RPM Records was Modern's third label, founded after the parent imprint and the short-lived Colonial Records. It was set up to get more airplay of the company s masters from radio programmers who were reluctant to play too many records from the same label, and to achieve more orders from distributors. The artists who were assigned to RPM were as potent as any of those who were appearing on Modern. From the label's very early days these included such R&B titans as B.B. King, Lightnin Hopkins, Howling Wolf and Rosco Gordon....... The 52 tracks that make up this overview of RPM's early years cover 1950-53. A second collection will follow later in the year to tell the rest of the story. More than half are new to CD in these versions. Almost all have been remastered from the original acetates, even if they have been out on Ace CD before. These tracks will never have sounded as good as they do here. Every major name on RPM is featured at least once, plus a bunch of lesser-knowns whose careers did not progress beyond their RPM tenures........
