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Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of that corporation. It is also colloquially known as 'Warners' or 'the Bunny', based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons produced by the former animation division of the label's parent company, Warner Bros. Pictures.
[edit] History[edit] IntroductionWarner Bros. Records was originally established in 1958 as the recorded music division of the American movie studio Warner Bros. Pictures. For most of its existence Warner Bros Records was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros and its allied labels evolved through a convoluted series of corporate mergers and acquisitions from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. Over this period, Warner Bros. Records grew from a struggling minor player in the industry to become one of the top recording labels in the world. In 2003 these music assets were divested by their then owner Time Warner and purchased by a private equity group. This independent company currently trades as the Warner Music Group (WMG), of which Warner Bros. Records is still an active label. WMG is currently the third-largest of the four major international music conglomerates and the world's only publicly traded major music company[1]. The group's extensive publishing assets, which include over one million song copyrights by more than 65,000 songwriters[1], currently make it the world's largest music publisher. At the end of the silent movie era Warner Bros. Pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. In 1928 the studio acquired several smaller music publishing firms—including M. Witmark & Sons, Remick Music Corp., Harms Inc. and a partial interest in New World Music Corp. -- and merged them to form the Music Publishers Holding Company, which controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern and the new division was soon earning solid profits of up to US$2 million annually[2]. In 1930 MPHC paid US$28 million to acquire Brunswick Records, whose roster included Duke Ellington, Red Nichols, Leroy Carr, Tampa Red and Memphis Minnie, and soon after the sale to Warners, the label signed rising radio and recording star Bing Crosby. Unfortunately for Warners, the impact of the Great Depression soon decimated the record industry and sales plummeted from 104 million in 1927 to just 6 million by 1932, when the label was offloaded to the American Record Corporation (ARC) for a fraction of its former value. This loss implanted a deep suspicion about the music industry in Warner corporate director Herman Starr, who also headed MPHC from 1939. Due to Starr's considerable influence with Jack Warner, the studio stayed out of the record business for more than 25 years, and during this period it licensed its film music to other companies for release as soundtrack albums[3]. [edit] 1958-1963: formation and early yearsWarner Bros. re-entered the record business with the establishment of a new subsidiary, Warner Bros Records, in 1958. By this time the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance, the most notable being the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a major impact—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s; Warner Bros. Pictures sold off much of its movie library in 1948 (although, ironically, Time Warner's 1989 takeover of Turner Broadcasting returned most of the Warner archive to the company) and in 1949 anti-trust action by the US government forced the five major studios to sell off their cinema chains. In 1956 Harry Warner and Albert Warner sold their interest in the studio and the board was joined by new members—Charles Allen of the investment bank Charles Allen & Company, Serge Semenenko of the First National Bank of Boston and investor David Baird—who were more favourably disposed to a renewed expansion into the music business. Semenenko in particular had a strong professional interest in the entertainment business and he began to push Jack Warner on the issue of setting up an 'in-house' record label. With the record business booming—sales had topped US$500 million by 1958—Semenenko argued that it was foolish for Warners to make deals with other companies to release its soundtracks when, for less than the cost of one motion picture, they could establish their own label, creating a new income stream that could continue indefinitely and providing an additional means of exploiting and promoting its contract actors[4]. Another impetus for the label's creation was the fact that although popular Warner Bros. actor Tab Hunter was signed to an exclusive acting contract with the studio, this did not prevent him from signing a recording contract with Dot Records, since Warners had no label of its own. Hunter scored several hits for Dot, reaching #1 in 1957 with the single "Young Love", and 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, although his subsequent recordings for the label failed to duplicate the success that he had with Dot[5]. Warners had agreed to buy Imperial Records in 1956 and although the deal fell apart it signified the passing of a psychological barrier — if the company was willing to buy another label, why not start its own? To establish the label Warner Bros hired former