Photo credit: FindaGrave.com
By David Woolpy
Assistant Editor
The American Israelite is proud to announce Syd Nathan as one of its People of the Year, honored posthumously for a legacy that continues to shape American music — and Cincinnati — decades after his death.
Born in Cincinnati to Frieda and Nathaniel Nathan, Syd Nathan was a Jewish businessman who personified resilience, ingenuity, and a fiery independence of spirit. Poor eyesight and asthma forced him to leave school in ninth grade, but such limitations never constrained his ambition. Instead, they seemed to give him even greater drive. The crowning achievement of his professional life, Nathan founded King Records in 1943, building in Cincinnati one of the most influential independent record labels in American history.
At a time when the music industry was rigidly segregated — by race, genre, and geography — Nathan saw possibility where others saw risk. From a former icehouse on Brewster Avenue, King Records recorded, pressed, marketed and distributed music all under one roof. It was a revolutionary model that allowed the company to move quickly and independently, and it placed Cincinnati at the center of a musical crossroads.
King Records helped shape country and western music, rhythm and blues and ultimately rock and roll. The label recorded and promoted artists such as Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Little Willie John, the Stanley Brothers, Bill Doggett, Wynonie Harris and James Brown, whose career Nathan helped launch. Songs first recorded at King would later become standards, reinterpreted by artists from Elvis Presley to Eric Clapton.
But Nathan’s impact went beyond hits and charts. King Records was among the first racially integrated companies in the American recording industry, years ahead of its time. Nathan’s Jewish experience shaped his worldview. Having faced antisemitism himself, Nathan believed prejudice was rooted in ignorance, and he challenged it directly in many aspects of his work. In fact, King Record’s job applications famously asked whether prospective employees objected to working with people of different races, nationalities or religions. Those who answered “yes” were sometimes hired anyway — because Nathan believed proximity and shared purpose could change minds.
Nathan was not an easy man. He was loud, demanding, profane and famously blunt. Yet artists who worked with him often spoke of his loyalty, his instinct and his willingness to take chances when no one else would. James Brown later said plainly that without Syd Nathan, there would have been no James Brown.
By the 1960s, King Records had become one of the largest independent labels in the country, responsible for thousands of recordings and hundreds of hits. Nathan’s business practices were controversial at times, and his personality polarizing. But his vision was undeniable — and enduring.
After his death in 1968, Syd Nathan was largely overlooked in Cincinnati. That has changed. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and today his work is recognized as foundational to American popular music.
In honoring Syd Nathan as a Person of the Year, the American Israelite celebrates not only a pioneering music executive, but a Jewish son of Cincinnati whose life reminds us what determination, imagination and moral courage can achieve — especially when exercised far from the expected centers of power.
This recognition continues a series of People of the Year profiles to be featured in the next few weeks, honoring individuals whose lives and work have left a lasting imprint on our community and beyond.
As part of this tribute The American Israelite envisions the Jewish community of Cincinnati taking initiative to show their support for honoring the legacy of Syd Nathan by joining us in a movement to create a memorial museum for King Records.
