Excerpts from Cooler Than Ice: Arctic Records and the Rise of Philly Soul:
As program director of Philadelphia’s WDAS-AM, the city’s leading R&B radio station, Jimmy Bishop founded Arctic Records in 1964 to make his own hit records.
Alabama native James Alburn Bishop had posted big ratings as a KATZ-AM deejay in St. Louis, then spent a short time on the New York airwaves before arriving in Philly in 1962. He soon settled into the afternoon drive shift on ‘DAS, hosting the popular “Jimmy Bishop Go Show.” The station rewarded Jimmy with the program director post, where his instincts went a long way towards determining which records graced the station’s influential playlist.
Local producer Weldon A. McDougal III recognized the possibilities inherent to adding Bishop to his creative fold in Dynodynamics Productions, especially when it came to contacting larger labels about licensing their productions. “I went over to the station and asked him, would he like to work along with us? ‘Cause I knew he wanted to produce records,” said the late McDougal, born October 28, 1936 and a product of West Philadelphia High School. “I mean, he was a producer. He said, ‘Yeah, let me come over.’ So he came over one Sunday, and he liked what was happening.”
Bishop launched Arctic in September of ‘64, its icy name reflecting the deejay’s admiration for Atlantic Records (he chose a different ocean). The dark-blue-print-on-a-baby-blue-background label design incorporated a couple of cute penguins into its logo. Arctic did its recording during the label’s first few years at guitarist Frank Virtue’s studio at 1618 N. Broad Street until the action began to move over to Jamie/Guyden’s 919 Studios on the second floor of Universal Record Distributing Corp. at 919 N. Broad about halfway through Arctic’s existence.
Arctic’s talent roster usually sang to pre-recorded tracks rather than live with the studio band. No time was wasted in the recording process. “The order generally was backing tracks, then lead vocal, background vocals, and then if there was any horns and strings, that would be the next order,” says one of Arctic's most used session guitarists, Bobby Eli. “Strings generally in the daytime; horns afterwards, like later afternoon.”
In all, Arctic would release 60 singles, a sizable number of them achieving national R&B hitdom and several of Mason’s earning pop crossover status. “What made Jimmy so special, he was tight with all the disc jockeys throughout the country, and they helped each other by playing each others’ records,” says former Arctic artist Kenny Hamber. “Jimmy Bishop was trying to become a Berry Gordy. And because Philly and Detroit were so tight-knit, when the Temptations came into the Uptown Theater, Jimmy Bishop was always considered the sixth Temptation.”
