MIAMI — Henry Stone, a fixture on the R&B and disco scene who was instrumental in the careers of Ray Charles, James Brown and KC & the Sunshine Band, has died. He was 93.
Stone, a co-founder of the famed TK Records, died Thursday of natural causes at a Miami-area hospital, funeral home Riverside Gordon Memorial Chapels confirmed.
Stone opened a record-distribution business and recording studio in South Florida in 1948 and, within a few years, recorded his first artist, a pianist-singer from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind who would later become the legendary Ray Charles.
Stone’s hits were on TK Records, which he co-founded with Steve Alaimo in 1972, and similar labels he founded. They included: “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s the Way (I Like It),” “Shake, Shake, Shake (Shake Your Booty),” “I’m Your Boogie Man” for KC & the Sunshine Band, and “Ring My Bell” for Anita Ward, The Miami Herald reported.
Stone released Otis Williams and the Charms’ No. 1 R&B hit, “Heart of Stone,” in 1954. He was also instrumental in signing James Brown and the Famous Flames, earning the hit, “Please, Please, Please,” which topped the R&B list in 1956.
Stone’s love for music started as a teen when he played trumpet while growing up in an orphanage in Pleasantville, N.Y. During World War II, he served in the Army, played trumpet in a racially integrated band and developed an appreciation of what were called “race records.” Three decades later, the biggest payoff of his career came with the racially integrated KC & the Sunshine Band.