Columbia Records president James B. Conkling, and its founding directors of A&R were Harris Ashburn, George Avakian and Bob Prince[6]. Conkling was an able administrator with extensive experience in the industry -- he had been instrumental in launching the LP format at Columbia and had played a key role in establishing the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences the previous year[7]. However, Conkling had decidedly middle-of-the-road musical tastes (he was married to Donna King of vocal trio the King Sisters) and was thus rather out of step with emerging trends in the industry, especially the fast-growing market for rock'n'roll music[8]. Warner Bros. Records opened for business on 19 March 1958, and its original office was located above the film studio's machine shop at 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California[9]. Its first batch of stereo albums was aimed at the upscale end of the mainstream market and included:
All were commercial failures[10]. Warner Bros. Records scored its first hit in 1959 with the novelty single "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" performed by Warner contract actor Edd Byrnes, who played the character Kookie on TV's 77 Sunset Strip. The story behind the recording exemplifies the sharp practices often employed by major recording companies. Connie Stevens sang the song's chorus, but although her contract entitled her to a 5 percent royalty rate, the label arbitrarily defined her contribution as a favour to Byrnes and they assigned her just 1% royalty on the song, despite the fact that Stevens soon discovered that her name was being prominently displayed on the single's label. Warner Bros. also charged her for a share of the recording costs, which was to be recouped from her drastically reduced royalty. When Stevens scored her own hit with "Sixteen Reasons" in 1960, Warner Bros. refused to allow her to sing it on Hawaiian Eye because it was not published by MPHC, and they also prevented her from performing it on The Ed Sullivan Show, thereby robbing her of nationwide promotion and a $5000 appearance fee[11]. The label was in serious financial trouble by 1960, having lost at least US$3 million[11][12]; the only reason it was not closed down was because the Warner board was reluctant to write off the additional $2 million the label was owed in outstanding receivables and inventory. After a restructure, Conkling was obliged to report to Herman Starr, who still loathed the record business; he rejected a buyout offer by Conkling and a group of other record company employees but agreed to keep the label running in exchange for heavy cost-cutting—the staff was reduced from 100 to 30 and Conkling voluntarily cut his pay from $1000 to $500[13]. Warner Bros then turned to rock'n'roll acts in in hopes of turning around the label's fortunes, but their first signing, Bill Haley, failed to score any hits. They were more fortuntate with their next signing, The Everly Brothers (who had previously recorded for Cadence Records). In a bold and uncharacteristic move, Herman Starr effectively gambled the future of the company by approving what amounted to the first million-dollar contract in music history, which guaranteed the Everly Brothers $525,000 against an escalating royalty rate of up to 7 percent, well above the industry standard of the day[13]. Luckily the Everlys' first Warner Bros single, "Cathy's Clown" was a smash hit, going to #1 in the U.S. and selling more than eight million copies. In 1959 Warner Bros had signed rising standup comedian Bob Newhart, marking the beginning of the label's continuing involvement with comedy. Newhart provided the label's next major commercial breakthrough -- in May 1960, three months after the success of "Cathy's Clown", Newhart's debut album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart went straight to #1 in the U.S., staying at the top for fourteen weeks, charting for more than two years and selling more than 600,000 copies[13]. Capping this commercial success, Newhart scored historic wins in three major categories at the 1961 Grammy Awards, winning Album of the Year for Button-Down Mind, while Newhart himself won Best New Artist -- the first time a comedy album had won 'Album of the Year', and the only time a comedian has won 'Best New Artist' -- while Newhart's quickly-released follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back (1960) also won the Grammy for Best Comedy Performance - Spoken Word. New staff joined the label in late 1961 -- Jim Conkling retired in the fall of that year, selecting as his successor Mike Maitland, a former Capitol executive, and Joe Smith joined as head of promotion. Warner Bros made another prescient signing in folk group Peter, Paul & Mary. The trio had been on the verge of signing with Atlantic Records, but before the deal could be completed they were poached by Warners. Artie Mogull (who worked for one of Warners' publishing companies, Witmark Music) had introduced their manager Albert Grossman to Herman Starr, and the group signed a recording and publishing deal with the company. Grossman's deal for the group broke new ground for recording artists—it included a substantial advance of $30,000 and, most significantly, it set a new benchmark for recording