Label Guide: President

President Records is a British independent label with roots that can be traced back to The Edward Kassner Music Co., a music publishing company founded in 1944 by Jewish immigrant Edward Kassner and his wife Eileen. Kassner opened an office in New York City in 1951, and his company held rights to songs by Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, or Nat King Cole, and most famously Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock", which became one of the most recorded songs of all time.

A first but unsuccessful incarnation of President Records was founded in 1955 in the United States, followed by Kassner's own Seville Records in 1961. Shortly after, Kassner decided to reactivate the President label, reportedly inspired by the memory of John F. Kennedy after his assassination, and the new President label was launched in 1966 in the United Kingdom. It is still in business today.