Guyden Records was a Philadelphia-based record label that joined forces with Jamie when Jamie was founded in 1956. Named for “Guy Dennis,” the son of the label’s founder, it started to exploit the niche markets exemplified by New York R&B singer Carmen Taylor and Pittsburgh doo-woppers The Four Larks, it also took a flyer with Broadway-style music from Norma Douglas. Early rock ‘n rollers on the label included Danny Cedrone, Bill Haley’s guitarist, who constituted half of the Esquire Boys. Their Guyden releases included putting out Bill Haley’s own “Rock A Beatin Boogie” a year before Haley himself did.
Teamed up with Jamie, Guyden at first concentrated on doo-wop and instrumentals, then switched to r&b when Jamie tried to sustain doo-wop in the 1960s. While Jamie was putting out Duane Eddy and Mirriam Johnson (Duane’s wife, whom he cut for Jamie before she became Jessi Colter and the wife of Waylon Jennings), Guyden was putting out Duane’s guitarist Donnie Owens with his hit, “Need You” and his duets with Don Cole, as well as Duane’s drummer Bob Taylor, whose productions as Bob Taylor and His Orchestra included “Night Express” and “Gigolo.”
Guyden had its own distribution network, a common practice to keep distributors on their toes, diversify promotion efforts and avoid having all your eggs in one basket. Guyden had early releases by Neil Sedaka, Johnny Rivers and Bobby Hart (as Robert Luke Harshman). It had hits with Donnie Owens’s “Need You,” Mitchell Torok’s “Caribbean,” and Marion Worth’s “Are You Willing Willie” and “That’s My Kind of Love.”
