West End Records is known as one of the most innovative of the independent record labels that helped shepherd the sound of Disco from its mass commercial collapse in the late 70's to a rebirth in the early 80's as a key element of Garage and House. West End Records is closely identified with Paradise Garage, the legendary Dance club. Paradise Garage was opened by Michael Brody, partner of Mel Cheren, and West End Records released a number of mixes by legendary DJ Larry Levan. West End Records remains among the few key survivors of the Disco era. Today's West End Records works to preserve and promote the best of classic Garage and Disco while providing an outlet for new music by some of today's most talented artists and mixers.
West End Records was formed in the aftermath of the closing of Scepter Records, one of the key record labels in the earliest days of Disco. Mel Cheren and Ed Kushins were colleagues at Scepter. Committed to the development of Disco, the pair decided a new label was needed. West End Records was named after the location of their office - 254 W. 54th St. in Manhattan's West End. The original location of West End Records would later become Studio 54 and West End Records would move to W. 57th St. Cheren had been known as an innovator at Scepter having helped introduce the music industry to 12" singles and instrumental B-sides to singles.
After releasing a number of minor Disco hits, West End's first Disco smash appeared in 1978. Karen Young's frenetic Hot Shot sold nearly a million copies and topped the Disco chart. The same year Paradise Garage opened its doors. Mel Cheren, the head of West End Records, was the primary financial backer for Paradise Garage. Larry Levan's sets at Paradise Garage became a testing ground for recordings from West End, and Levan also lent his remixing talents for many releases on the label. Among Larry Levan's best-known projects for West End were the remixing of a new female vocal into his version of Loose Joints' Is It All Over My Face and his mix of the seminal Electro classic Don't Make Me Wait by the Peech Boys, a group he brought together himself in the studio.
Two other key figures in the West End Records story are producer/songwriter/executive Kenton Nix and vocalist Taana Gardner. In 1979 Kenton Nix recorded a test pressing of his song Work That Body without vocals and convinced Larry Levan to play it at Paradise Garage. Audience response was positive and Levan encouraged Nix to take the recording to West End Records. Along the way Nix met aspiring singer Taana Gardner and asked her to record vocals for the song. West End released the new vocal version of the record, and it became the first smash Disco hit for both Nix and Gardner. Kenton Nix was hired by the label as a producer and songwriter. He went on to produce and write many of West End Records' biggest releases. Nix and Gardner collaborated again in 1981 on Gardner's most enduring hit Heartbeat which sold over 800,000 copies.
By the mid-1980's West End Records status at the top of the Dance Music world began to fade. Paradise Garage closed its doors in 1987. West End Records quit releasing new recordings and entered a state of dormancy for over a decade. Mel Cheren returned to the label in the late 1990's and West End Records began releasing new recordings again. Successful singles have appeared by Taana Gardner, Linda Clifford, and others. The label also has a very active program of reissuing and remixing its catalog of classic recordings. West End Records has regained its status as a key player in preserving and promoting new and classic Dance music.