Cameo-Parkway Records

Among the types of music released were doo-wop, dance hits, popular/rock, rockabilly, big band, garage rock, soul and novelty records.

[1] Dave Appell joined the label from its inception as A&R director, and the three worked together as a production team on many early Cameo releases.

In addition, Appell's group the Applejacks functioned as Cameo's house band for the first few years of, serving as backing musicians for the label's vocalists as well as issuing a handful of instrumental singles on their own.

A major factor in Cameo-Parkway's success was its relationship with the Philadelphia-based TV program American Bandstand.

Being located in the same city where this popular nationally broadcast music show was produced meant that Cameo-Parkway artists were always available to perform on the show—especially in the event any other act should cancel.

The label benefited tremendously from the arrangement, as the exposure many Cameo-Parkway artists received on American Bandstand helped propel them to stardom.

[1] Chubby Checker had a minor novelty hit in the summer of 1959 called "The Class", which featured Checker doing comic imitations of singers Fats Domino, the Coasters, Elvis Presley, drummer Cozy Cole, and Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian Forte as The Chipmunks.

The vocal group the Dovells, which featured Len Barry as the lead singer, released "Bristol Stomp", which reached No.

The third and final event was that Bernie Lowe had become increasingly disenchanted with the business side of record making and, suffering from nervous exhaustion and bouts of depression, he sold his stake in the company in 1964.

By mid-1965 none of Cameo-Parkway's founding trio were associated with the label, and their biggest stars (Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker) had also left.

Cameo's new management was unable to replicate its success with artists like Jo Ann Campbell, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry, the instrumental group LeRoy & His Rockin' Fellers, and TV-stars-turned-singers such as Clint Eastwood and Merv Griffin.

Turning to Midwestern garage bands and orchestrated soul productions (including the distribution of Curtis Mayfield's "Windy C" label), Bogart managed to shepherd in a brief Cameo-Parkway renaissance.

The last major hits for the label were "96 Tears" by Question Mark and the Mysterians (picked up from independent Pa-Go-Go Records), which went to No.

1 in the fall of 1966,[3] a novelty remake of "Wild Thing" by comedian Bill Minkin imitating Robert F. Kennedy under the name Senator Bobby (1966), and "Beg, Borrow and Steal" by the Ohio Express (originally on the Attack label as by The Rare Breed) (1967).

Virtually all Cameo-Parkway recordings, including all of their numerous chart hits, were officially unavailable in any format for about 30 years, from 1975 to 2005.