artist contracts by stipulating that the trio should retain complete creative control over the recording and packaging of their music[14]. Soon after, Grossman and Mogull signed a publishing deal that gave Witmark one of its most lucrative clients -- Bob Dylan. Grossman bought out Dylan's previous contract with Leeds Music and signed the then unknown singer-songwriter to Witmark for an advance of $5000. Two years later in 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary scored two consecutive Top 10 hits with Dylan songs, launching Dylan's career, and this was followed by many more hits for artists covering Dylan's songs, alongside the growing commercial success of Dylan himself. Grossman benefited enormously from both deals, since he took a 25% commission as Dylan's manager, and he structured Dylan's publishing deal so that he received 50% of Witmark's share of Dylan's publishing income[14] -- a tactic that was later emulated by other leading artist managers such as David Geffen. Meanwhile, the label enjoyed further success with comedy recordings. Allan Sherman recorded an LP My Son, the Folk Singer, which satirised the folk boom, and it became a huge hit, selling over a million copies. Bill Cosby broke through soon after and he continued the label's dream run with comedy into the late 1960s, releasing a string of highly successful albums on Warner Bros over the next six years, alongside his groundbreaking career as a TV actor. Despite a dismal Christmas party to end 1961, the label's fortunes had finally turned around by 1962 thanks to the Everly Brothers, Newhart, Peter, Paul & Mary and Allan Sherman, and Warner Bros Records ended the financial year 1961-62 in the black for the first time since its foundation[15]. [edit] Warner/Reprise 1963-67In 1963, the year that Warner Bros. Pictures closed its famous animation division, the company purchased Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records in a "rescue" takeover, which paid Sinatra US$1.5 million and gave him a one-third share in the combined record company, as part of a broader deal to acquire Sinatra's services as an actor for Warner Bros Pictures[13]. Reprise was itself in financial straits at the time of the sale, and the Warner Records management team was dismayed at being pushed back into debt by the acquisition, but they were reportedly given no choice—Ben Kalmenson, a Warner Bros company director and close aide to Jack Warner, summoned the label's directors to a meeting in New York and explicitly told them that both he and Jack Warner wanted the deal and they expected them to vote in favour of it[16]. Despite their misgivings, the purchase ultimately proved very beneficial to Warners. Reprise flourished in the late 1960s thanks to Sinatra's famous "comeback" and the hits by Sinatra and his daughter Nancy, and the label also secured the U.S. distribution rights to the recordings of Jimi Hendrix. Most importantly for the future of the company, the merger brought Reprise manager Mo Ostin into the Warner fold. He was appointed as the Reprise division manager and "his ultimate value to Warner Bros. would dwarf Sinatra's"[17]. Ostin's business and musical instincts and his rapport with artists were to prove crucial to the success of the Warner labels over the next two decades. In 1964, Warner Bros successfully negotiated with French label Disques Vogue and Warners' British distributor Pye Records for the rights to distribute Petula Clark's recordings in the US, beginning with her international hit "Downtown", which won . Warner also released other Pye artists to the U.S. market such as The Kinks. 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 recording artist, although Warwick's five years at Warners were relatively unsuccessful in comparison to her spectacular hit-making tenure at Scepter. Another significant development in the label's history came in 1966 when Ostin hired young independent producer Lenny Waronker as an A&R manager, beginning a strong and enduring mentor/protege relationship between the two. Waronker, the son of Liberty Records founder Simon Waronker, had previously worked as an assistant to Liberty producer Snuff Garrett[18]. Later he worked with the small Los Angeles label Autumn Records, founded by disc jockeys Tom Donahue, Bobby Mitchell and Sylvester Stewart (who later became famous as Sly Stone). Waronker had been hired as a freelance producer for some of Autumn's acts including The Beau Brummels and The Mojo Men and for the recording sessions he brought in several musician friends who were then becoming established on the L.A. music scene: pianists Randy Newman (a childhood friend) and Leon Russell and pianist/arranger Van Dyke Parks. This association was the foundation of the creative circle that centred on Waronker at Warner Bros and which, with Ostin's continuing support, became the catalyst for Warner Records' subsequent success as a rock music label[19]. Initially, Waronker looked after the acts that Warners took over when they bought Autumn Records for $10,000, but during the year he also avidly pursued rising Los Angeles band Buffalo Springfield although, much to his and Ostin's chagrin, the band was ultimately signed by Atlantic Records. In 1967, Warners acquired another record company Valiant Records, and with it The Association was added to the Warner roster. During the year the label also took its first tentative step into the burgeoning rock market, signing leading San Francisco psychedelic rock group The Grateful Dead. Warner Bros. threw the band a release party at the Fugazi Hall in North Beach. During the concert Warner A&R manager Joe Smith took the stage and announced "I just want to say what an honor it is to be able to introduce The Grateful Dead and its music and its music to the world", which prompted a cynical Jerry Garcia to quip in reply: "I just want to say what an honor it is for The Grateful Dead to introduce Warner Brothers Records to the world."