Everything about Liberty Records totally explained
Liberty Records was a
United States-based
record label. It was started by chairman
Simon Waronker in
1955 with
Alvin Bennett as president and
Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in
2001 in the
United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.
History
In
1957, Liberty acquired the
jazz label,
Pacific Jazz Records. In
1963, the Liberty Records label was sold to
Avnet (an
electronics corporation) for
$12 million. Avnet also bought
Blue Note Records,
Imperial Records,
Dolton Records,
Aladdin Records and
Minit Records. After two years of losses, Avnet sold the labels back to Al Bennett for $8 million. In
1966, a reissue label,
Sunset Records, was started to deal with previously issued records from the new labels. Liberty recordings were first distributed in
England by
Decca Records on
London Records, then by
EMI, which released the recordings on the Liberty label. Liberty established a branch office in
London, which signed acts such as the
Bonzo Dog Band,
Idle Race and
The Anysley Dunbar Retaliation with little success. Liberty also signed
The Searchers for a short time in 1968 and in 1967 they issued the first single by
Family.
Ron Kass, onetime president of Liberty Records, later became the head of the
Beatles' record label,
Apple Records.
In
1968, Liberty was bought for $38 million by
Transamerica Corporation (an insurance company) and combined with their other label
United Artists Records. Transamerica was unfamiliar with the
recording industry; Alvin Bennett was fired after six months and things evolved from bad to worse. The company shut down Dolton and transferred Dolton's artists to Liberty; later they shut down Imperial and Minit and transferred their artists to Liberty. Finally, in
1971, all releases were shifted to United Artists Records and Liberty Records was no more.
In
1978,
Artie Mogull and
Jerry Rubinstein acquired United Artists and Liberty Records (with money they borrowed from
Capitol Records). In February of
1979, Capitol's parent company
EMI foreclosed on them and has
owned the rights of the Liberty labels since then.
1980s
In
1980, EMI dropped the United Artists name and revived the Liberty name. Initially, EMI used Liberty to reissue the United Artists, Liberty and Imperial catalogues. From
1980 until
1984, Capitol used Liberty as a
country label, featuring such artists as
Kenny Rogers. In
1992, EMI renamed its
Capitol Nashville Records label to Liberty Records (featuring
Garth Brooks and
Anne Murray), before switching back to the Capitol Nashville name three years later. Capitol manages the catalogues of Liberty and its associated labels today.
Liberty Records in the 2000s in the United Kingdom
After releasing many late-
1990s Europop records like the
Hermes House Band, EMI reformatted the label in
2001 to focus on '
heritage acts'. The label, now operating in a similar sphere to that of rival
Sanctuary, signed a number of acts, such as
The Alarm MMVI and
Prefab Sprout.
Liberty Records artists
Further Information
Get more info on 'Liberty Records'.
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