BOOKER
The Booker label out of New Orleans, Louisiana was named after its owner Reverend Robert Booker. Booker was born in 1927 in Jackson, Mississippi. In the late 1940s he moved to New Orleans to work for his mother who had opened a restaurant in New Orleans. Booker also started singing in a local R&B band and he founded a female gospel group, the Booker Gospel Singers who made their recording debut on Atlantic in 1953. They also had releases on Tye, Goldband and Central in the first half of the sixties. In the late sixties or early seventies the Booker singers had a release on Robert Booker's own Booker label.
In 1962 he joined Elgin Hychew in forming Invicta Records. Invicta's headquarters were at 710 South Rampart Street, New Orleans. In 1963 Rev. Robert Booker started his Booker label as a subsidiary of Invicta. Hychew folded Invicta a few years later and Booker was out on his own. In the beginning he released mainly R&B, but after a religious conversion, Booker only released gospel. Some of the earliest releases on Booker were recorded at the J&M studio. From the late sixties/early seventies Booker operated a small studio with only the bare recording equipment essentials from the basement of his home. Booker took his equipment on 'the road' to cut live recordings at local churches. Booker recorded and pressed 500 records for about $ 110,-. The Booker label was in business between the late sixties to the mid eighties.
The best known artists on the Booker label is Reverend Charlie Jackson whose Booker recordings have been anthologized by CaseQuarter on CD. Most of our information about the Booker label is based on the linernotes that came with the Rev. Charlie Jackson CD.
The discography is in numerological order, because we still haven't figured out the chronological order. We have included the secular release on Booker (marked with *) and the releases on Invicta that fit in the Booker numerological system. All additions to the discography are highly appreciated.
| Fifty Golden Voices Of St. Francis DeSales Catholic Church | Jesus keep me near the cross | Booker 03 (EP) | ||
| I need Thee | Booker 03 (EP) | |||
| Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost | Booker 03 (EP) | |||
| Forgive me Lord | Booker 03 (EP) | |||
| Wasn't that a mighty day | Booker 03 (EP) | |||
| I am a pilgrim | Booker 03 (EP) | |||
| Caravan No 2 of Zachary | I shall not be moved | Booker 06 | 1970 | |
| Trouble in my way | Booker 06 | |||
| Rev. Charlie Jackson | Fix it Jesus | Booker 07 | 1970 | |
| God's got it | Booker 07 | |||
| Dr. G.R. Washington Sr. | The Gospel Transforming Grace | Booker 11 (LP) | ||
| Ike Gordon | Don't let the devil ride | Booker 102 | ||
| By the grace of the Lord | Booker 102 | |||
| Isaac Haney | I've learned how to lean and depend on Jesus | Booker 104 | ||
| Make the devil leave me alone | Booker 104 | |||
| Pastor Rev. M.L. Easley | The simplicity of salvation | Booker 105 (LP) | ||
| John Lee | It will be so wonderful | Booker 203 | ||
| It's harvest time | Booker 203 | |||
| Greater Bright Morning Star B.C. Radio Choir | There is nothing like the spirit of the Lord | Booker 204 | ||
| Help me stay on the road till I get home | Booker 204 | |||
| Rev. Freddie Dunn | Dunn in action for Jesus (part 1) | Booker 205 | ||
| Dunn in action for Jesus (part 2) | Booker 205 | |||
| Zion Harmonizers | I can hear my savior calling | Booker 206 | ||
| God will take care of you | Booker 206 | |||
| Rev. G.A. Beachman | Prayer of Rev. G.A. Beachman | Booker 207 | ||
| Teenage Choir of Old Zion B.C | King of kings | Booker 207 | ||
| * | Chuck Johnson | Our little world | Booker 301 | |
| The way you treat me | Booker 301 | |||
| Booker Singers | I stepped in the water one day | Booker 302 | ||
| We need to pray | Booker 302 | |||
| Rev. J.L. Strauther | Just as I am (part 1) | Booker 308 | ||
| Just as I am (part 2) | Booker 308 | |||
| John Lee | It's harvest time | Booker 309 | ||
| It will be so wonderful | Booker 309 | |||
| Rev. Cleveland Williams | I wonder (part 1) | Booker 401 | ||
| I wonder (part 2) | Booker 401 | |||
| Rev. Cleveland Williams | Use me Lord (part 1) | Booker 403 | ||
| Use me Lord (part 2) | Booker 403 | |||
| Booker Singers & Doris Womble | The Lord is my shepherd | Booker 406 | ||
| I bowed on my knees | Booker 406 | |||
| Rev. Jerry Jerkins & Mrs Jerkins | I've been bucked Lord | Booker 408 | ||
| We need more of Jesus and less rock and roll | Booker 408 | |||
