Bear Family Records – Weltmarktführer der Wiederveröffentlichungen – Ein Überblick über das Label

In 1975 a small German record label debuted its' first album. The artist was Bill Clifton, the album title was »Goin' Back To Dixie« and the record label was Bear Family. 35 years later the label has become a world leader in its own peculiar way. Bear Family was, and remains, the brainchild of Richard Weize.

»I wanted to do it differently, based on our company credo: exclusive, LP-sized boxed sets, with extensive and well researched books containing rare pictures and ephemera, and a detailed and reliable discography. Every company calls its boxed sets ›collectors' editions‹, but ours are truly the ultimate collectors' editions.« To draw upon just a few names from a vast catalogue of more than 1,400 releases, what other record label could possibly provide its' listeners with compilations from the likes of Leon Chappel, Frankie Starr, Bob Gallion, and Roy Lee Johnson to box set collections of recordings by Willie Nelson, Eddie Cochran, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, the Sons Of The Pioneers, and George Jones, among many, many others. There's also been the complete works of legendary country stars such as Hank Snow, Jim Reeves, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell alongside diverse pop icons such as Doris Day, Johnny Ray, the Everly Brothers, Dean Martin and Pat Boone.

The Bear Family catalogue continued to grow. After country and rockabilly came blues, folk, jazz, chanson, Schlager, and vintage r&b, soul, and historical documentations. Bear Family goes beyond a desire to service country and rockabilly fans (or whatever the genre) and takes on the active role of worthy archivist, preserving the music itself.