Record Label
For unofficial releases/counterfeit/bootlegs, please use [[label:188469]]. Use [[label:267992]] for the recording location. In 1955, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters, Inc. formed a subsidiary company called **[[label:285802]]** which began to release pop, jazz, rhythm and blues, children's and spoken word records under the label name **[[label:ABC-Paramount]]**. The corporate name of Am-Par Record Corporation was changed to [[label:ABC-Paramount Records, Inc.]] in 1962. [[label:ABC-Paramount]] became one of the major players in the North American music industry in the 1950s and 1960s, signing many early rock & roll artists including [[artist:Paul Anka]], [[artist:Lloyd Price]] and the [[artist:Poni-Tails]]; it also launched and would acquire many labels including [[label:Impulse!]], [[label:Apt Records]], [[label:Bluesway]], [[label:Audition]], [[label:Command]], [[label:Grand Award]], [[label:Dunhill]], [[label:20th Century Fox Records]], [[label:Duke]], [[label:Peacock Records]], and [[label:Back Beat (2)]] among others. In July 1965, the label began to move away from the "ABC-Paramount" branding by adopting the logo of parent company [[label:American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.]] In 1966, Paramount was formally dropped from the label's name and it was officially renamed to **ABC Records** with the corporate name changing in 1967 again into [[label:ABC Records, Inc.]]. The Seventies saw ABC having success with rock bands such as The [[artist:James Gang]], [[artist:Poco]] and [[artist:Steely Dan]], and the label also released some of the top soul recordings of the time from artists like [[artist:Isaac Hayes]], The [[artist:Four Tops]], [[artist:The Dramatics]], [[artist:Denise LaSalle]], [[artist:Lamont Dozier]], [[artist:Lenny Williams]] and [[artist:104991]]. It also entered the country music field in earnest after acquiring [[label:Dot Records]] in 1974 with [[artist:Freddy Fender]], [[artist:Don Williams]], [[artist:Billy "Crash" Craddock]], [[artist:The Oak Ridge Boys]] and [[artist:Barbara Mandrell]] leading its charge on Music Row. In 1968, ABC created the [[label:Probe]] label, a progressive rock label managed by its Command division; three years later, it was shut down in the US but the label (with a slightly modified logo) was used for releasing its product outside North America via EMI. Beginning in 1974, the British label [[label:Anchor Records]] took over distribution of ABC recordings in the UK and ABC likewised handled American distribution for Anchor. Just before this, ABC recordings were released on [[label:London Records]] and [[label:EMI]]'s [[label:His Master's Voice]] and [[label:Stateside]] labels with the early Dunhill material released by [[label:RCA]] in the British market. By 1975 however, ABC ended the deal and opened its own UK branch with its own distribution. **Please note that many of the 1974 and later ABC releases in the UK are in fact reissues of albums previously issued on Stateside and/or Probe, but still show the original copyright dates on the labels. Further checks should be made to see if there are previous versions of the release.** In Canada, ABC was handled by [[label:Sparton Of Canada Ltd.]] until [[label:Polydor Records Canada Limited]] (aka [[label:Polydor Ltd. (2)]]) took over in November 1968. In early 1971 ABC sued Polydor for breach of contract and moved distribution to [[label:RCA Limited]] who handled it until the licensing agreement expired on January 1, 1976. ABC was without a Canadian distributor until March 1976 when it reached an agreement with [[label:GRT Of Canada Ltd.]]. GRT handled ABC until 1979 when GRT went bankrupt and MCA bought the label, thereafter its catalogue was handled in Canada by [[label:MCA Records (Canada)]]. On January 31, 1979, ABC Records (which by then was suffering financial problems) was sold to [[label:MCA Records]] and briefly operated as an MCA imprint before it ceased to exist as a record label in March 1979; a number of popular ABC catalog titles were then reissued on MCA. The ABC Records catalog is today mostly divided among five [[label:Universal Music Group]] labels: [[label:Geffen Records]] (the ABC pop, rock and R&B catalogs excluding those of [[artist:Ray Charles]], [[artist:Steve Lawrence]] and [[artist:Eydie Gorme]], whose ABC masters they took possession of after they left the label), [[label:Verve Records]] (the Impulse! label and catalog), [[label:Deutsche Grammophon]] (the [[label:Westminster]] classical catalog), [[label:Mercury Nashville]] (the ABC and Dot country material), and [[label:Decca Broadway]] (musical theater cast recordings that were released on ABC).