Solar Records founder Dick Griffey, 71, died Sept. 24 in Los Angeles after quadruple bypass surgery, the New York Times reports. By championing Solar acts like Shalamar, Klymaxx, the Whispers, and Lakeside, Griffey played a pivotal role in the development of disco and R&B in the 1980s.
Born in Nashville in 1938, Griffey spent the 1960s working as a club owner and successful concert promoter in L.A. By the next decade, he was working as talent coordinator on TV’s Soul Train and soon teamed with host Don Cornelius to found Soul Train Records. Griffey left in 1977 to start his own label, Solar Records. The name was originally an acronym for “Sound of Los Angeles Records.”
The label went on to score many influential hits with the bands mentioned above and others. As noted by the Associated Press, Solar is also where Antonio “LA” Reid and Kenneth “Babyface Edmonds” — now the chairman of Island Def Jam and a noted artist and producer, respectively — got their starts as members of R&B group the Deele.
Check out Klymaxx’s 1985 dance classic “Meeting in the Ladies Room,” one of Solar’s biggest hits, after the jump. Please join the Music Mix in sending its condolences to Griffey’s family and friends in the comments below.
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
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late news ew. i guess r&b/soul doesnt rank as high as the gaga-bieber crap stories.
Yeah that was well over a week ago.
yup — old news
but hey, EW doesn’t claim to be BREAKING news, right?
thanks for the video –
that song really brings me back
ha
That included Midnight Starr too correct?
Re: being old news. Yes, Griffey passed away on 9/24, but for whatever reason, news of his death seemed to only hit in the past couple of days.
Like EW, The New York Times has a lengthy obit piece in today’s edition. Jody Watley (ex-Shalamar) posted a few Solar Records videos in memory of Griffey this past Saturday on her Facebook page.
And yep, @angeljake, Midnight Star was in the Solar Records family.
Am I the only one who feels the days of label heads having any sort of lasting cultural impact are long gone? Everything seems to have been consolidated today, and most wouldn’t even know which artist is on what label (though 90% of the time, it’s one of the 3 or 4 majors).
I am sorry to hear that Dick Griffey has passed away. I followed Solar Records’ remarkable run of hit albums by Shalamar, The Whispers, Lakeside, Midnight Star(whom I still play today), Dynasty, Klymaxx and others in the late ’70s and early ’80s. And I remember the Deele’s first two-three albums before Babyface went solo and later produced multiple hits for L.A. Reid. The label was like a Motown with its own in-house production with people like the Sylvers members, this Spencer fellow and others that wrote and handled those hits. He will be missed.