Defunct Record Label Socks
Description: Bertelsmann Music Group was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America. Although it was established in 1987, the music company was formed as RCA/Ariola International in 1985 as a joint venture to combine the music label activities of RCA's RCA Records division and Bertelsmann's Ariola Records and its associated labels which include Arista Records. It consisted of the BMG Music Publishing company, the world's third largest music publisher and the world's largest independent music publisher and the 50% share of the joint venture with Sony Music, which established the German American Sony BMG from 2004 to 2008.
Description: Colossus Records was an American record label founded in 1969 by Jerry Ross, who had also founded Heritage Records the year before. Like Heritage, Colossus was distributed by MGM Records. In the autumn of 1969, Jerry Ross was in Europe looking for European hits for release in the United States, and he came across "Ma Belle Amie" by Tee-Set, whom he then signed. He was also offered Venus by Shocking Blue and "Little Green Bag" by George Baker Selection. "Venus" was released first and it reached No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1970.
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: At least five record labels with the name Bullet Records have existed. The earliest Bullet Records was a record label based in Nashville, United States, which was started in 1946 by Jim Bulleit and C.V. Hitchcock. Bulleit was an early partner in Sun Records. Its only national hits were by orchestra leader Francis Craig. The pop hit "Near You" made in early 1947 was a monster, topping the charts for seventeen weeks and having a chart run of twenty-five weeks. Craig also made the charts at #3 with "Beg Your Pardon", but no further hits were forthcoming.
Description: Warwick Records was a record label established in 1959 by Morty Craft. One of the label's earliest releases was a jazz album called Memories Of "Jolie" by 'Morty Craft & His Singing Strings'. Herbie Hancock's first appearance on record was for Warwick on an album with Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams. The label's catalogue also included albums by Ralph Burns, Teddy Charles, and Curtis Fuller. Warwick also released the single "Dream Alone"/"Beat Love" by the then relatively unknown Art Garfunkel under the name Artie Garr. Warwick was founded in New York City and was short-lived, closing after the album by Burns.
Description: Mirwood Records was an American record label founded by former Vee-Jay executive Randy Wood in Los Angeles in 1965. The Mirwood label was a sister label to Mira Records. It primarily released rhythm and blues and jazz recordings, and has been described as "among the definitive Northern soul labels". Many of its records were written and produced by Fred Smith and arranged by James Carmichael, who (according to Jason Ankeny at AllMusic) "hone[d] a distinctive style all their own, creating soul music that was both relentlessly energetic and sweetly sophisticated, topped off by trademark vibes that evoked the otherworldly beauty of a Pacific Ocean sunset".
Description: Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's founding. Buddah handled a variety of music genres, including bubblegum pop (the Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Company), folk rock (Melanie), experimental music (Captain Beefheart), and soul (Gladys Knight & the Pips).
Description: Sue Records was also the name of a Louisiana-based record company which owned Jewel Records (Shreveport record label). Sue Records ("The Sound of Soul") was an American record label founded by Henry 'Juggy' Murray and Bobby Robinson in 1957. Subsidiaries on the label were Symbol Records, Crackerjack Records, Broadway Records and Eastern Records. Sue also financed and distributed A.F.O. Records owned by Harold Battiste in New Orleans.
Description: Cameo Records was an American record label that flourished in the 1920s. It was owned by the Cameo Record Corporation in New York City. Cameo released a disc by Lucille Hegamin every two months from 1921 to 1926. Cameo records are also noted for dance music. The catalogue also included the Original Memphis Five and the Varsity Eight. Musicians such as Red Nichols, Miff Mole, Adrian Rollini, and Frank Signorelli made trips to the Cameo studios. In 1926, Cameo started recording using a microphone-electrical process. An interesting blues number is 583, "Crazy Blues", by Salt & Pepper.
Description: Mala Records was a small record label founded as a Bell Records subsidiary in 1959. Beginning in 1967, albums by Mala recording artists were issued on the Bell label instead of Mala Along with Bell, Mala was acquired in the late sixties by Columbia Pictures and merged with the co-owned Amy Records into Bell Records.
Description: Banner Records was an American record company and label in the 1920s and 1930s. It was created primarily for the S.S. Kresge Company, though it was employed as a budget label in other discount stores. Banner was formed in January 1922 as the flagship label of the Plaza Music Company of New York City. Plaza Music produced several cheap labels targeted at discount houses and hired bandleader Adrian Schubert as musical director.
Description: Meritt Records was an American jazz and blues record company and label that existed from 1925 to 1929. It was founded in Kansas City by Winston Holmes, the owner of a music store. Records were made in his studio and sold only in his store. Holmes produced about 20 double-sided acoustically recorded phonograph records in the mid and late 1920s. Most of the sides are of locally based jazz and blues performers, plus some gospel music and sermons.
