One of many obscure labels handled by President Records. Bulldog was owned by Jeffrey Krueger of Ember Records (q.v.), but its parent company was not a member of the Ember group. It received its first mention in 'Music Week' of the 22nd of February 1975, which stated that it was to be launched through President as an outlet for product licensed from a number of British and American sources; among that product there was to be some 'vintage Rock 'n' Roll'. When it appeared, Bulldog concentrated on budget-priced albums of repackaged material in the main, more or less as Ember did. For the first three years of its existence it leaned towards Blues and R&B from the likes of Johnny Otis and John Lee Hooker, but Country music gained prominence in 1979, with albums by well-known names such as Tex Ritter, Red Sovine and Kitty Wells being among those which were added to the catalogue. The next reference to the label in 'MW' came in the issue of the 7th of July 1979 said that, despite Krueger's Ember Records folding, Bulldog was still going, under the umbrella of his 'Visual & Audio Leisure' company, and that it was licensed to President. In an update a couple of months afterwards 'MW' of the 15th of September announced that Krueger had launched a new organization, 'TKO' ('The Krueger Organization'), following the demise of Ember, and that the Bulldog label had been relaunched, still under the licensing deal with President. According to the article the label was headed by Leslie Lewis, a long-time associate of Kruger. A week later 'MW' of the 22nd of September added that as Bulldog hadn't come under the Ember umbrella it had not been affected by Ember's closure. It continued on through the 1980s, generally serving as a budget-priced outlet for reissues on LP as it had done before, but its repertoire extended to cover all fields of music, just as Ember's had done.
Bulldog issued some twenty-six singles / EPs, using a BD-0 numbering series, mainly from 1975-82 but with the final one coming out in 1986. They tend not to be common, but they're mostly not sought-after. The first series, BDs 1 to 15, ran until October 1978, and most of its releases had a link to Krueger's Sparta Florida Music publishing company; some of the songs had previously appeared on Ember. The fare on them was a mixture containing Disco, Pop and Rock. BD-6, 'Compared To What' b/w 'Unbreakable Toy', by Mr. Flood's Party, seems to have been popular in discos at the time (1975) and is mildly collectable now, while Naviede's 'Around My Head' b/w 'Diana' (BD-11) sold enough copies to merit two pressings, so if you happen on a Bulldog record it's likely to be one of those two. After the relaunch in 1979, with BD-16, the musical direction altered and the same kinds of material that could be found on the albums began to feature on the 7" records.
One basic label design served throughout, but the minor credits altered and / or moved occasionally. After the first three singles (1) the words 'Marketed by President' and 'Made in England' appeared on the labels (2); from BD-13 the 'Marketed' became 'Manufactured and Distributed', but it reverted to 'Marketed' in 1979, after the relaunch. Demo copies, when there were any, were marked with a large hollow silver 'A', which tended to be the style used with labels associated with President (4). Manufacture appears to have been done by independents such as Orlake and Linguaphone, as well as by President. Thanks to John Timmis for the first scan, and to Robert Bowes for the third, logo-free, scan which appears to have been a re-pressing of the Naviede single - it has '1977' on it, whereas the logoed version had '1976'. The discography below covers the '80s as well as the 70s, for once.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.