Cooke, who was signed to RCA/Victor and running his own SAR Records imprint, was to act as a freelance A&R for Scepter, a label founded by Florence Greenberg.
Luther Dixon, who had been doing A&R for Scepter since the label’s early beginnings and started around 1959-60.
According to Scepter executives, Sam would start slow as and A&R and graduate into a full-time position scouting talent for the label.
On November 20, 1955, famed R&B singer Bo Diddley infuriated legendary TV personality Ed Sullivan, when he performed his song “Bo Diddley” instead of the planned number, “Sixteen Tons,” from his album Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger.
Bo Diddley wasn’t attempting to rile up the powerful Ed Sullivan, but he was caught between the wishes of his label, who wanted him to perform “Bo Diddley,” and Sullivan, who requested “Sixteen Tons.”
“I did two songs and he got mad,” Bo Diddley later recalled. “Ed Sullivan said that I was one of the first colored boys to ever double-cross him. Said that I wouldn’t last six months”.