| Bro. Isaac Haney | The songs they sang when I got converted (pt 1) | Booker 409 | ||
| The songs they sang when I got converted (pt 2) | Booker 409 | |||
| Premium Fortenberry | The Lord will make a way | Booker 410 | ||
| I don't know why | Booker 410 | |||
| Rev. James Landrum | Jesus paid it all (pt 1) | Booker 411 | ||
| Jesus paid it all (pt 2) | Booker 411 | |||
| Bro. Isaac Haney | At a time like this (pt 2) | Booker 412 | ||
| At a time like this (pt 1) | Booker 412 | |||
| Sis. Juliet Chesterfield Kimp | He's done so much for me | Booker 415 | ||
| He never has left me alone | Booker 415 | |||
| Bro. Isaac Haney | I'm wrapped up in Jesus | Booker 417 | ||
| I've got something to tell Jesus | Booker 417 | |||
| Bro. Isaac Haney | Last of evil days | Booker 422 | ||
| I got religion | Booker 422 | |||
| Alberta Harris | Amazing grace | Booker 423 | ||
| Lord help me to carry on | Booker 423 | |||
| Chappell Gospel Team | Somebody there | Booker 433 | ||
| Let Jesus lead you | Booker 433 | |||
| Rev. Charlie Jackson | Wrapped up and tangled up in Jesus | Booker 434 | 1970 | |
| Morning train | Booker 434 | |||
| * | J.J. Wallace | True love was never meant for me | Booker 500 | |
| Looking for Lee | Booker 500 | |||
| * | Guitar Ray | Keep on trying | Invicta 501 | |
| Little red spinning wheel | Invicta 501 | |||
| * | Chuck Johnson | Elephant fair | Invicta 502 | |
| For the love of heaven | Invicta 502 | |||
| * | Katherine Holt | Scratch | Booker 504 | |
| Tired of crying | Booker 504 | |||
| * | Robert Parker | Let's do the thing | Booker 506 | |
| The laughing monkey | Booker 506 | |||
| * | Yvonne Williams | I just told the blues goodbye | Booker 507 | |
| Nursery rhymes | Booker 507 | |||
| * | Chuck Johnson | Put down that gun | Invicta 509 | |
| Trying hard to forget | Invicta 509 | |||
| * | Katherine Holt | Bad luck and trouble | Booker 510 | |
| My love | Booker 510 | |||
| Rev. Solomon Blade | God shall wipe all tears away | Booker 601 (EP) | ||
| We shall walk through the streets of the city | Booker 601 (EP) | |||
| Premium Fortenberry | All of God's children got shoes | Booker 603 | ||
| Traveling shoes | Booker 603 | |||
| Missionary Mamie Sample | Prayer changes conditions | Booker 604 | ||
| This may be my last time singing | Booker 604 | |||
| Alberta Harris | Precious Lord | Booker 607 | ||
| If you miss me from singing | Booker 607 | |||
| Alberta Harris | Mean old Jews who crucify my Lord | Booker 75 | ||
| Amaze and grace | Booker 75 | |||
| Premium Fortenberry | I've been singing to long, I can't stop now (pt 1) | Booker 801 | ||
| I've been singing to long, I can't stop now (pt 2) | Booker 801 | |||
| King Sisters and Brothers of New Orleans | I'm on the road to see my Lord | Booker 802 | ||
| I've got His word | Booker 802 | |||
| Bro. Ike Gordon | I gave up all I had to serve the Lord | Booker 805 | 1973 | |
| My eternal home | Booker 805 | |||
| Rev. Charlie Jackson | I gave up all I had | Booker 806 (EP) | 1973 | |
| Testimony of Rev. Charlie Jackson | Booker 806 (EP) | |||
| What a time | Booker 806 (EP) | |||
| Something to think about | Booker 806 (EP) | |||
| Willa Mae Brown | A charge to keep | Booker 901 (EP) | ||
| I love to tell the story | Booker 901 (EP) | |||
| Joseph Davis | God specialises (pt 2) | Booker 902 | ||
| God specialises (pt 1) | Booker 902 | |||
| Sis. Frances Jackson | Jesus will share all of my burdens | Booker 1101 | 1975 | |
| Way over yonder | Booker 1101 | |||
| Rev. Charlie Jackson | The goodness of God (pt 2) | Booker 1102 | 1975 | |
| The goodness of God (pt 1) | Booker 1102 | |||
| Bro. Albert Jackson | Strange things happening in this land | Booker 1105 | ||
| Willing to run | Booker 1105 | |||
| Cavalcade of Gospel Stars | Give an account of your sins | Booker 1108 (EP) | ||
| This little light of mine | Booker 1108 (EP) | |||
| We need to go back | Booker 1108 (EP) | |||
| Long as I got Jesus | Booker 1108 (EP) | |||
| Bro. Leroy & Sis. Julia Doyle of New York | God is going to move in every city one of these days | Booker 1116 (EP) | ||
| I'll go | Booker 1116 (EP) | |||
| Where could I go but to the Lord | Booker 1116 (EP) | |||
| I feel good | Booker 1116 (EP) | |||
| Through it all | Booker 1116 (EP) | |||
| John Lee & Mabel Rasborne | It's harvest time | Booker 1500 (EP) | ||
| Our father prayer | Booker 1500 (EP) | |||
| It will be so wonderful | Booker 1500 (EP) | |||
| In the sweet by and by | Booker 1500 (EP) |
Contributor:
- Peter Hoogers