Defunct Record Label Shorts
Description: Parrot Records was an American record label, a division of London Records, which started in 1964. The label usually licensed (or leased) recordings made by Decca Records, England, for release in the United States and Canada, most notably by the Zombies, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Them, Jonathan King, Hedgehoppers Anonymous, Lulu, Savoy Brown and Alan Price. Other artists included the Detroit-based Frijid Pink, Love Sculpture (reissued from EMI) and Bobby "Boris" Pickett (reissued from Garpax). Parrot's biggest hit was "She's A Lady" by Tom Jones, peaking at #2 on the Billboard charts in early 1971.
Description: The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became the RCA Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America.
Description: Death Records is a San Francisco-based Lo-Fi/Outsider Pop record label. Founded by Brian Wakefield & Colin Arlen in 2014, the label was created to "Represent the 'misfits of this city' who have been left behind to fend for themselves". The label has started an annual festival, Deathstock, to celebrate the labels "birthday". Acts such as Gary Wilson, Tomorrow's Tulips & The Memories played the inaugural year.
Description: Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises.
Description: Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States 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. Liberty's early releases focused on film and orchestral music. Its first single was Lionel Newman's "The Girl Upstairs". Its first big hit, in 1955, was by Julie London singing her version of the torch song, "Cry Me a River", which climbed to No. 9 in the Billboard Hot 100. It helped Liberty sell her first album, Julie Is Her Name.
Description: Maverick was an American entertainment company founded in 1992 by Warner Music Group and run by recording artist Madonna, as well as Frederick DeMann and Veronica "Ronnie" Dashev. It included a record label (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), book publishing, music publishing, an adjacent Latin/Spanish language record label (Maverick Música), and a television production company.
Description: Man's Ruin Records was an independent record label owned and founded by San Francisco Bay Area artist Frank Kozik. In total, the record label released over 200 singles and albums, with most of the artwork designed by Kozik. After the 1995 release of Man's Ruin's first record, Experimental Audio Research, Kozik worked with artists whom he wanted to release. He also designed all of the sleeve-art for the releases. The catalog of Man's Ruin is vast, including relatively famous bands such as the Hellacopters, Nebula, Kyuss, High on Fire, Entombed, Turbonegro, 13eaver, Queens of the Stone Age, and the Sex Pistols; and also lesser known bands such as FuckEmos, Soulpreacher, Angel Rot, and the Cowslingers.
Description: Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
Description: Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its US label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp (the first president of the Decca Record company of the USA) and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president too. The name dates back to a portable gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons.
Description: Pathé Records was an international record company and label and producer of phonographs, based in France, and active from the 1890s through the 1930s. The Pathé record business was founded by brothers Charles and Émile Pathé, then owners of a successful bistro in Paris. In the mid-1890s, they began selling Edison and Columbia phonographs and accompanying cylinder records. Shortly thereafter, the brothers designed and sold their own phonographs. These incorporated elements of other brands.
Description: Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises.
Description: Dot Records was an American record label founded by Randy Wood and Gene Nobles that was active between 1950 and 1978. The original headquarters of Dot Records were in Gallatin, Tennessee. In its early years, Dot specialized in artists from Tennessee. Then it branched out to include musicians from across the U.S. It recorded country music, rhythm and blues, polkas, waltzes, gospel, rockabilly, pop, and early rock and roll.
Description: Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
Description: Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises.
Description: Moon Ska Records was one of the most influential ska record labels of the 1980s and 1990s. The label operated from 1983 until 2000, and during those seventeen years, only released ska and ska-influenced music. Originally named Moon Records, as a tribute to Sun Records, the label changed its name to Moon Ska Records because another label owned the copyright to the Moon Records name. The label was started by Robert "Bucket" Hingley, founding member of The Toasters as a means to distribute albums by The Toasters. The label became an American source for many British ska import albums.
Description: The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became the RCA Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America.
Description: Laurie Records was an American record label established in New York City in 1958, by brothers Robert and Gene Schwartz, and Allan I. Sussel. Among the recording artists on Laurie's roster were Dion and the Belmonts (both together and as separate acts), The Chiffons, The Jarmels, The Mystics, Bobby Goldsboro, and The Royal Guardsmen.
Description: Trance Syndicate was an independent record label founded in 1990 by King Coffey, drummer of Austin, Texas band the Butthole Surfers. Its first release was Crust's The Sacred Heart of Crust EP. From 1990 to 1999, when the label closed down, Trance Syndicate released albums by several notable Texan bands and artists, including Pain Teens, Bedhead, Ed Hall, American Analog Set, Furry Things, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Roky Erickson.
