Liberty Records is a record label based in the United States. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in Great Britain and had two previous revivals.
Video Liberty Records
Histori
1950-an
Liberty's original release focused on film and orchestral music. His first single was Lionel Newman's "The Girl Upstairs." His first major blow, in 1955, by Julie London sang the torch song version, "Cry Me a River", which climbed to No. 1. 9 on Billboard Hot 100. This helped sell her first Liberty album, Julie Is Her Name . He recorded 32 albums in his career.
In 1956 Liberty signed the little-known Henry Mancini. They released two singles and several albums for him, but he went away in 1959 when he gained popularity. Billy Rose and Lee David's songs, Tonight You Belong to Me, scored 4 (US) and number 28 (England) as did the Patience and Prudence teenage (McIntyre), selling over a million copies. (It was first recorded in 1927, revived by Frankie Laine in 1952.)
Their biggest rock and roll artist is Eddie Cochran, who recently starred in his second film, <<> Youth Untamed. His first hit for the label was John D. Loudermilk "Sittin 'in the Balcony" in 1957, then appeared "Summertime Blues" and "C'mon Everybody".
The label is also home to veteran R & amp; B Billy Ward and his Domino after Jackie Wilson quit, replacing him with former Lark Eugene Mumford. They hit the 1927 song Hoagy Carmichael, "Stardust" - already recorded by many artists - who rode the pop charts for 24 weeks and reached number 13 on Hot 100. The song also reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart in October 1957. It became their only million sellers.
In 1958, Liberty nearly went bankrupt when singer-songwriter David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) assured them that they might also hit their novelty single "Witch Doctor" with pucks and leftover vinyl labels in their warehouse. The song became the number 1 hit and saved the company. Later that year, Bagdasarian incorporated multi-track recording with the modified speed technique he used in "Witch Doctor" and introduced Chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, in "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Do not Be Late)". (The Chipmunks are named after Liberty execs Bennett, Waronker and Keep respectively.) In just a few months before Christmas in 1958, the record dashed to the top of the charts. It became the only Christmas record to reach number 1 on the pop chart, selling 4.5 million copies. Liberty's future is guaranteed.
Other players who contribute greatly to the success of Liberty are pianist-bandleader Martin Denny, who influenced Polynesian jazz-lounge music that formed the genre known as "Exotica," after his first album for the label. His success led to a long series of similar albums by Denny to Liberty over the next decade.
In 1965 Liberty acquired Pacific Jazz Records, founded in 1952, which in 1957 formed the World Pacific label.
In 1958 Liberty formed a sublabel called Freedom Records that lasted until 1959.
In 1959 Liberty moved to an old address at 6920 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
1960s and 1970s
The most successful Liberty signing in the early 1960s was Bobby Vee. They took a recording of her single for Soma with her combo Shadows, "Suzie Baby" and stuck with her as a solo act. He covered ballads in 1955, "Devil or Angel" in mid-1960 and later that year recorded Gene Pitney's "Gene Ball" which made him an international star. In the summer of 1961 Vee got a big blow with "Take Good Care of My Baby", which reached number one (US) and number 3 (UK). He regularly has 100 Hot hits up to 1970.
Other major players include Willie Nelson, Jan and Dean, Johnny Burnette, Gene McDaniels, Del Shannon, Gary Lewis and Playboy, Timi Yuro and Vikki Carr.
Liberty's staff producer, Snuff Garrett, in addition to producing hits for many of the stars listed above, was also a huge success with a series of easy listening albums credited to "The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett." The group's name was sold to Sony before it was acquired by Tom Ficara and Gabungan Artis in 1997. The new version was made to this day under the Applause label.
