RAK Records – Nostalgia Central

After starting his musical career as one of The Most Brothers, Mickie Most graduated to become one of the world’s leading record producers and pop entrepreneurs with his own successful label – RAK Records,

Most’s production success began in the 1960s with groups such as The Animals and Herman’s Hermits, and solo stars including Lulu and Donovan.

In 1969, he founded RAK Records and hired the prolific Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman as the label’s in-house writers and producers.

The name “RAK” originated from Most’s initial idea to set up racks of albums for sale in non-traditional distribution venues like supermarkets and garages.

Renowned for its clinical precision in churning out commercial pop and glam rock hits during the 1970s and early 1980s, the label sold more than 60 million records worldwide and enjoyed five #1 singles in the UK: Can the Can (1973) and Devil Gate Drive (1974) with Suzi Quatro, and Tiger Feet (1974), Lonely This Christmas (1974) and Oh Boy (1975) with Mud.

Describing his song-production method as “find good songs, go in the studio, make good records and go home”, Most oversaw hits from a host of Britain’s biggest pop acts, including Hot Chocolate, Smokie, Kenny, Arrows, New World, Racey and Kim Wilde.

RAK (which used an illustration of Mickie Most’s yacht on the label) was licensed to EMI, which finally bought the company and its catalogue from Most in 1983. He retained RAK Studios in St John’s Wood, London, which remains one of the UK’s most famous state-of-the-art recording spaces.

Most died at home on 30 May 2003 of mesothelioma (cancer caused by exposure to asbestos), aged 64.