[20] [edit] 1967-1969: transition and expansionIn November 1966 the entire Warner group was taken over by and merged with Seven Arts Productions, owned by Elliot Hyman. The New York-based company specialized in syndicating old movies and cartoons to TV and had produced a number of significant features for other studios including Stanley Kubrick's Lolita, and forged a production partnership with the noted British studio Hammer Films. Hyman's purchase of Jack Warner's controlling share of the Warner group for US$32 million stunned the film world—Warner Records executive Joe Smith later quipped that it was "... as if the Pasadena News bought The New York Times. As ludicrous as that."[21]. The newly-merged group was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Although Warner Bros. Pictures was faltering, the purchase coincided with a period of tremendous growth in the music industry and Warner/Reprise was now on its way to becoming a major player. Hyman's investment banker, Alan Hirshfeld of Charles Allen and Company, urged Hyman to expand the company's record holdings and arranged a meeting with Atlantic Records' co-owners Jerry Wexler and Ahmed and Nesuhi Ertegun. This eventually resulted in the purchase of leading independent label Atlantic Records in 1968. In June 1967 Mo Ostin attended the historic Monterey International Pop Festival, where The Association performed in the opening slot. During his visit he met Andy Wickham, an assistant to festival promoter Lou Adler whom Ostin subsequently hired as a talent scout. Alongside Lenny Waronker, Wickham was significant to Warner Bros in this period and greatly assisted the development of both Warner and Reprise as serious rock music labels -- among the acts he played a role in signing were Eric Andersen, Jethro Tull, Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell, whom he successfully recommended to Ostin in his first week with the company[22]. During this period, Warner Bros signed several other important acts including The Grateful Dead, Randy Newman, The Fugs and Van Dyke Parks. Some of these signings soon achieved significant successes, while others were 'sleeper' acts who took several years to become well known; Randy Newman did not make his commercial breakthrough until the mid-1970s, but in the meantime he gained a high profile in the industry thanks to the hit songs he wrote for other acts like Three Dog Night and Alan Price. Although Warners spent huge sums on albums that sold poorly, and there were some missteps in its promotion strategy, the presence of unorthodox acts like the Dead and critically-acclaimed 'cult' performers like Newman and Parks, combined with the artistic freedom that the label afforded them, proved to be highly significant in building Warner Bros' reputation and credibility. Bob Krasnow, who briefly headed Warners' shortlived 'black' label Loma Records later commented that the Dead " .... were really the springboard. People said 'Wow, if they'll sign the Dead, they must be going in the right direction.'"[23] In 1967 Lenny Waronker produced Song Cycle, the debut album by his friend Van Dyke Parks, which reportedly cost more than $35,000 to produce. It sold poorly despite rave critical reviews, so publicist Stan Cornyn (who had helped the label to sign The Grateful Dead) wrote an infamous tongue-in-cheek advertisement which suggested that those who actually purchased the album had probably worn their copies out by playing it over and over, and suggested that listeners should send in worn-out copies to Warner Bros, who would exchange it for two new copies, including one "to educate a friend with". Incensed by the tactic, Parks accused Cornyn of trying to kill his career. Cornyn encountered similar problems with Joni Mitchell—he penned an advertisement that was meant to convey the message that Mitchell was yet to achieve significant market penetration, but the tag-line -- "Joni Mitchell is 90% Virgin" -- reportedly reduced Mitchell to tears and Cornyn had to withdraw it from publication[24]. Warner Bros. also struggled with their flagship rock act The Grateful Dead who, like Peter, Paul & Mary, had negotiated complete artistic control over the recording and packaging of their music[25]. The band's debut album had been recorded in just four days, and although it was not a major hit, it cracked the US Top 50 album chart and sold steadily, eventually going gold in 1971. For their second album, however, the Dead embarked on a marathon series of recording sessions stretching over seven months from September 1967 to March 1968. They began the album