Waldorf Music Hall Records

It was begun as a generic, "soundalike" label, with Light's stable of artists—Loren Becker, Artie Malvin, Lois Winter, Dottie Evans and others—reproducing the hits of the day.

[4] Emblazoned with the diamond-shaped logo "FDR"—meaning "Full Dynamic Range," signifying high fidelity, but also invoking an acronym for a popular American president—Waldorf Music Hall was primarily a 10" LP label with 8 hits apiece; 48 releases in the 3300 series appeared between January 1954 and December 1957.

[1] In 1955, Light had begun his higher profile Grand Award label and this drew some attention away from Waldorf Music Hall; the Hit Parader issues stopped at the end of 1957.

[5] Nevertheless, some of the 12" albums—for example,those by the gospel group Deep River Boys and the traditional jazz band The Royal Playboys—remain desirable and are unique to Waldorf Music Hall.

In keeping with Light's reputation as an audiophile, Waldorf Music Hall issues do on the whole sound better than average for Hit Parader records, and the performances are of professional caliber even if the idiom of rock 'n roll is not comfortably realized.