| ABC Records | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | American Broadcasting Company |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Status | Defunct (sold and absorbed into MCA Records in 1979) |
| Distributor(s) | Self-distributed |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | USA |
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company (then known as American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters). ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H. Clark. Am-Par also established the Impulse! jazz label in 1961 and subsequently acquired a number of other labels before the entire division was sold to MCA Records in 1979.
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ABC-Paramount (full name "American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters") -- the direct antecedent of the present-day American Broadcasting Company -- evolved from federal antitrust actions taken against the movie studios and broadcasting companies in the 1940s and early 1950s. As a result of a 1943 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) action against anti-competitive practices, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was forced to sell off its broadcast subsidiary the Blue Network, the sister network of NBC, and Blue was purchased by the American Broadcasting System, Inc. In 1953 American Broadcasting merged with United Paramount Theaters, the divested former exhibition/cinema division of Paramount Pictures. The newly merged corporation was chaired by former Paramount Theaters executive Leonard Goldenson and was originally headquartered at 1501 Broadway in New York City, above the Paramount Theater in Times Square.[1]
In addition to producing records directly, ABC licensed finished masters from independent producers and purchased regionally-released records for national distribution. The corporate name of Am-Par Record Corporation was changed to ABC-Paramount Records, Inc. in 1962, and then to ABC Records, Inc. in 1967. Paramount would form their own label, Paramount Records, which would operate until 1974 where it would be absorbed back into ABC Records.
In 1965, Clark was promoted to vice-president in charge of AB-PT's non-broadcast operations and national sales manager Larry Newton was named ABC-Paramount president.[2] The label was officially renamed ABC Records in 1966.[3] They distributed Dunhill Records until this label was purchased under Newton to form ABC-Dunhill Records.[4] They also distributed 20th Century Fox Records, Sire Records and UK-based Anchor Records. In 1970, ABC-Dunhill moved its headquarters to Los Angeles[5] and Newton was promoted by ABC to vice-president in charge of ABC Pictures and Dunhill co-founder Jay Lasker was named president. Lasker left ABC to join Ariola America Records.[6] In 1974, ABC switched British distribution from EMI to the EMI-distributed Anchor Records, allowing ABC recordings to be issued on the ABC label in the UK and Anchor records to be distributed by ABC on the Anchor label.[7] As a cost cutting, but in retrospect ill-conceived move in the mid-1970s, ABC Records discarded their multitrack master tapes to save storage space. So when the affected recordings were reissued on compact discs in the 1980s and beyond, the CDs had to be mastered using the finished album masters which often had inferior sound.[8] The record company's final president, Steve Diener, was named president in 1977 after serving as head of ABC Records' international division.[9] Because the company was suffering financial problems, ABC Records was sold in 1979 to MCA Records, which discontinued the ABC label on March 5, 1979.[10] The better selling albums in the ABC Records catalog were reissued on the MCA label.[11]
ABC Records sub-labeled Apt Records to release singles. In the early 1960s, they purchased the Westminster Records classical music label. In 1961 ABC launched its new Impulse! Records label to record and distribute jazz. Under the guidance of the founding label manager Creed Taylor and his successor Bob Thiele, Impulse soon became famous for its innovative releases, most notably the string of groundbreaking albums recorded by John Coltrane between 1961 and his death in 1967. Several years later, Bluesway Records was created to distribute ABC's blues releases. Tangerine Records was formed by Ray Charles to produce not only his albums but artists produced by Charles, as well.
ABC Records purchased Dunhill Records in the summer of 1967, forming "ABC Dunhill Records." They purchased Don Robey's record labels including Duke Records, Peacock Records, Back Beat Records and Song Bird Records on May 23, 1973. Afterwards, they also purchased the Famous Music record labels from Paramount Pictures' then-parent Gulf and Western in 1974 (these included Dot Records and Blue Thumb Records). With the Famous acquisition, ABC gained a distribution deal with Sire Records. ABC distributed (through Sire) the first releases by punk band the Ramones. Sire switched to Warner Bros. distribution in 1977, being sold to WB a year later.
In addition to sub-labels, ABC Records purchased all labels from Enoch Light in October, 1959. ABC acquired Audition Records, Command Performance Records, Colortone Records and Waldorf Music Hall Records.
In 1979, ABC Records was acquired by MCA Records for the sale price of $30 million.[12] It briefly operated as a unit of MCA before it was dissolved and absorbed into MCA; MCA in turn would eventually be absorbed into the Universal Music Group.
This is not the same ABC Records that operates in Australia, which is run by national pubcaster the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (although the Ampar label was distributed in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, first by W&G Records (1955–60) and then by Festival Records),[13][14] nor is it the sublabel of Voiceprint Records.
The catalogues of ABC Records and its sublabels are now controlled by Universal Music Group with exceptions being the following:
As for what Universal owns, the following labels manage various parts of the catalogue depending on the genre:
In all five of these cases, the management also includes releases from other labels absorbed into ABC over the years. For example, MCA Nashville's catalogue includes country releases on Dot Records, and Deutsche Grammophon's catalogue includes the Westminster Records catalogue, as well as various soundtracks released by Dot and Paramount Records (among other labels) that consisted of orchestral arrangements.