Warner Bros. Records

Information about Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Parent companyWarner Music Group
Founded1958
Distributing labelWarner Bros. Records (US)
WEA International (outside US)
GenreVarious
Country of originUS
LocationBurbank, California
Official websiteOfficial Web site of Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is internationally known as WEA International Inc. It is also affectionately known as the Bunny, based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons put out by Warner Bros. in the 1940s through the 1960s. Bugs Bunny is also the label's mascot.

History

Warner Bros. Records opened for business on March 19, 1958, above the film studio's machine shop at 3701 Warner Blvd. in Burbank. Prompting the labels creation was when Warner Bros. Pictures contract actor Tab Hunter scored a #1 hit in 1957 with "Young Love" for Dot Records. To Warners' chagrin, reporters were primarily asking about the hit record, instead of Hunter's latest Warner movie. The company quickly signed Hunter to the newly formed record division, and while his subsequent recordings for the label failed to duplicate the success he had had with Dot, the fledgling Warner Bros. Records thrived.

In 1960, the company signed the Everly Brothers (who were previously on Cadence Records) with the first ever million dollar contract in history. The same year they also released two albums by Bob Newhart, which both won Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year. In 1963, Warner Bros. Records purchased Frank Sinatra's label, Reprise Records—the acquisition proved very lucrative, as Reprise remains in the WBR fold to this day, and has become its strongest imprint.

In 1964, the label negotiated with Disques Vogue for the right to distribute Petula Clark's recordings in the US, beginning with "Downtown." Eight years later, in 1972, Dionne Warwick was brought to the label after leaving Scepter Records in a deal that was the biggest contract at the time for a female artist. Warwick's five years at Warners would greatly pale in comparison to her tenure at Scepter, both personally and professionally.

In 1967, Warner Bros. (including WBR) was sold for $85 million to Seven Arts Productions and renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Two years later, the company was sold to Kinney National Company (later renamed Warner Communications) and the label become Warner Bros. Records again, reviving the WB shield as its logo. In 1971, Warner Communications established WEA; the pooling together of Warner Bros. Records, Elektra, and Atlantic, to form a larger umbrella for its music entities under which they could operate. In 1990, Warner Communication merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner. In 1991, WEA was renamed Warner Music. In 2000, Time Warner merged with AOL creating AOL Time Warner. Finally, in March 2004, a group of private investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought the Warner Music Group from Time Warner. Today Warner Bros. Records remains one of Warner Music Group's most dominant labels, having exactly 121 artists on the label. However, Time Warner may still have some ownership in the label because the trademark is not licensed from its former parent.

Affiliated labels

Former

Current

Artists

Main article: List of current Warner Bros. Records artists
Main article: List of former Warner Bros. Records artists

Trivia

  • Throughout the 1970s, Frank Zappa made a running gag out of his poor relationship with the label, often comparing being signed with WBR to various forms of torture.
  • Warner Bros. Records donated the Second O of the Hollywood sign on the side of Mount Lee, Los Angeles
  • Prince's infamous struggle with Warner Bros. prompted him to change his recording name to an unpronounceable symbol.
  • From late 1992 to early 1998, WBR distributed UK label 4AD's releases in the USA.

Company logos


The Warner Bros. Records logo used 2002–present

The Warner Bros. Records logo used 1988–2002

The Warner Bros. Records logo used 1975–1988

The color version of the Warner Bros. Records logo used 1975–1988 and on the inner label of vinyl full-length albums until 2004

"W7" logo when the company was known as "Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Records" in 1968 and 1969

Logo used from the label's founding in 1958 until it was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Records in 1968. The shield logo was revived and used from 1970 to 1974.


See also

External links

Warner Music Group Corporation

Public (NYSE:  WMG )
Founded 2003
Headquarters New York, NY, U.S.

