 checker records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary to chess records in chicago, illinois. the label was founded by the chess brothers, leonard and phil, who ran the label until they sold it to general recorded tape (grt) in 1969, shortly before leonard's death. the label released recordings by mostly african american artists and groups. checker's releases cover a wide range of genres including blues (little walter, sonny boy williamson ii), rhythm and blues (sax mallard, jimmy mccracklin), doo-wop (the flamingos, the moonglows), gospel (aretha franklin, five blind boys of mississippi), rock and roll (bo diddley, dale hawkins), and soul (gene chandler). the label was discontinued in 1971 following grt's consolidation of the chess catalogs. as with cadet and chess, the label's catalog is now owned by universal music group and releases from the checker catalog are released by geffen records and chess. == history == due to the recent expansion of chess records, as well as to achieve greater airplay for singles, the chess brothers opened up a subsidiary label named checker. the first 45/78 rpm single released by the label was "slow caboose" b/w "darling, let's give love a chance" by sax mallard and his orchestra, which was released as checker 750 in april 1952. the label's most popular artist, in the label's early years, was little walter, who had ten songs released by checker that made the top ten of billboard magazine's [[ho
American_record_labels Pop_record_labels Record_labels_disestablished_in_1971 Record_labels_established_in_1952