by the major labels — in his words, “the crumbs off the table of the recording industry.”

He studied the competition intensely, scoured jazz and blues clubs for talent and was determined to find the formula that would succeed. In 1944, with two partners, he started Jukebox records. The first Jukebox release, Boogie No. 1, performed by the Sepia Tones, reportedly sold 70,000 copies. (His market research told him that many popular rhythm-and-blues songs had “boogie” in the title.)

After disagreements with his partners, Rupe sold his stake in Jukebox and started Specialty in 1946. Within a few years, Specialty accumulated a powerhouse array of R&B entertainers who gave birth to such memorable — and frequently covered — songs as Lloyd Price’s Lawdy Miss Clawdy and Joe Liggins’s Pink Champagne.

Specialty’s greatest success involved a singer, pianist and former drag performer from Macon, Ga. — Little Richard — whose screaming, manic style pushed the outer boundaries of the era’s music. Little Richard alone had 14 Top-10 hits for the label, including Tutti-frutti and Long Tall Sally.

Rupe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.