As important as the three wise men are to certain holiday lore are the two Weiss brothers to the independent record business in New York City during the '50s and '60s. Hailing from Romania, Sam Weiss and Hy Weiss moved to into Bronx as children. The latter, older brother eventually got into the record business toiling as a salesman for essential rhythm and blues labels including the up-to-date Modern, the singular Exclusive, the festive Jubilee, and the god-like Apollo.

Sam Weiss became essential to his brother during the process of negotiating East Coast distribution pacts for some of the aforementioned imprints which were located on the other side of the country. The brothers began the first of their own recording enterprises in the late '40s, choosing the name Parody as if aware that things were seriously not going to work out. Their next attempt, Old Town in the summer of 1953, became quite important in the development of doo wop as well rhythm and blues, blues, rock roll, gospel, soul, and jazz. These Weiss men were extremely open-minded when it came to genres, also putting out sides of folk, country, and pop material from a roster of artists that with few exceptions hailed from the New York City area.

Sam Weiss nabbed the label's name from the Old Town Paper Corporation, his employer at the time of the label's birthing. These Weiss guys then cleverly made use of this company's stationary for any and all correspondence, fooling their associates into thinking that the new record company had a fancy address on Madison Avenue. Both brothers figure into songwriting credits for material issued by Old Town, a fact that based on publishing and business procedures during this era should not lead anyone to conclude they actually did write any music. Dion's hit Life Is But a Dream is, for example, credited to the triumvirate of the Weiss brothers and Raoul Cita. Michael Weiss, son of Sam Weiss, has continued the family legacy in the music business with his Nervous imprint. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi