Robin Records

Robin Records, a small Midwestern Kansas City record label run by Robert Caldwell Jr. Not to be confused with “Red Robin Records” from New York, “Robin Records” was a Midwest attempt to get into the money making machine of the early1950’s pop market and didn’t go very far. Robert was a producer who had traveled to Omaha, Nevada and California in the 1940’s and had heard a variety of Big Bands such as the “Frank Carle Band”. He around that time met the band’s vocalist Lee Columbo. The early pop tunes getting attention during post WW2 created a heated music market and was a huge challenge as he attempted to spark a career for Lee as a vocal soloist. After getting Lee in to his KC studio and cutting a good sounding demo disc, he then pressed a small handful of promos to send out to radio stations. The song itself might have reached some potential but it didn’t help that shortly after that Columbo had suffered a fatal car accident. During the early 1950’s Robert kept the label name alive and finally scored a small local hit in 1957 from the Kansas City band “Krazy Katz”. Featuring guitarist Lee Dresser, piano man Willie Craig, and drummer Freddie Fletcher, this teeny-bop band used the industry standard idea to catapult a charting hit during the late 1950’s surf craze. They pressed 2 local singles and also a LP, but after the Beatles invasion their sound and the “Robin Records” label quickly disappeared after 1963. Robert Caldwell Jr. passed away around 2005 and left a tiny legacy of midwestern popular ideas behind.