with David Hassinger, who had produced the first album, but he quit the project in frustration in December 1967 while they were recording in New York City, although he is co-credited with band on the album. The group and their concert sound engineer Dan Healy then took over production of the album themselves, taking the unusual step of intermixing studio material with recordings from their live concerts. Anthem of the Sun proved to be the least successful of the Grateful Dead's 1960s albums -- it sold poorly, the sessions put the band more than $100,000 in debt to the label[24], and Warner Bros executive Joe Smith described it as "the most unreasonable project with which we have ever involved ourselves"[26]. The Dead's relationship with Warners was stretched even further by the equally protracted production of their third album Aoxomoxoa, one of the first records to be recorded using the newly-released Ampex 16-track tape recorder. It also took seven months to record (Sep. 1968 - Mar. 1969) and cost $180,000, almost twice as much as its predecessor. It too sold poorly on first release and took almost thirty years to be accredited with Gold Record status[27]. There were further difficulties when the band presented Warner Bros with the tapes of a live double-album which, they declared, they wanted to call Skull Fuck, but Ostin handled the matter with skill; rather than refusing point-blank to release it, he reminded the group that they were more than $100,000 in debt to the label and would not see any royalties until this had been repaid. He then pointed out that such a provocative title would inevitably hurt sales because Sears and other major retailers would not stock it. Realizing that this would reduce their income, the band voluntarily changed the title of the album, which was eventually released as Live/Dead[28]. Some of the label's biggest commercial successes during this period were with "Sunshine Pop" acts. Harpers Bizarre scored a #13 Billboard hit in April 1967 with their version of Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"[29]. A month later The Association scored a #1 US hit with "Windy" and they reached #8 on the album chart with their third album Insight Out (their first for Warner Bros., which had taken over their previous label, Valiant. The two Valiant albums were reissued on the Warner Bros. label.). Their next single "Never My Love" also topped the charts in autumn 1967 (#2 Billboard, #1 Cashbox) and went on to become one of the most successful of all Warner Bros recordings—it became a radio staple and is now accredited by BMI as the second most-played song on US radio in the 20th century, surpassing both "Yesterday" by The Beatles and "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King[30]. The group's 1968 Greatest Hits album was also a major hit, reaching #4 on the US album chart. Another notable Warner Bros release from this period was Astral Weeks, the debut solo album by Van Morrison, who signed with the label in 1968. Although it sold poorly on its first release (and did not reach gold record status until 2001) it has been widely acclaimed by musicians and critics worldwide, has featured prominently on many "Best Albums of All Time" lists[31] and has remained in release almost continuously since 1968. In 1968, using the profits from Warner-Reprise, Hyman purchased Atlantic for $17.5 million, adding the label's valuable archive and its growing roster of new artists to Warners' assets. However, this purchase also caused rancour among the Warner/Reprise management, who were upset that their hard-won profits had been co-opted to buy Atlantic, and that Atlantic's executives were made large shareholders in Warner-Seven Arts—the deal gave the Ertegun brothers and Jerry Wexler between them 66,000 shares of Warners' common stock[32]. In 1969 Warner-Seven Arts was bought by Kinney National Company for US$400 million. In the summer of that year Atlantic Records agreed to assist Warner Bros Records in setting overseas divisions but when Warner executive Phil Rose arrive in Australia to begin the process of setting up an Australian subsidiary, he discovered that Atlantic had already signed a four-year distribution deal with a local label, Festival Records. An executive battle between Mike Maitland and Ahmed Ertegun culminated in Maitland being dismissed from his position on 25 January 1970. Mo Ostin become president of Warner Bros Records and Joe Smith was appointed executive vice-president[33]. [edit] 1970-1980Beginning with the signing of The Grateful Dead in 1967, Warner Bros. Records steadily built up a prestigious lineup of rock and pop artists. Under the guidance of its A&R managers and staff producers, including Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman and Ted Templeman, sales boomed in the early 1970s and by the end of the decade it had became one of the world's leading rock labels, with a star-studded roster that included James Taylor, Van Morrison, America, Alice Cooper, The Doobie Brothers, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, Seals & Crofts, LaBelle and Rickie Lee Jones; this was augmented by lucrative licencing deals with international labels including Vertigo and Island Records (1975-1982) that gave Warner Bros the American distribution