Ethel Gabriel

Ethel Nagy Gabriel (November 16, 1921 – March 23, 2021) was an American record producer and record executive with a four-decade career at RCA Victor. She produced over 2,500 music albums including 15 RIAA Certified Gold Records and hits by Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Al Hirt, Henry Mancini, and Roger Whittaker, among many others.

She was the first female record producer for a major label and the first female A&R producer in the industry. Gabriel was a trombonist in the Philadelphia Women's Symphony Orchestra from 1939 to 1940. She studied with Donald Reinhardt in Philadelphia and New York.

Gabriel graduated in 1943 from Temple University, where she studied music education. In 1940, Gabriel began her employment at RCA Victor in Camden, New Jersey while still in school to help pay tuition and living expenses. She also took some music and conducting courses at Columbia University between 1945 and 1948. When Gus Gabriel was hospitalized, Frank Sinatra sent autographed photos to all of the nurses to make sure he got the best care.

Gabriel died in Rochester, New York in March, 2021 at the age of 99.

Career at RCA Victor In 1940, a relative helped Gabriel gain employment at the RCA Victor plant in Camden, New Jersey. She began as a "finisher" working evenings. Her tasks were to affix labels to records, pack records for shipment She was then promoted to quality control as a record tester. Her job was to listen to one out of every 500 records for sound quality, check the label was correct and that the record had no scratches. She learned a lot about hit records, having had to listen to so many different styles and types of music.

Record producer Around 1959, Gabriel became head of the RCA Camden budget reissue label which was in danger of folding. Gabriel suspected that her boss, who was not in favor of women in the record industry, put her in charge of the moribund Camden label as a way to possibly force her out of RCA Victor. Gabriel went on to rejuvenate the Camden label and transform it within just a few years, into a multimillion-dollar label.

Gabriel convinced RCA Victor's vice-president, Manie Sacks, to sign Perez Prado to RCA Victor in the U.S. (most of Prado's earlier records were recorded in Mexico City for RCA Victor's Mexican division) and she produced Prado's biggest hit record "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White." The tune topped the charts for 10 weeks in 1955 and helped fire the Mambo craze in the United States.

Living Series In 1959, Gabriel created the RCA Camden "Living Strings" series of albums, which were easy listening instrumental string versions of popular tunes, earning a Grammy Award in 1968. Living Strings proved to be a popular series and enjoyed a 22-year run.

A&R representative Gabriel served as the A&R representative for several popular RCA Victor recording artists such as Perry Como, Cleo Laine, and Roger Whittaker. Gabriel also produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Henry Mancini, Harry Belafonte, Perez Prado, The Ames Brothers, Eddie Fisher, Jaye P. Morgan, Hugo Winterhalter, Henri René, The Three Suns, Mario Lanza, Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops Orchestra, Peter Nero, Sergio Franchi, Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka, Norma Jean, The Limeliters, Wilf "Montana Slim" Carter, Lana Cantrell, John Gary and several others, achieving top record sales for several of these artists.

Gabriel became vice-president in 1982 During the 1970s, Gabriel was the producer of the best-selling RCA Pure Gold and A Legendary Performer reissue series of albums. She was also executive producer of the first digitally-remastered album ever issued, Caruso: A Legendary Performer, issued in 1976 on the RCA Red Seal label, which was also the first collection of acoustic recordings to utilize the computer restoration process developed by Thomas Stockham of Soundstream.

In an interview with the New York Times in 1983, Gabriel said that the role of a record producer had changed. When she began her career, producers could propose which artists they wanted to record, the general concept and the recording itself. By the end of her career, those had mostly become corporate decisions. The producer was responsible for the budget, selection of material (determined with the artist), and details such as the album cover art. Living Voices: Angel in the Morning (Best Contemporary Performance by a Chorus, 1969)

Gabriel was on the Governor's Board of the Recording Academy's New York Chapter 1983–1986.

Gold records Gabriel produced fifteen gold records out of over twenty-five hundred releases to her credit. Eleven reissues in the RCA Pure Gold series received gold records as well as two platinum. Her Gold Record Awards for RCA included: Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music (CAS-660(e)) Henri Mancini - The Pink Panther Soundtrack (ANL1-1389) Elvis Presley - Pure Gold (ANL1-0971(e)) Roger Whittaker - The Last Farewell and Other Hits (AFL1-0853) The Best of Roger Whittaker (AFL1-2253) Larry Elgart - Hooked On Swing (AFL1-4343)

In 1997, she was honored by Women in Music Inc. at their Touchstone Awards in New York. She was awarded for being "First A&R Producer in the Industry" and for making a difference in the music industry.

In 2014, she was named to the Rochester Music Hall of Fame.