in 1947 leonard chess bought a label called aristocrat records. in 1950 leonard brought in his brother phil and they renamed tha label to chess records. the first release was "my foolish heart" b/w "bless you" by gene ammon, which became a hit. in 1952 they started checker records for radio play because the stations only played a limited number of songs from one label and in december 1955 the started argo records for jazz music. the first lp was produced in 1958.