rights for leading British and European rock acts including Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath and Kraftwerk. The label also expanded overseas in this period, opening its first international offices in Australia, Britain and Japan and the UK in 1971, followed by branches in Germany, France and Canada. These operated under the new combined banner of WEA International, with the initials taken from the group's three major labels, Warner Bros, Elektra and Atlantic. Aided by the growth of FM radio and the album oriented rock format, LPs became the primary vehicle of Warners marketing successs throughout the 1970s, although artists such as the Doobie Brothers and America also scored many major US and international hit singles. Warners began the decade in promising form with Van Morrison's second solo album Moondance (Jan. 1970) which consolidated his distinctive blend of rock, jazz and R&B, earned glowing critical praise, and proved far more commercially successful than Astral Weeks -- it made the Top 40 album chart in both the US and the UK, the single "Come Running" was a US Top 40 hit (#39, Billboard) and the title track became a radio staple. Like Astral Weeks it still features prominently in many "Best Albums of All Time" listings[34] and 40 years after its release it still ranks in the Top 20 in three major album sales categories on Amazon.com[35]. A licencing deal with Philips Records' progressive subsidiary Vertigo brought Warner Bros another rich prize in British hard rock band Black Sabbath. Their eponymous debut album (recorded in just two days) reached #8 on the UK album chart, and following its US release in May 1970 it reached #23 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for over a year.[36][37], selling strongly despite some negative reviews[38]. It has since been certified platinum in both US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and in the UK by British Phonographic Industry (BPI).[39][40] Their second album was to have been called War Pigs after the song of the same name but Warners changed the title of the album to Paranoid, fearing a backlash by supporters of the Vietnam War. It broke into the Top 10 on the US album chart in March 1971, and went on to sell four million copies in the US[41] with virtually no radio airplay.[37]. In 1971 the newly established British division of Warner Bros signed the UK-based trio America. They released their debut album late in the year to only moderate success, but in early 1972 their single "A Horse With No Name" became a major international hit, reaching #1 in the US. Warner Bros hastily reissued the album with the hit song included and it too became a huge hit, reaching #1 on the US album chart and earning a platinum record award. Over the next three years the band scored five more US Top 10 singles, including a second US #1 with "Sister Golden Hair (1975). Their albums also performed spectacularly well in the charts—all of their first seven LPs were US Top 40 albums, five of these seven made the Top 10 and all but one (Hat Trick, 1973) achieved either gold or platinum sales. Their 1975 Greatest Hits album became a enduring seller and is now accredited at 4x platinum. After a slow start, The Doobie Brothers proved to be one of Warners' most successful signings. In 1972 they released their second LP Toulouse Street, which was a solid success, reaching #21 on the album chart and spawning two US Top 40 singles in "Listen to the Music" and "Jesus is Just Alright". This breakthrough inaugurated a sustained run of hit albums and singles over the next five years. Their third album The Captain and Me was even more successful, reaching #7 in the US and producing two more hit singles, "China Grove" (#15) and "Long Train Runnin'" (#8); it became a consistent seller and is now accredited 2x Platinum by the RIAA. Their fourth album What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (1974) fared even better, reaching #4 and spawning another two hits, "Another Park, Another Sunday" (1974) and their first US #1, "Black Water" (1975). Their 1975 album Stampede also reached #4, and producing another hit single with the Motown cover "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)", which reached #11 in the US. Around 1975 several acts transferred to Warner Bros from its sister label Reprise including expatriate British band Fleetwood Mac, Ry Cooder and jazz-rock singer-songwriter Michael Franks. By far the most successful of these was Fleetwood Mac, whose massive success in the late 1970s and early 1980s firmly established Warner Bros in the front rank of major record labels. Few however would have predicted it from the band's tumultuous history between 1970 and 1975 -- there been multiple lineup changes (with only two original members remaining by 1974), their album sales declined, and a legal battle over the group's name kept them off the road for over a year. Just as it group moved labels in 1975, the band was re-invigorated by the recruitment of American singer-guitarist-songwriter Lindsay Buckingham and his then girlfriend, singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks. The 'new' Fleetwood Mac scored a string of US and international hits with tracks lifted from their self-titled Warner Bros. debut