Defunct Record Label Socks
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: 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: Roc-A-Fella Records was an American hip hop record label and music management company founded by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke in 1994. Carter issued his debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996) as the label's first release, in a joint venture with Priority Records. The label has signed and released albums for acts including Kanye West, Cam'ron, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Juelz Santana, Freeway, Jadakiss, Teairra Marí, State Property, and The Diplomats before its dissolution in 2013.
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: 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 until late 1968, when it was renamed RCA Records.
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: 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: 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: 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: I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III, Jay Boberg, and Carl Grasso in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and alternative rock artists, including R.E.M., The Go-Go's, Wall of Voodoo, and Fine Young Cannibals. Currently the label is distributed by parent company Universal Music Group.
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: 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: 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: 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: Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some small degree of independence within a larger parent company, in this case the larger company being Interscope Records.
Description: Falcon Records was a record label from McAllen, Texas, that was instrumental in the establishment of tejano as a widespread musical style. Founded in 1948 by Arnaldo Ramirez, the label specialized in the rural norteño music which had been abandoned by the major labels. By the early 1960s it was clearly the leading tejano music label. Falcon was responsible for numerous recordings by Los Alegres de Terán, Chelo Silva, René y René, Roberto Pulido, and many other tejano and norteño artists of significance. Falcon's product gained international exposure through the syndicated television program Fanfarria Falcon. The label's activities wound down around 1990, and the recordings were purchased by EMI.
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: Crown Records was a innovation of the California-based Bihari family (brothers Lester, Joe, Saul, Jules) who owned Modern, Flair and RPM , all great solid independent labels, as well as the budget label Custom, Kent, United Superior, and Riviera. It started in December, 1953 and continued until 1972, earning itself the reputation of the king of the junk record labels. Aside from endlessly reissuing and repackaging the legitimate Modern and RPM hits including the B.B. King material, what Crown had to offer was musical junk food on plastic plates .
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 49th State Hawaii Record Company is a defunct Hawaiian record label specializing in traditional Hawaiian music. Established in 1948 by George K. Ching, the label was purchased by Cord International in the early 1990s.
49th State Hawaii Record Company Socks
by MindsparkCreative
$14 $20
Description: Honest Don's Records was a subsidiary label based in San Francisco, California, set up along with Pink & Black Records by Fat Wreck Chords to release material by bands that didn't fit within the roster at Fat. The label ceased trading around 2003 with the Nerf Herder EP "My E.P.". Some of the bands were absorbed into the Fat roster, whilst others moved on.
Description: Tofu Records was a US record label of Sony Music Entertainment Japan that was launched in 2003 to distribute Japanese Sony artists in the United States, and that closed in 2007. Their first signed artist was T.M.Revolution, and they used the anime fandom community to spread the word. T.M.Revolution's U.S. concert debut at Otakon 2003 was successful, drawing an audience of over 5,000. In March 2007, Tofu Records closed. Releases on Sony Music Japan now appear on Columbia or Epic Records through a new deal.
Description: Flying Fish Records was a record label founded in Chicago in 1974 that specialized in folk, blues, and country music. In the 1990s the label was sold to Rounder Records. Bruce Kaplan, the label's founder, was a native of Chicago and the son of a president of Zenith Electronics. He studied anthropology at the University of Chicago and became president of the school's folklore society. He began Flying Fish in 1974 to concentrate on traditional and contemporary folk music, though the catalog grew to include blues, bluegrass, country, jazz, reggae, dancefloor and rock.
Description: Black Jazz Records was a jazz record company and label founded in Oakland, California by pianist Gene Russell (December 2, 1932 - May 3, 1981) and percussionist Dick Schory. The label was created to promote the talents of young African American jazz musicians and singers, and released twenty albums between 1971 and 1975. The artists who recorded for Black Jazz Records included Cleveland Eaton, former bassist for Count Basie and Ramsey Lewis, and organist/pianist Doug Carn, whose four albums were the most successful of any Black Jazz artist.
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: Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City whose labels had a picture of a metronome. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952. Cadence also launched a short-lived jazz subsidiary, Candid Records.The first recording star for Cadence was a Godfrey alumnus, Julius La Rosa. Other Godfrey alumni signed to the label included the Chordettes. Bleyer had written a few hit songs in 1932–34 (Fletcher Henderson's "Business in F" is a good example) and had a band that recorded for ARC in 1934 and 1935 (his records were issued on Vocalion, Melotone, Perfect and Romeo).
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.
