BIOGRAPHY

Fred Frank, nominated for four Grammy Awards, has a gold and platinum track record of over 20 million records in his thirty-five years in the record business. Fred is well-known in the industry, with eight years under his belt as Head of Promotion for Epic Records. Before the beginning of MTV, Fred left Epic to found Record-On-Film, a company which produced the first original music videos, with over 100 film clips of R&B, rock and roll and gospel musicians such as Sly Stone, Chicago, Bobby Vinton, Tony Orlando, Donovan and B.J. Thomas. Fred thereafter accepted an executive position at Scepter Records where he activated his own label, Roadshow Records.

Even though Fred has been featured on the cover of Esquire Magazine, Billboard Magazine, and the original Cashbox, one of his greatest honors was being presented the Louis Armstrong Memorial Award for Racial Harmony in Sports & Music. He was co-recipient with George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees.

Billboard awarded Fred and Florence Greenberg of Scepter Records the Disco Label of The Year Award in 1975 for B.T. Express' Platinum Single (Do It ‘Til You’re Satisfied.) Fred then joined Artie Mogul at United Artists, where he released his next platinum album by Brass Construction (Movin' and Changin') followed by Enchantment (Gloria and It’s You That I Need.)

Fred has worked with many great vocalists such as Tina Turner and the late Phyllis Hyman who was signed to his label, and signed Shirley Caesar to his Roadshow /UA label. He established the title for her as the "First Lady” of Gospel. As Executive Producer, along with Michael Stokes as producer, Fred completed two albums for Shirley. Their first, appropriately entitled “First Lady,” is considered by the industry to be one of the greatest gospel releases of all time.

In 1978, Fred purchased the Scepter /Hob/Wand Catalog, one of the largest traditional gospel catalogs in existence. Fred also produced a pilot for the gospel television show, World’s Greatest Gospel (“WGG-TV.”) and was aired on the Sunshine Network.

In the early nineties, in his search for talent, Fred discovered a young rap group called The Chill Deal Boys, which included two young producers, Jay McGowan and Nathaniel “C.C.” Orange. While under contract with him they went on to produce 95 South (Whoot, There It Is) and the 69 Boyz (Tootsee Roll), The Quad City DJs (C’mon and Ride It (The Train) and the title track to Michael Jordan's Space Jams -all gold and platinum albums.

Roadshow is one of the most sampled labels in the industry, from the big screen, to Television, and many hit records; which include movies such as The Show, Mo'Money, Rush Hour 2, The Fast and The Furious, Carlito’s Way, The Inkwell and The Nutty Professor and most recently, the dukes of hazard. Television shows such as HBO 's Real Sex, Fresh Prince of Bellaire, Northern Exposure, Martin, Bernie Mac and Desperate Housewives have also tapped into the Roadshow source. Some of the artists that have sampled the Roadshow Catalog include NWA (Straight Out Of Compton), Dr Dre (The Chronic), Coolio (It Takes a Thief) DMX (Get At Me Dog) Ludacris-Word Of Mouth (Area Codes), Kid Rock, and most recently Janet Jackson's (Damita Jo.) Outside the USA the samples continued with Phats & Small(Feel Good),and The Chemical Brothers (Hey Boy, Hey Girl.)

Another great copyright from the Roadshow Catalog, The Roof Is On Fire, was sampled by the The Soca Boys(Follow The Leader,) and was a number one record in Europe and South America. Burger King also has used Roadshow's classic hit Do It (‘Til You’re Satisfied) by B.T. Express for a national TV commercial.