President Records is a British independent record label. It is one of the oldest independent record companies in the UK, originally launched in 1957 by Edward Kassner. During the 1960s and 1970s the label, and its subsidiary Jay Boy, had hits with artists including the Equals, George McCrae and KC & the Sunshine Band, Paintbox, and later focused on releasing back-catalogue compilations as well as occasional new albums by artists such as Robots In Disguise. President Records remains part of the Kassner Music Group. Beginnings President Records Inc, with which song publisher Edward Kassner became involved through one of his publishing contacts, was a record label founded on 6 June 1955 in the midst of the burgeoning independent music scene in New York. A corresponding British company was established by Kassner in May 1957, when he acquired the full company, initially to license some of the productions made in the name of the US company to major UK record labels such as Decca. Kassner launched his own Seville Records label in the US with the idea of publishing a song and recording it, thus keeping control of the record's destiny by releasing on an owned label. Seville Records scored hits in 1961 with "Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)", a song written and performed by Ernie Maresca, and in 1962 with "Bobby's Girl", written by two college students (Hank Hoffman and Gary Klein), a chart success for Marcie Blane in the US. After his initial success with Seville Records, Kassner revitalised the President label. The US release schedule followed with a series of rock'n'roll acts, notably Charlie Gracie and the Jodimars (formerly Bill Haley’s backing group, the publishing arm of Kassner Music having earlier bought rights to the song "Rock Around The Clock"). UK launch Encouraged by the success of Kassner Music’s publishing business with the signing of Ray Davies of the Kinks, the UK label, President Records Ltd., was launched in the summer of 1966 to pick up on the developing trend in the music business of popular groups and singers who wrote their own material, centring on the scene in London at the time. Early highlights of the UK label included harmony group the Symbols, who broke through with covers of "Bye Bye Baby" and "The Best Part of Breaking Up", and Felice Taylor, whose top 20 UK chart hit "I Feel Love Comin On", licensed in from US