The late Ray Caviano was the A&R man for T.K. Records and its offshoot Marlin during the peak 70's disco era signing Voyage, Kat Mandu and a slew of other artists. Caviano left T.K. in 1978 to become the Executive Director of Disco (dream job) at Warner Brothers Records. Warner gave him his own imprint RFC Records titled after his initials. Caviano executive produced many LP's and 12"s in the late 70's/early 80's for Warner/Atlantic and struck up a partnership with Quality Records in Canada with some notable releases from Jimmy Ross and A Number of Names amongst others. Today I am posting a few jams from the RFC/Atlantic stable circa '81-'83. All told, if you are out hunting for disco or boogie 12's and see the RFC imprint it's quite likely you will have a pretty decent cut on your hands.
Tomorrow's Edition - U Turn Me On
Prestige - Cheating
Suzy Q - Get On Up Do It Again
Attitude - We Got The Juice
Change - This Is Your Time
Great to hear that tomorrows edition tune again.
ReplyDeletethanks
baresi
Nice tribute to RFC, the man, through this varied selection. (And btw, in a few hours you may have to update the year at the bottom of your great blog) ......© Beat Electric 2008
ReplyDeleteThanks,Boo.
I was contacted by the children of Jimmy Ross to track down the money off 'First True Love Affair' and I came across many letters by JR, written at the time of his success. He was totally ripped off by Ray Caviano and literally left stranded in NYC. JR was eventually evicted from the U.S. and he got no support from RFC/Atlantic. Ray Caviano ran away with all of the money and he did that with nearly all the RFC artists. A visionary A&R man but a total rip off was this guy. I thought he lived in Florida now and didn't know he was dead... koenjanssens@onebox.com (Belgium)
ReplyDeletechange is so much <3
ReplyDeletethanks radd
-Melissa B
I visited Ray when he was in a correctional facility in upstate NY.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know how or when he died?
I guess he did die. When I heard back in the late 80's all the bad stuff i changed my phone number, he was one big lie, anyhow... Ripping everyone off - never got me! LOL!
ReplyDeleteHe was a big asshole like his borther Bob. Ray always was since i ran into him the first time in Boston when I was working with Warner Bros. in 1970 - he was in college radio stations and i was head of college promotions for Warner before i left to work with Alice Copper than on to 20th Century the rest is history....
Ray was bad news all round there were stories he told me about all the DJ's and the Record Pools how he used them all - he had no care for anyone but him self, better off dead!
Karma Ray!!!!
"One story - Jerry Wexler of Warner Bos. Records told me a few years ago (he past away this past October 2009) and said "I am so sorry Billy Smith I did not bring you in to work with me and i hired that fucking asshole Ray Caviano one of the biggest mistakes i ever made. I knew you since the Rascals days in 1965 and I wanted you to work for us than, i wish i did make you a offer."
Billy Smith
Wow, well that settles it.
ReplyDeleteYeah! He was in the "Express Lane" in his life here..... I understand that was his way of life... I did show him how to pormo disco and had a little voice in me that said don't do it, and i did it. Always listen to your inner voice.
ReplyDeleteLet me assure you Ray Caviano is NOT dead. The postings here on this blog are totally unfounded.
ReplyDeleteI assure you the guy is dead !
ReplyDeleteThe guy is dead! so get over it!
ReplyDeleteRay Caiviano is not dead I was with him recently and his new company RFC/Fresh is currently on fire with a release by long time house producer Lenny Fontana and James D Train Williams....Ray is FAR from dead!!
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