Description: Colgems Records was a record label that existed from 1966 to 1971. Colgems was a joint venture between Screen Gems, the television division of Columbia Pictures, and RCA Victor to issue records by The Monkees and other artists affiliated with Columbia/Screen Gems. The label would also issue soundtrack recordings for Screen Gems and Columbia Pictures productions. RCA acted as manufacturer and distributor for Colgems. Outside of the United States, Colgems productions appeared on the RCA Victor label.
Description: Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label established in 1979 in San Francisco, California. It was used by Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single "California Über Alles". After realizing the potential for an independent label, they released records for other bands as well.
Description: Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The label was founded in Gary, Indiana, in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a husband-and-wife team who used their initials for the label's name. Vivian's brother, Calvin Carter, was the label's A&R man. Ewart Abner, formerly of Chance Records, joined the label in 1955, first as manager, then as vice president, and ultimately as president.
Description: Comet Records was an American jazz and R&B record label, founded in 1944 by Les Schriber, Sr. and Harry Alderton. The label is most known for having recorded and produced T-Bone Walker and Red Norvo. The label was acquired by Black & White Records and operated as a subsidiary. Comet recorded – but never released – a session with Charlie Parker on June 6, 1945. That master was sold to Dial Records in 1949, when Black & White Records went out of business.
Description: Red Rooster is an "only on vinyl" records label founded by D’Arabia in 2016 with the help of his partner Dj Rou. The label was born in Bologna and it's strictly focused on raw samples and cuts with disco/funk/hiphop/house influences, giving a miscellaneous trick between old and new grooves.
Description: Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned label that achieved crossover success. In the 1960s, Motown and its subsidiary labels (including Tamla Motown, the brand used outside the US) were the most of the Motown sound, a style of soul music with a mainstream pop appeal. Motown was the most successful soul music label, with a net worth of $61 million. During the 1960s, Motown achieved 79 records in the top-ten of the Billboard Hot 100 between 1960 and 1969.
Description: Casablanca Records, Inc. was formed in 1973 by former Buddah Records executives Neil Bogart (who named the label as a homage to the classic film Casablanca), Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris and Buck Reingold. The label was initially distributed by Warner Bros. Records until September 1974, but Bogart decided to distribute the label independently after being disillusioned with the lack of success under Warners.
Description: Grand Royal was a vanity record label founded in 1992 by rap group Beastie Boys in conjunction with Capitol Records after the group left Def Jam Recordings. It was based in Los Angeles, California. Grand Royal was also the name of a magazine written and published by the group. Described as a publication that "came to define part of Generation X," the total distribution of the six issues of Grand Royal was estimated at 300,000 copies.
Description: Dolton Records was a record label based in Seattle that was originally known as Dolphin Records. It was initially owned by Bob Reisdorff and Bonnie Guitar. Success for the label came early with "Come Softly to Me" by the Fleetwoods, the first single to be released on that label. Reisdorf was soon informed that there was another Dolphin Records in circulation (which was a subsidiary of Laurie Records), so he changed the name to Dolton after the first release, the second release being an instrumental by the Frantics called "Straight Flush" b/w "Young Blues" (Dolton 2). The new label retained the fish symbols on the logo and the fonts associated with the Dolphin name.
Description: Neptune Records was a record label founded by Philadelphia writer-producers, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in 1969. The label, distributed by Chess Records, lasted for only two years, releasing 20 singles and three albums. It was the precursor to the pair's Philadelphia International label, which they started in 1971 with Columbia Records. Neptune featured releases by artists such as Jeanette "Baby" Washington, The O'Jays, The Three Degrees and Billy Paul, all who later appeared on Philadelphia International. The biggest hit was the label's first release, "One Night Affair" by the O'Jays.
Description: Wild Pitch Records was an American Golden age hip hop record label, started in 1987 by Stuart Fine, that was eventually distributed by EMI. Artists who released records on the label included Gang Starr, Chill Rob G, Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth, Main Source, The U.M.C.'s, Hard Knocks, Brokin English Klik, Street Military, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, The Coup, Ultramagnetic MCs, O.C., as well as Latee, Jamose, and female rapper N-Tyce.
Description: De Luxe Records (later DeLuxe Records) was a record company and label formed in 1944 by brothers David Braun (1908–1985) and Julius "Jules" Braun (1911–2002), the sons of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, in Linden, New Jersey. The label flourished in the 1940s and 1950s, notably for its rhythm and blues (R&B) and early rock and roll recordings.
Description: The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments from Germany for resale in the United States. Wurlitzer enjoyed initial success, largely due to defense contracts to provide musical instruments to the U.S. military. In 1880, the company began manufacturing pianos and eventually relocated to North Tonawanda, New York. It quickly expanded to make band organs, orchestrions, player pianos and pipe or theatre organs popular in theatres during the days of silent movies.
