Colgems Records
Encyclopedia
Colgems Records was a record label
which existed from 1966
to 1971
. It was a joint venture between Screen Gems
, the television division of Columbia Pictures
, and RCA Records, to issue records by The Monkees
and other artists affiliated with Screen Gems. The label would also issue soundtrack
recordings for Screen Gems and Columbia Pictures productions. RCA acted as manufacturer and distributor for Colgems. (Outside the United States, all Colgems productions appeared on the RCA Victor label.)
An earlier label, Colpix Records
, was dissolved to make way for the new company, and nearly all Colpix titles went out of print. (One Colpix album was reissued on Colgems; the soundtrack to the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia
.) Even before the Monkees began, Colpix had signed two future members – Davy Jones
, recruited to Screen Gems by Ward Sylvester
, and Michael Nesmith
, who recorded as "Michael Blessing". Eventually, the Colpix catalog was sold to Roulette Records. Today, the Colpix catalog is owned jointly by Rhino/Warner and EMI.
Among the non-Monkees Colgems roster were Sally Field
(star of Gidget
and The Flying Nun
), Jewel Akens
, Sajid Khan
(star of the short-lived NBC / MGM series "Maya"), Paula Wayne, The Lewis & Clarke Expedition (whose members included Michael Martin Murphy). Hoyt Axton
(who went on to write "The Pusher
" for Steppenwolf
and "Joy to the World
" for Three Dog Night
), Alex Keenan and comedian Rich Little
. Soundtracks to Casino Royale
, Oliver!
, In Cold Blood
, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
were also released on Colgems.
. The label's final release, titled Barrel Full of Monkees and showcasing its flagship act, appeared in 1971 but sold poorly. Colgems then closed, and its master recording
s and artists were folded into the Bell Records family, which, unlike Colgems, was wholly owned by Columbia Pictures. Bell later evolved into Arista Records
, headed by Clive Davis.
In 1979, Columbia Pictures sold Arista (including the Colgems assets) to BMG-owned Ariola Records. Six years later, Ariola's parent company, BMG, merged with RCA Records.
Today, the assets of Colgems Records (except for The Monkees' output) is controlled by Sony Music Entertainment
- incidentally, parent company Sony
had acquired Columbia Pictures in 1989. All of the Monkees' recordings are currently owned by Rhino Records, who licensed the group's original Colgems LP's from Arista and reissued them in the mid-1980s.
, in a distribution deal
similar to the one Screen Gems held with RCA.
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
which existed from 1966
1966 in music
-Events:*January 3 – Hullabaloo shows promotional videos of The Beatles songs "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out".*January 8 – Shindig! airs for the last time on ABC, with musical guests the Kinks and the Who...
to 1971
1971 in music
-Events:*February 1 – after months of feuding in the press, Ginger Baker and Elvin Jones hold a "drum battle" at The Lyceum.*February 8 – Bob Dylan's hour-long documentary film, Eat the Document, is premièred at New York's Academy of Music...
. It was a joint venture between Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
, the television division of Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, and RCA Records, to issue records by The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
and other artists affiliated with Screen Gems. The label would also issue soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
recordings for Screen Gems and Columbia Pictures productions. RCA acted as manufacturer and distributor for Colgems. (Outside the United States, all Colgems productions appeared on the RCA Victor label.)
An earlier label, Colpix Records
Colpix Records
Colpix Records was the first recording company for Columbia Pictures–Screen Gems. Colpix got its name from combining Columbia and Pictures . It was founded by Jonie Taps and Harry Cohn in 1958, and was based in New York City. Paul Wexler headed the label. Stu Phillips was in charge of A&R...
, was dissolved to make way for the new company, and nearly all Colpix titles went out of print. (One Colpix album was reissued on Colgems; the soundtrack to the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...
.) Even before the Monkees began, Colpix had signed two future members – Davy Jones
Davy Jones (actor)
David Thomas "Davy" Jones is an English rock singer-songwriter and actor best known as a member of the Monkees.-Early life:...
, recruited to Screen Gems by Ward Sylvester
Ward Sylvester
Ward Sylvester is an American entertainment industry producer, manager, promoter, executive and consultant. He has served as President of Pacific Arts Inc., and Personality Productions; Vice President of Columbia Pictures TV and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
, and Michael Nesmith
Michael Nesmith
Robert Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name...
