Warner Bros. Records
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Warner Bros. Records | |
|---|---|
| |
| Parent company | Warner Music Group |
| Founded | 1958 |
| Founder(s) | n/a |
| Distributing label | Warner Bros. Records (US) WEA (outside the US)</td></tr> |
| Genre(s) | Various |
| Country of Origin | US |
| Website | Official site of Warner Bros. Records |
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is a record label which was launched on March 19, 1958 by Warner Bros. The label is now a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. Its sub-labels are Atlantic Records, Elektra Records, Maverick Records, Nonesuch Records, Reprise Records, Sire Records, WB Jazz, WBR Nashville, Word Records and Heiress Records. Warner has also put a bid in for NUsOuNd Records, but the CEO of the company has not responded. Since 2002, Sire has existed only as a "legacy" label, with no new artists being signed to it.
The reason the record company was formed was because contract actor Tab Hunter had a #1 hit in 1957 with "Young Love" and to Warners' chagrin, reporters only wanted to ask about the hit record instead of Hunter's latest Warner movie.
In 1960, they signed the Everly Brothers (who were previously on Cadence Records) with the first ever million dollar contract in history. That was also the year that they released two albums by Bob Newhart which both won Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year. In 1963 they purchased Frank Sinatra's label, Reprise Records. In 1964, the label negotiated with Vogue Records for the right to distribute Petula Clark's recordings in the US, beginning with "Downtown." In 1967, Warner Bros. (including its record label) 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 and reverted to the Warner Bros. name. In 1990, Warner Communications, which morphed out of Kinney National, merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner. In 2000, Time Warner merged with AOL creating AOL Time Warner.
Throughout the 1970's, Frank Zappa made a running gag out of his poor relationship with the label, often comparing being signed with Warner Brothers to various forms of torture.
In 2003, a group led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr. bought the Warner Music Group from Time Warner.
