Bill Grauer, Jr., Riverside Records, and Sports Car and Racing Sounds LPs, 1956-62:

“Bill Grauer and Riverside Records: Capturing the Sounds from Sports and Race Cars.”

"A Castor Oil Cantata"

Doing history often gets personal for me, and the story that follows is a prime example of why I chose the topics I pursue. For some time, I have been interested in the history of sports cars in the U.S., particularly during the 1950s when sports car sales and SCCA participation took off. It was the result of rising middle class expectations and ambitions, a response to the ungainly Detroit “dinosaur in the driveway,” and popular literature that included Don Sanford’s The Red Carand Tom McCahill’s Mechanix Illustrated articles. And as a teenager during the mid-1960s I got caught up in it, as I purchased a 1959 MGA after graduating from high school.

Lately as I reflect on my past I have often wondered how I got on the path of being so keenly interested in sports cars. One reason for my passion was the consequence of acquiring at age 12 the Riverside Records LP “Vintage Sports Car in Stereo.” I played that disk over and over again, much to the anguish of my parents who thought I had gone over some sort of an adolescent cliff.  But as I have discovered from recent conversations, many others joined me in this obsession with the sounds of exotic motor cars. Today sounds are often a part of cars & coffee events; in the 1950s and 1960s they were often heard in Hi-Fi as well as on the track and street.

The Riverside Records story is worth telling, for it links jazz music with sports cars. It began in 1952 with the partnership of two Columbia graduates, Bill Grauer, Jr. and Orrin Keepnews. Seeing an opportunity to approach the major record firms with a proposal to counter what was then seen as the release of “pirate” recordings of performances dating back to the 1920s and 30s, between 1952 and 1962 Grauer and Keepnews would build Riverside Records into a major jazz label. Additionally they wrote a definitive book on the history of jazz in the U.S, published by Crown in 1956 and reissued in 1971.

Grauer began by convincing RCA Victor to re-issue 78s from the 1920s and 30s in LP format. However, he then shifted focus to the contemporary music of Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins and Cannonball Adderly. In the midst of this artistic achievement,  Grauer also became a sports car enthusiast.

In a 1961 interview in his New York City office that featured a large photo of Bill behind the wheel of a 1937 Mercedes-Benz, he recounted how in “1956, just for fun, we recorded sounds of sports-car races down at Sebring, Florida (I’m a racing nut, you know). We decided to release it and then the roof fell in. It began to sell like crazy.” The success of “Sounds of Sebring” led to a series of some 24 sports car records, including a parody of them by Peter Ustinov. To acquire those sounds, Grauer would have “mikes buried in bull rings. We’ve recorded hot-rods and go-carts. But those motorcyclists were too much. It was 110 degrees and those idiots had leather jackets on. It was ludicrous. It was insane. But they sure blew a good chorus."

An advertisement in the December, 1956 Sports Cars Illustrated touted the “Sounds of Sebring” album this way:

For the first time ever: a superb high quality 12 inch long playing record of all the sounds that make up America’s greatest sports car race. Over 60 minutes of interviews with the world’s greatest drivers…Fangio, Moss, Collins, Behra, Hill, Musso, Menditeguy, Bennett, Rubirosa, Portago, Parnell. The sounds of Ferraris, Maseratis, Jags, Aston martins, Porsche, Corvettes, Lotus, etc. warming up, revving, roaring at speed, coming out of corners flat out.  The fabulous Le Mans start, pit activity, the fantastic sounds of Fangio shifting up and down as he makes the five mile circuit, and dozens of other remarkable on the-spot sounds which are so exciting to the driver and spectator alike.

            Other releases that followed the “Sounds of Sebring” included the chronicling of the Sebring races between 1958 and 1962. From my perspective these recordings serve as primary source material not only of the races and the engine sounds – distinct of brand and vintage, a sort of original language speaking to us – but also of the best drivers of the day, speaking in their own words. Thus in 1957 titles included “The Marquis de Portago: The Story of Racing’s Most Colorful Driver – a Memorial Tribute;” “Phil Hill: Around the Racing Circuit with a Great American Driver;” “Carroll Shelby: The Career of a Great American Racing Driver;” and “Stirling Moss: A Portrait of Britain’s Great Racing Driver, Told in his Own Words.”

            There is one other aspect of the Riverside Records sports car series worth mentioning. Namely the record jackets are often works of art in their own right. Often the work of Bill’s wife Jane Grauer, the covers are at times stunning representations of cars, engines, and Bugatti grills.

Art, jazz, and sports cars, along with watches and cameras, they all came together during the 1950s and 1960s. Riverside Records, still recognized for its achievements in the arts, also left a legacy in automotive history.

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