Episode 2580: Jay King ~ GRAMMY® Award Balloted Platinum Music Label Owner, Producer, Songwriter, Vocalist on Biz Music Ownership & Economic Success

GRAMMY® Balloted Club Nouveau, Timex Social Club

Grammy Award Balloted singer and music label executive, Jay King, was elected CEO/President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) in June of 2019.

GRAMMY® Award Balloted Jay King/Club Nouveau's music & samples have been featured in many TV & Film Soundtracks including the #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele!

This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade.

As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area’s cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940’s—‘The S.K. Blues’—adding to the musical backdrop of King’s childhood.

 In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors’ and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he’d produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn’t reach out to stores, and social media didn’t exist then so you couldn’t let people know with a click of a button that you had something out. You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label.

Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy’ and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain’. After ‘Jealousy’ went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9’ (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me’ was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year.

Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hit makers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more.

The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music!

© 2025 All Rights Reserved

© 2025  Building Abundant Success!!

Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS

Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba

Amazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBAS

Audacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud