Fee Bee Records (2)

Joe Averbach, a wholesale record distributor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., from 1949 through the late 50's, was lured into the recording business by Matt Furin. Matt, a songwriter, music publisher and operator of two small record labels (Jo Jo and Round-Up Records) in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, gave Joe the idea to utilize his record distributing facilities plus promotion knowledge to develop his own label. As a record distributor, Joe was a recipient of "freebee's" from record companies. Needing a name for his label, Joe acknowledges that from the word "freebee," he extracted "Fee Bee." The Fee Bee label was inaugurated in 1956 with a pop release "Tender Words And Wicked Lies" b/w "Tender Words" by Buddy Carle with Danny Hurd and The Hurdlers (Fee Bee 201). Through four decades a potpourri of records appeared on Fee Bee... releases were essentially rock and roll with some pop, country and western plus rockabilly. There were many fine recordings issued on the Fee Bee label which have gone unnoticed through the years simply because of the lack of exposure at the time when initially released. Two exceptions, though, were The Dell Vikings. "Come Go With Me" (Fee Bee 205), leased to Dot Records for national distribution, reached the number 4 spot of Billboard Best Sellers Chart in May 1957 and "Whispering Bells" (Fee Bee 214), also distributed by Randy Wood on his Dot label, rose to the 9th position on Billboard's Top 100 Chart in August 1957. Once the 1950's era ended, the Fee Bee label became somewhat inactive with only a minimal amount of releases over the next several decades. The last record waxed for Joe Averbach's Fee Bee label was "Bandit On The Loose" b/w "Sometimes Baby" by Chuck Corby and Quiet Storm (Fee Bee 120) in 1984. It is to be noted that Joe Averbach also operated several Fee Bee subsidiary labels during the late fifties through the sixties: Star(r), Petite (2), Ring-O Records, Goldie (4), Goodie Records, Sonic (19), and Sound. (source: Flyright CD 55)