Description: Sterling Records Inc. was a small New York record label active from 1945 to 1947. Sterling's first record, with number 100, was Lillette Thomas and her Boys' 78rpm "Blues for My Daddy". The record company ceased issuing in 1947, and in 1948 Al Trace sued Sterling and obtained an injunction against their use of his name on a recording. Sterling Records, LLC is now a South Florida-based record company owned and operated by Stephen Caputo and Joe Brickman.
Description: Ariola (also known as Ariola Records, Ariola Express, Ariola-Eurodisc and BMG Ariola) is a German record label. In the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of the Bertelsmann Music Group, which in turn has become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment.
Description: Mojo Records was a California-based record label founded in 1995 by producer Jay Rifkin. It became a joint venture with Universal Records in 1996 and then sold to the Zomba Group in 2001, who placed it under their subsidiary Jive Records. The label has been largely inactive since Zomba was purchased and restructured under BMG in 2003, save for a few reissues of older material. The final releases from the label were Reel Big Fish's We're Not Happy 'til You're Not Happy and Goldfinger's The Best of Goldfinger in early 2005.
Description: Thelma Records was a record label in Detroit, Michigan from 1962 until 1966. Recordings included Emanuel Laskey, Eddie Hill, Rose Battiste, Richard Street & the Distants, Alberta Adams, The Fabulous Peps and Martha Star. The label was formed by Hazel Coleman, mother of Berry Gordy's first wife Thelma Coleman.
Description: Trix Records was an American independent record label, which was set up in 1972, by the folklorist Peter B. Lowry. It lasted just under a decade as an active label dealing mainly with Piedmont blues artists from the Southeastern states (the focus of Lowry's folkloric field research), together with the anthology Detroit After Hours, a collection of Detroit piano players. The label's last release was by David "Honeyboy" Edwards in 1978, although Lowry continued recording until 1980 with Cephas & Wiggins. Lowry's long-time partner, Roberta Casey, ran things in the 1990s and helped in arranging the sale of its eighteen issued LP master tapes to Joe Fields of Muse Records.
Description: The United States version of Tiger Lily Records was a record label that was run by Roulette Records founder Morris Levy. Purportedly it was a tax scam created by Levy and was never intended to make a profit. Tiger Lily's primary modus operandi was to acquire demo tapes from artists or studios and then release them without the artists consent and sometimes without even the artist's knowledge. Other albums released by Tiger Lily have been identified as bootlegs of albums released in the early 1970s by Artie Ripp's Family Productions and two cases of performers who were actually signed to Tiger Lily Records have been identified.
Description: One Way Records was an independent record label based in Albany, New York that specialized in budget reissues of classic rock albums. In the 1990s, it gained business pressing reissues of those records that had "fallen through the cracks" in the transition in the music industry from vinyl to compact discs. Other labels that similarly filled this reissue niche were Collector's Pipeline, Rhino Records and Razor & Tie.
Description: Contemporary Records was a jazz record company and label founded by Lester Koenig in Los Angeles in 1951. Contemporary produced music from a variety of jazz styles and players. Contemporary became identified with a style of jazz called West Coast jazz as exemplified by Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Shelly Manne, and André Previn.
Description: Chancellor Records was a record label associated with ABC-Paramount Records, which initially distributed the smaller label. Based in Philadelphia, it was an integral part of the dominance of popular Philadelphia artists and music in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Its first hit was "With All My Heart" sung by Jodie Sands (1957), but the major artists the label was famous for were Frankie Avalon and Fabian Forte, and later Claudine Clark. The studio drummer for Chancellor Records was Charles Pasco who played for all of the artists that recorded there. The label was owned by Bob Marcucci, originally with partner Peter De Angelis; Ray Sharkey played a version of Marcucci in the movie The Idolmaker [1980].
Description: Mala Records was a small record label founded as a Bell Records subsidiary in 1959. Beginning in 1967, albums by Mala recording artists were issued on the Bell label instead of Mala Along with Bell, Mala was acquired in the late sixties by Columbia Pictures and merged with the co-owned Amy Records into Bell Records. In 1974, the Mala catalog (and the rest of Bell Records) became part of Arista Records, which was purchased by BMG in 1979, and is now owned by Sony Music.
Description: One-derful Records was an independent R&B and soul label based in Chicago. Founded by George Leaner (June 1, 1917 – September 18, 1983) in 1962, One-derful was one of the few black-owned labels in Chicago until its demise in 1968. The label is most known for the release of "Shake a Tail Feather" by the Five Du-Tones in 1963. Other artist on the label included the Sharpees, McKinley Mitchell, Alvin Cash, and Harold Burrage. A few subsidiary labels were launched: Mar-V-Lus, M-Pac, Halo, and Midas Records.
Description: Sonic Unyon is an independent record label based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The label has put out releases by bands including Tristan Psionic, Sianspheric, Shallow North Dakota, Eric's Trip, Hayden, Chore, Frank Black and the Catholics, A Northern Chorus, Raising the Fawn, Teenage Head, Simply Saucer, and Voivod. The label’s current artist roster includes Big Wreck, Danko Jones, Terra Lightfoot, and Basement Revolver.
