The
history of Moonglow Records goes back to the 1950s in Belgium. Albert van
Hoogten was owner of Ronnex Records in Belgium, and sent his brother, Rene
Jan van Hoogten, to the United States in the mid-1950s to set up a label
here. The first version of Moonglow Records was run out of Woodside, New
York. The first labels noted that Moonglow was a subsidiary of Ronnex Records
of Belgium. Rene Jan van Hoogten changed his name to Ray Maxwell to help
Americans with pronunciation. Maxwell put out a number of singles on the
New York-based label, including a couple of 1958 reissues of tunes from
the 4-Star label of a few years earlier by Sammy Masters and His Rocking
Rhythm. Apparently, sales were not enough to keep the original incarnation
of Moonglow above water in New York, so Ray Maxwell relocated to the Los
Angeles area.
Ray
Maxwell restarted Moonglow Records in 1961 from an office at 6359 Selma
Avenue in Hollywood.
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