Bell Records (1950)

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The third record label to be called Bell Records was founded in 1954 in New York. This Bell Records went on to issue several hit singles, including, "I'm Your Puppet" by James and Bobby Purify in 1966,"The Letter" by The Box Tops in 1967 and "Angel Of The Morning" by Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts in 1968.

In the early 1960's, Larry Uttal purchased Bell, along with its subsidiary labels Amy Records and Mala Records. The three labels were merged into a single unit in 1969, retaining the Bell moniker. This company was then acquired by Columbia Pictures in 1969. Bell Records expanded when Columbia folded the assets of its RCA-distributed label, Colgems Records, into the newly purchased company. Uttal retained a portion of the company and remained as Bell's president. The expanded label issued recordings by The Partridge Family, and artists including The Fifth Dimension and Tony Orlando & Dawn.

When Uttal left the company in 1974, Clive Davis, who had become a consultant to Columbia Pictures for the company’s music operations, took over. By late 1974, Davis would merge the various Columbia legacy labels (Colpix Records, Colgems Records, and Bell) into a new entity named Arista Records, ultimately buying a percentage of the company from Columbia.

The very last releases by the company have the designation "Bell Records, Distributed by Arista Records, 1776 Broadway, New York, New York 10019."

In addition to the main label, Bell would distribute records for the following subsidiaries: Big Tree, Philly Groove, Aurora, Sphere Sound, Nite Life, DynoVoice, NewVoice, Page One, Carousel, and Rocky Road. Bell's reissue labels were Flashback (which continued after the Bell/Arista transformation), and Bell Gold (which briefly existed in the 70's).

Its foreign division, Bell Records (UK), would be responsible for releases by Gary Glitter, the Piglets, and others.