Editing Bullet Records (section)

==Bullet Records, Nashville, 1946-1952==
[[File:WildManBoogie.jpg|right|thumb|Wild Man Boogie by Ray Bates, Bullet Records #754]]
The earliest Bullet Records was a [[record label]] based in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], United States, which was started in 1946 by Jim Bulleit and C.V. Hitchcock.<ref name=Kingsbury>{{cite book|last=Kingsbury|first=Paul|title=The Encyclopedia of Country Music: The Ultimate Guide to the Music|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517608-7|pages=65}}</ref> Bulleit was an early partner in [[Sun Records]]. Its only national hits were by orchestra leader [[Francis Craig]].  The pop hit "[[Near You]]" made in early 1947<ref name="Johnny Dee on disc">{{cite magazine|magazine=Billboard|date=1 April 1967|volume=13|issue=79|issn=0006-2510}}</ref> was a monster, topping the charts for seventeen weeks and having a chart run of twenty-five weeks.  Craig also made the charts at #3 with "Beg Your Pardon", but no further hits were forthcoming.<ref name=pm>Pop Memories 1890-1954. Joel Whitburn. 1986. Record Research Inc. p. 232. {{ISBN|0-89820-083-0}}</ref> Despite these hits, the label was known for country music artists such as Boots Woodall's Radio Wranglers, who also recorded for [[Capitol Records]], and Southern Gospel artists such as the Rangers Quartet and Speer Family.   The label also recorded blues singer and pianist [[Cecil Gant]].<ref name="AMG">{{cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p21598|pure_url=yes}} |title=Biography by Bill Dahl |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=1 June 2009}}</ref> In 1949 they released [[B. B. King]]'s first commercial single, "Miss Martha King".<ref name=Kostelanetz>{{cite book|last=Kostelanetz|first=Richard|title=The B.B. King reader: 6 decades of commentary|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard|isbn=978-0-634-09927-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bbkingreader6dec00kost/page/6 6]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bbkingreader6dec00kost/page/6}}</ref><ref>[http://www.bluesaccess.com/No_37/bb_talk.html ''Blues Access'' Interview by Wayne Robins (Spring 1999) – Accessed 16 April 2011]</ref> Too much money was spent in hope of repeating the success of Francis Craig's "Near You" and the label was in trouble by 1949. Jim Bulleit sold out to his share to Hitchcock in February of that year.  The label limped on for a few years but was out of business by 1952.<ref>{{cite book |title= The American Record Label Directory and Dating Guide, 1940-1959|last= Gart|first= Galen|year= 1989|publisher= Big Nickel Publications|location= Milford, New Hampshire|isbn= 0-936433-11-6|pages= 36–37}}</ref>

The Bullet, Sur-Speed and Delta catalogs were purchased by Bluesland Productions in the mid-1990s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://victorynetwork.org/PioneerMusicMan.html|title=A Pioneer Music Man Crossed Over The Mountain!|website=victorynetwork.org|access-date=2017-12-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512042708/http://victorynetwork.org/PioneerMusicMan.html|archive-date=12 May 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}}