Lou Rennau

Lou "Goldilocks" Rennau was a musician, recording engineer, and record label owner who was heavily involved in the 1960s Columbia, Missouri music scene. Rennau was born in Hannibal, Missouri on June 7, 1939. From 1958-1960, he played professional baseball for the Chicago White Sox and San Francisco Giants minor-league affiliates. He later attended The University of Missouri in Columbia in The School of Business and Public Administration. It was in Columbia in the mid-60s that he played electric piano and sang in the local band The Roadrunners. Later he led the rhythm 'n blues band Goldilocks and The Three Bears, promoted by his curled shoulder-length blond hair and him driving a second-hand hearse which carried his electric piano. In Columbia in the late '60s, he put his business degree to use by starting several fairytale-inspired music businesses under the LAR Music Enterprises arm. He created the recording studio Fairyland Studios, publishing company Sleeping Beauty, and record label Fairyland Records (2). He later created a second record label, Lion Records (14). In 1967 he produced two recording sessions for Topeka, Kansas band Morning Dew (2), releasing two singles for his Fairyland Records. A longer recording session with them happened in the summer of 1968 and January of 1969 and his contacts helped them get signed to release two full-length albums on Roulette. Their self-titled debut was released in 1970 from re-recordings of some of the same songs that Rennau originally recorded. Also in 1969, he recorded and released on his Lion Records imprint an up and coming band called Morningstarr, who after several lineup changes released several albums on Columbia / CBS in the late 1970s as Morningstar (4). Several of Rennau's other recordings and releases from the late 60s and early 70s (such as [m1106463]) have seen reissue on Numero Group and various other garage rock and psychedelic rock compilations over the years. Lou Rennau passed away on January 7, 2014 (age 74) in Hannibal, Missouri.