Key people Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairman & CEO
Industry Music & Entertainment
Revenue $3.502 Billion (USD; 2006)
Net income $169.
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Burbank, California
Location of Burbank in Los Angeles County, California
Coordinates:
Country United States
State California
County Los Angeles
Founded May 1 1887
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. In everyday usage, a record label is also a company that manages such brands and trademarks; coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution,
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A subsidiary, in business, is an entity that is controlled by another entity. The controlled entity is called a company, corporation, or limited liability company, and the controlling entity is called its parent (or the parent company).
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Warner Music Group Corporation

Public (NYSE:  WMG )
Founded 2003
Headquarters New York, NY, U.S.

Key people Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairman & CEO
Industry Music & Entertainment
Revenue $3.502 Billion (USD; 2006)
Net income $169.
..... Click the link for more information.
Bugs Bunny is an animated rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros., one of which, 1958's Knighty Knight Bugs
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March 19 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1955 1956 1957 - 1958 - 1959 1960 1961

Year 1958 (MCMLVIII
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Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., or Warner Bros. (pronounced Warner Brothers), is one of the world's largest producers of film and television entertainment.

It is currently a subsidiary of the Time Warner conglomerate, with its headquarters in Burbank, California.
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Tab Hunter

Birth name Arthur Andrew Kelm
Born July 11 1931 (1931--) (age 76)
New York City, New York, USA

Partner(s) Allan Glaser


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Dot Records was an American record label which was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood who beforehand started a mail order record shop in Gallatin, Tennessee, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B (later black gospel) air personality Bill
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The Everly Brothers, (Don Everly, born Isaac Donald Everly February 1, 1937, Brownie, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, Phil Everly, born Phillip Everly
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Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952.

The first recording star for Cadence was Godfrey alumnus Julius La Rosa.
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Bob Newhart

Bob Newhart in September 1987
Birth name George Robert Newhart
Born September 5 1929 (1929--) (age 78)
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The 3rd Grammy Awards were held in 1961. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Bob Newhart and Henry Mancini won 3 awards.

Award winners:

  • Record of the Year
  • Percy Faith for "Theme From

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Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an Italian American jazz-oriented popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor.

Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great
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Reprise Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group, operated through Warner Bros. Records.

Company history

Reprise was formed in 1958 by Frank Sinatra in order to allow more artistic freedom for his own recordings.
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Disques Vogue was founded in France in 1947, the same year that the USA Vogue closed shop. They originally specialized in jazz recordings, featuring such artists as Sidney Bechet, Django Reinhardt, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, and Errol Garner.
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Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932), is an English singer, actress and composer best known for her upbeat popular international hits of the 1960s. With more than 70 million records sold worldwide, she is the most successful British female solo recording artist and is cited as
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B-side(s) "You'd Better Love Me"
Released November 1964
Recorded 1964
Label Warner Bros. Records (US)
Pye Records (UK)
Writer(s) Tony Hatch
Producer(s) Tony Hatch
Peak chart positions

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Marie Dionne Warrick (born December 12, 1940), known professionally as Dionne Warwick, is an acclaimed five-time Grammy Award-winning African American singer best known for her work with Burt Bacharach and Hal David as songwriters and producers.
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Scepter Records is a record company founded in 1959 by Florence Greenberg. She had just sold Tiara Records with The Shirelles for $4000 to Decca Records. When The Shirelles didn't produce any hits for Decca, they were given back to Greenberg, who promptly signed them.
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A sceptre or scepter is a symbolic ornamental staff held by a ruling monarch, a prominent item of kingly regalia. It resembles a mace.

Antiquity

A rod or staff has long represented authority.
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Seven Arts Productions was founded in 1957 by Ray Stark and Eliot Hyman. In 1967 they acquired Jack Warner's controlling interest in Warner Bros. for $95 million and merged with it, becoming Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.
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Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was formed in 1967, when Seven Arts Productions acquired Jack Warner's controlling interest in Warner Bros. for $95 million and merged with it. The deal also included Warner Bros. Records and Reprise Records. Later that same year, Warner Bros.
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Kinney National Company was formed in 1966 when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Company merged. The new company was headed by Steve Ross.

Kinney National expanded in 1967 by acquiring National Periodical Publications (more commonly, but not yet
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