Dial Records was a Nashville-based soul label established by music promoter, publisher and producer Buddy Killen in 1964.
[4] After a few tries and misses, Tex came up with a song called "Hold What You've Got", a 1964 ballad that bridged traditional rhythm and blues with the emerging Southern soul style and also pointed toward a future of rap thanks to Tex's spoken, almost testifying homily midway through the song.
"Hold What You've Got" got Killen's Dial label a distribution deal with Atlantic Records.
Joe Tex was the anchor star of this Dial label (he rolled up almost thirty soul hits, some of which hit the pop charts, especially "Skinny Legs and All" and "I Gotcha") until he all but retired from music in the 1970s and died of a heart attack at age 49.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing owns the Dial Records catalogue today.