In 1963, the label Liberty Records sold to Avnet (electronics company) for $ 12 million. Avnet also purchased Blue Note Records, Imperial Records, Dolton Records, Aladdin Records, and Minit Records. After two years of losses, Avnet sold the label back to Al Bennett for $ 8 million. In 1966 the re-label, Sunset Records, began handling previously issued records from a new label... one of the most famous jazz artists found on Sunset today is Eddie Harris, a Chicago-born saxophone who released a better collection than his well-known sax , called, The Explosive Eddie Harris (SUS-5234) - among other notes today are artists such as: Jimmy Reed (Something Else, SUS-5218), Les McCann ( Django , SUS-5214), Teddy Buckner ( Salute To Sachmo , SUS5204), Wild Bill Davis ( Flying House , SUS-5191) , Lester Young ( Giant of Jazz , SUS5181) and Chet Baker ( Swings Pretty , SUS5180)... released at the Liberty 'Sunset Records' office located at 6920, Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, CA, 90028.
The first Liberty footage was distributed in the UK by the Decca group on London Records, then by EMI on the new Liberty label. Liberty established a branch office in London, which signed acts such as Bonzo Dog Band, Idle Race and Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. After transferring the distribution to Philips Records in 1967, they returned to EMI in 1970. Liberty also signed the Searchers for a short time in 1968 and, in 1967, they released their first single by the Family. Ron Kass, former president of Liberty Records, then heads the record label The Beatles, Apple Records and Ron Bledsoe, Al Bennett's assistant, selected by Clive Davis to run Columbia Columbia Records branch.
In 1966 singer (and artist Imperial) Johnny Rivers started another Liberty branch, Soul City Records. The following year, Liberty stopped Dolton's label and moved the artist to the parent label. In 1967, Liberty Records signed the Canned Heat which had three major hit singles for the label.
In 1968, Liberty was purchased for $ 38 million by Transamerica Corporation (an insurance company) and merged with other United Artists Records label. Two years later they closed Imperial and Minit and transferred their artists to Liberty.
In 1970, Liberty acted Sugarloaf scored a top 10 hit in the United States with "Green-Eyed Lady", which reached number 3 on the Billboard chart. Sugarloaf will score again in 1975 with "Do not Call Us, We Will Contact You" (AS number 9).
Finally in 1971, Liberty and the remaining labels (with the exception of Soul City whose name was retained by its owner Johnny Rivers and its catalog sold to Bell Records and Blue Note Records) were transferred to United Artists Records and Liberty Records no more.
In 1978 Artie Mogull and Jerry Rubinstein acquired United Artists Records and Liberty Records (with the money they borrowed from Capitol Records which, ironically, was originally to be named Liberty Records before changing the name before the establishment). In February 1979, the parent company Capitol, EMI, confiscated and has owned the rights to the Liberty label ever since. Capitol Records (now Universal Music Group unit) manages the Liberty catalog today.
1980s and 1990s
In 1980, EMI dropped the name of United Artists and revived the name Liberty. Initially, EMI used Liberty to reissue the catalog of United Artists, Liberty and Imperial. From 1980 to 1984, Capitol used Liberty as a country music label, featuring artists such as Kenny Rogers and Dottie West and heavy metal band Manowar. In 1991, EMI renamed the Capitol Nashville label to Liberty Records, before returning to the name of Capitol Nashville four years later.
In 1994, Liberty Records President Jimmy Bowen also established a label for Liberty called Patriot Records, whose list included Bryan Austin, Lisa Brokop, John Berry, Deana Carter, John Bunzow and Noah Gordon. Berry was previously in Liberty, while other acts have just been signed. After the label closed in 1995, Berry, Brokop and Carter were transferred to the Nashville Capitol.
Liberty Notes in the 2000s in the United Kingdom
After releasing many Europop footage of the late 1990s such as the Hermes House Band, EMI reformat the label in 2001 to focus on 'inheritance'. The label, now operating within the same scope as rival and one-time rival labels, signed a number of actions, such as Alarm MMVI, Stranglers, British virtual/cartoon girl band VBirds and Prefab Sprout.
Current ownership
While the Liberty Records catalog is currently owned by the Capitol Records unit of Universal Music Group, the original British issues of Liberty Records by British acts such as Bonzo Dog Band are now controlled by the Parlophone unit of Warner Music Group.
Maps Liberty Records
Artist Liberty Records
See also
- Nocturne Records, merged with Liberty in 1955
- Pacific Jazz Records, acquired by Liberty in 1957
- List of record labels
References
External links
- Liberty Record Story
- "Liberty Records Industrial Film (ca. 1966)" on YouTube
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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