Abstract
The Hank Castro Music Business Records document Hank Castro's career in the music industry in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1969 to 1990. The bulk of the collection consists of original audio recordings from the Las Vegas Recording Studio. The collection also contains legal documents, personal correspondence, and promotional material related to the Las Vegas Recording Studio (1971-1985), songwriter agreements, and sheet music (the majority of the lyrics written by Hank Castro) from artists represented by the Las Vegas Recording Studio and Castro's other companies.
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Scope and Contents Note
The Hank Castro Music Business Records document Hank Castro's career in the music industry in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1969 to 1990. The bulk of the collection consists of original audio recordings from the Las Vegas Recording Studio. The collection also contains legal documents, personal correspondence, and promotional material related to the Las Vegas Recording Studio (1971-1985), songwriter agreements, and sheet music (the majority of the lyrics written by Hank Castro) from artists represented by the Las Vegas Recording Studio and Castro's other companies.
Access Note
Material is open for research. Use copies of the recordings do not exist, reformatting/production of use copies is required before access will be granted; this may delay research requests. Advanced notice is required.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Manuscript material is arranged topically. Audio tapes remain in original order.
Biographical / Historical Note
Hank Castro wrote lyrics and produced and engineered musical recordings during his career in Las Vegas, Nevada. Castro began his career in the music industry performing in Las Vegas nightclubs as a drummer in the duo act "Peter and Hank." Castro and Chips Davis founded the Las Vegas Recording Studio as a backyard operation for making song demos in 1967. Castro served as the studio manager and by 1971 the studio moved to a commercial space on Vegas Valley Drive. Sometime after 1977, the Las Vegas Recording Studio added two additional partners, Melvin and Sheila Godfrey. The Godfreys held 51.6% of the studio's stock. In February of 1985, Sheila sued Melvin for divorce. In the complaint, Sheila asked for her stock in the company to be cashed out and the records of the Las Vegas Recording Studio end after 1985. In addition to the music recording business, Castro later administered three record labels, Entertainment Capital Records, Hey Babe Music (c. 1986), and Marquee records, and served as the president of three music publishing companies, Derby Music, Hankeychip Music (c. 1982), and Ru-Dot-To Music. Castro also served as a partner, producer, and consultant of musical talent for D'Angelo IV Productions (1990).
Preferred Citation
Hank Castro Music Business Records, 1969-1990. MS-00612. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated by Stan Hall in 2006; accession number 2006-011. Materials were collected by the director of the Arnold Shaw Popular Music Research Center and transferred to Special Collections.
Processing Note
Material was processed by Joyce Moore in 2006. In 2014, as part of a legacy finding aid conversion project, Hannah Robinson wrote a collection description and entered the data into ArchivesSpace. In 2016, Joyce Moore added the audio tape recordings.
Administrative Information
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Storage Location
All audio tapes are stored in the Lied Automated Storage and Retrieval Unit (LASR). Advanced notice may be required to access these materials.
Appraisal Note
15 audiotape reels that were unsalvageable due to conservation issues were removed from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries Special Collections and Archives' holdings. Please contact speccoll.techserv@unlv.edu for more information.