Donna Album Discography
In 1960, Keane signed Seattle-based singer Ron Holden, whose quasi-calypso "Love You So" backed
by the Thunderbirds was making some chart headway in his home city on the small Nite Owl label [Nite
Owl 10]. Keane quickly reissued it on Donna 1315, pushing it nationally starting in March, 1960, the song
eventually reaching #7. The flip, the rocking "My Babe," a song created almost spontaneously in the
studio, has also maintained popularity over the years. Keane had Holden record an album also called
Love You So [Donna DLP-2111], and experimented with recording it and releasing it in stereo.
When the album sold sluggishly, and the followup, "Gee, But I'm Lonesome" [Donna 1524], only reached
#106 in the summer that year, Keane stopped pressing the expensive stereo copies of the album after a
short production run and used up the remaining mono copies in the stereo jackets. Holden never had
another Hot 100 hit, but continued his singing career for years afterwards.
Bob Keane picked up another couple of masters in 1960 that proved successful the next year. The first, "Gift of Love" by the Van Dykes, a New York vocal group, didn't chart nationally on its original label [Spring 1113], but when Keane reissued it in late 1960 on Donna 1333, it reached #91. A better find was the Pentagons' "To Be Loved (Forever)" [Fleetwood International 100]. The Pentagons were a smooth vocal group made up of two pair of brothers out of San Bernadino, California. "To Be Loved" reached #48 in the spring of 1961 on Donna 1337, but their followup, "I Like The Way You Look" [Donna 1344] failed. Later in 1961, the group recorded for the Philadelphia-based Jamie label, and scored with "I Wonder (If Your Love Will Ever Belong To Me)" [Jamie 1291, #84], the latter a delightful neo-doo-wop recorded in stereo.
In mid-1962, Keane found a latin group called the Velveteens, and recorded two of their singers, Paul "Rene" Venezuela and Ray Quinones (as Rene & Ray) with the song "Queen of My Heart" [Donna 1360], which was backed vocally by the rest of the Velveteens. It made it to #79 nationally, reaching the top 40 in some cities such as Chicago.
That was it for chart hits for the Donna label, although not for lack of talent. Among the other artists were Brenda Holloway, The Gallahads, Bruce Johnston [later of the Beach Boys], the Rocky Fellers, and Ronnie & The Pamona Casuals. Even the Bobby Fuller Four had a single on Donna.
In 1965, Bob Keane decided to discontinue Donna Records and started a replacement label, Mustang Records. In the 1990s, Del-Fi has reissued several new CDs on the Donna label, using both a continuation of the 2100 series and a 70000 series.