album, which was a huge success—it reached #1 on the US album chart, charted for more than 30 weeks and sold more than 5 million copies. In 1977, despite major internal problems, they produced their now-legendary Rumours LP, which similarly generated a string of hit singles and became the most successful record in the label's history—it is currently ranked the 11th biggest selling album of all time and as of 2010 it is estimated to have sold than 40 million copies[42]. By the time of The Doobie Brothers 1976 album Takin' It to the Streets founding member Tom Johnston had effectively left the band, but fortunately for the group his place was taken by former Steely Dan session man Michael McDonald, whose distinctive vocals helped to propel the group to even greater success. The new album sold strongly, reaching #8 in the US and the title track reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming a perennial radio favourite. Warner Bros also released the massively successful Best of the Doobies (1976), which has become one of the biggest-selling albums of all time and is currently accredited at 10x Platinum status. Several Ry Cooder transferred from Reprise to Warner Bros around this time. Cooder's first Warner Bros release was the 1977 live album Showtime and he remained with the label until his contract expired in the late 1980s. Cooder's 1979 album Bop 'Til You Drop was the first major-label rock recording to be digitally recorded and it became one of his best sellers, reaching #62 on the Billboard album chart. By that time, the Reprise label was rendered dormant with only Frank Sinatra (who founded the label) and Neil Young (who refused to leave) continuing to issue new material on the Reprise label. All other Reprise acts were transferred to the Warner Bros label. The label's gave continuing support to 'niche' acts like Cooder, Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks and Little Feat -- who received consistent critical plaudits despite a lack of mainstream success -- enhanced Warners' reputation as a quality, artist-oriented label. On several occasions this patience was rewarded with chart success; Randy Newman's 1974 album Good Old Boys made the US Top 40 album chart, and his controversial 1977 single "Short People became one of the surprise hits of the year, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Throughout the 1970s Warner Bros. also benefitted from its distribution deals with independent labels such as Straight Records, DiscReet Records, Bizarre Records, Bearsville Records and Geffen Records (which was sold to MCA in 1990). During the disco boom of the late 1970s, Warners' distribution deals with smaller labels gave it some success in this field[43]. The label also began to tentatively embrace the burgeoning New Wave movement in the late 1970s, signing cult alternative bands DEVO and The B-52s. Warner Bros also scored mainstream pop hits with singer/actor Shaun Cassidy -- his version of "Da Doo Ron Ron" went to #1 in the US in 1977, his next two singles (both penned by Eric Carmen) were Top 10 hits and Cassidy was nominated for a Grammy award. As the decade drew to a close Warners achieved another major breakout with singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, whose self-titled debut album went to #3 in the US, #1 in Australia and #18 in the UK and produced two hit singles, "Chuck E's in Love" (US #4) and "Young Blood" (US #40). [edit] 1980-1988[edit] 1989-2004: the Time Warner eraIn 1989, Warner Communications was acquired by Time Inc. to create Time Warner. In 1991, WEA was renamed Warner Music. In 1994, Seagram acquired a stake in Time Warner. [edit] 2004-present: Warner Music GroupIn 2003, amid management disputes, sagging share prices and rising alarm about the impact of digital file sharing, Time Warner decided to unload its music operations. In March 2004, Time Warner's music assets were acquired by private equity group headed by Thomas H. Lee Partners, Lexa Partners (led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., who put up US$150 million drawn from his family's stake in Vivendi), Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners. The deal set the group's value at around US$2.6 billion, payable in cash and other considerations, and it included an option that would allow Time Warner to buy back in if conditions proved favorable. Bronfman, Lee, Bain and Providence had reportedly recouped their investment by May 2006 through dividends, refinancing and a share offer floated in May 2005. Today Warner Bros. Records remains one of Warner Music Group's dominant labels, with around 120 artists on its roster. Despite the divestiture, WMG currently enjoys a royalty-free license from Time Warner for the use of Warner Bros. trademarks although this could be revoked if WMG comes under control of a major motion picture studio.[44] American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi was appointed to vice president of A&R in 2008. [edit] Affiliated labels[edit] Current
[edit] Former
[edit] ArtistsMain article: List of current Warner Bros. Records artists Main article: List of former Warner Bros. Records artists [edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] External links
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