ITP Records was formed in 1996 by Alan Beck. Realizing that record companies across the nation had ignored the majority of the top urban/R&B soul groups and individual artists who recorded between 1960 and 1984, Beck set out to change this trend.

After establishing the Pacific Concert Group in 1992 as a company to promote R&B classic soul concerts, Beck began to meet, book and interact with many of the legendary recording artists of the 60's, 70's and 80's. "There was a mutual desire shared by all the artists to record new music and to see that their old music was still being released to the public". After seeing and hearing many of these acts up close on his shows, Beck realized that the majority of the artists still had their vocal skills and abilities, and in many cases sounded just as good, if not better, then they did in back in the day.

“There was another side of the concerts made obvious to me,” Beck remembers. “I knew that when you have 8,000-10,000 excited fans at a concert they will want to leave with music and memorabilia from the artists they are seeing perform. People would come up to the merchandise booths and ask, 'do you have any new and old recordings available ?" So initially I would go out and purchase album compilations, buying music from other lables to sell at the venues. Then I hired Chicano artists to draw cover art for T-shirts so we could expand the items to sell."

As a result of promoting live 'R&B Oldies concerts , Alan soon realized that this era of music was being ignored in the recording studios and many of the rare 'original musical recordings' of these 60's, 70's and even 80's artists was sitting on the shelves and in tape vaults and not being marketed directly to the public. "Rhino Records did an amazing job on their reissues but there was still another niche that they had not captured No doubt the "A" sides or common songs were readily available by these artists but all of them had a “B” side catalogue that was of great interest to me and the collectors that was not so available".

“It was obvious that a record label needed to be a part of my organization. Because the big labels were ignoring these “B” sides which I trademarked ,' Underground Oldies', I started researching and licensing masters from labels and also purchased masters from the smaller labels who saw little value of these more rare oldies. At the same time I wanted to start recording and capturing the history of the groups in the studio so I made offers to performers like Barbara Lynn ,Bloodstone, Gene Chandler, Barbara Lewis and others to start recording again!. It was important to me to own the recordings and not just license masters from existing record labels. When we recorded, we used live musicians and we tried to keep the sound true to the oldies. In addition we allowed the artists to put one or tow new tunes to test the waters.”

One of the most often questions asked of this label is what do the initials I.T.P. stand for? Back in the day, during the 1950's and 60s musicians used to listen to music and come up with one of two conclusions. Either the music was "In The Pocket" meaning that the music sounded right, or the music was "Out Of Pocket" and the music sounded wrong. If it was "right" the session was completed and pressed to vinyl. If it was "wrong" the entire 'take' was re-recorded. This form of evaluating the quality of the music was so prevalent in the R&B world that it was the highest compliment to tell any label, producer or artist that their music was "In The Pocket.” “So, being that the goal of this label is to produce and compile only the very best sounding music, the name "In The Pocket Records" or "I.T.P. Records" was chosen,” he volunteers.

To also promote the music of ITP, and other rare soul, Alan started the 'Underground Oldies Radio Show" which can be heard in various markets on Sunday's(see home page for more details). "When the time is right, I will expand the radio show but for now the focus is still on live concerts and on keeping the Oldies Alive!!

In 2006, the label issued vintage masters of its first Spanish record by Johnny Martinez, a Salsa icon from the 1970s. “I bought his catalog along with some rare recordings of "Tierra". We re-released this music and also issued a Joe Bataan album called the "Message". It was important for the label build a catalogue of 'Latin Soul' which has been a big seller at our 'Chicano Soul Legends' Concerts. Also on the Latin recordings is MC Blvd, is a longtime artist on ITP, who charted with ‘I Remember You Homie.’ He's the sole reason that the label also veered into Christian Music which has been as strong seller for the label and has sent a positive message through the lyrics to the youth who are big supporter's of our label and concerts."

The label also acquired Northern Soul masters and publishing from the Renfro Catalogue and soul masters and publishing from Dore Records which includes the Grammy Nominated comedy recordings of "Hudson and Landry", "Jim Backus" and Victor Buono". Initially the ITP label was something for a regional market. But now the catalogue has national appeal. “The internet has played an important role for us reaching buyers world wide. And we are very diversified with our distribution.” We are also reaching the Japanese and European markets and in doing so have issued live concert footage, a 3 hour DVD called "Super Soul Legends" with the hope to issue a lot more of this great live footage sitting in the ITP vaults!!!!"

Alan Beck has also established publishing divisions augmenting his recording endeavors. Hymie Gropo Music is the BMI publishing company, and an ASCAP affiliation, Harold Clark Music. Both companies are a nod to Beck’s favorite TV series, “Get Smart.”