, who recorded as "Michael Blessing". Eventually, the Colpix catalog was sold to Roulette Records. Today, the Colpix catalog is owned jointly by Rhino/Warner and EMI.
Among the non-Monkees Colgems roster were Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
(star of Gidget
Gidget
Gidget is a fictional character created by author Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel, Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas. The novel follows the adventures of a teenage girl and her surfing friends on the beach at Malibu. The name Gidget is a portmanteau of "girl and midget"...
and The Flying Nun
The Flying Nun
The Flying Nun is an American sitcom produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book The Fifteenth Pelican, by Tere Rios, which starred Sally Field as Sister Bertrille...
), Jewel Akens
Jewel Akens
Jewel Akens is an American singer and record producer.-Biography:He first recorded with Eddie Daniels as Jewel and Eddie on the Silver Records label in 1960. A number of his recordings featured Eddie Cochran on guitar.He later went solo and recorded "The Birds And The Bees" in 1965, on the Era...
, Sajid Khan
Sajid Khan
Sajid Khan is a former Indian actor. He is the adopted son of Indian film producer Mehboob Khan, founder of Mehboob Studios, in India.-Career:...
(star of the short-lived NBC / MGM series "Maya"), Paula Wayne, The Lewis & Clarke Expedition (whose members included Michael Martin Murphy). Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Wayne Axton was an American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. As he matured, some of his songwriting efforts became well...
(who went on to write "The Pusher
The Pusher
"The Pusher" is a rock song written by Hoyt Axton, made popular by the 1969 movie Easy Rider which used Steppenwolf's version to accompany the opening scenes of drug trafficking....
" for Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf (band)
Steppenwolf are a Canadian-American rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of Toronto group The...
and "Joy to the World
Joy to the World (Hoyt Axton song)
"Joy to the World" is a song written by Hoyt Axton, and made famous by the band Three Dog Night. The song is also popularly known by its opening words, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog"...
" for Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night is an American rock band best known for their music from 1968 to 1975. During that time the band charted 21 Billboard top 40 hits in America, three of which reached Number One...
), Alex Keenan and comedian Rich Little
Rich Little
Richard Caruthers "Rich" Little is a Canadian-American impressionist and voice actor. He has long been known throughout the world as a top impersonator of famous people, resulting in his nickname, "The Man of a Thousand Voices"....
. Soundtracks to Casino Royale
Casino Royale (1967 film)
Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...
, Oliver!
Oliver! (film)
Oliver! is a 1968 British musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....
, In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood (film)
In Cold Blood is a 1967 film based on Truman Capote's book of the same name. Richard Brooks prepared the adaptation and directed the film. Some scenes were filmed on the locations of the original events, in Garden City and Holcomb, Kansas including the Clutter residence...
, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 American drama film starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, and featuring Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton...
were also released on Colgems.
Decline and Phase Out
Colgems Records slumped after the critical and commercial failure of the last Monkees album Changes, which featured only Jones and Micky DolenzMicky Dolenz
George Michael "Micky" Dolenz, Jr. is an American actor, musician, television director, radio personality and theater director, best known as a member of the 1960s made-for-television band The Monkees.-Biography:...
. The label's final release, titled Barrel Full of Monkees and showcasing its flagship act, appeared in 1971 but sold poorly. Colgems then closed, and its master recording
Master recording
A multitrack recording master tape, disk or computer files on which productions are developed for later mixing, is known as the multi-track master, while the tape, disk or computer files holding a mix is called a mixed master.It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording, known as...
s and artists were folded into the Bell Records family, which, unlike Colgems, was wholly owned by Columbia Pictures. Bell later evolved into Arista Records
Arista Records
Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...
, headed by Clive Davis.
In 1979, Columbia Pictures sold Arista (including the Colgems assets) to BMG-owned Ariola Records. Six years later, Ariola's parent company, BMG, merged with RCA Records.
Today, the assets of Colgems Records (except for The Monkees' output) is controlled by Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
- incidentally, parent company Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
had acquired Columbia Pictures in 1989. All of the Monkees' recordings are currently owned by Rhino Records, who licensed the group's original Colgems LP's from Arista and reissued them in the mid-1980s.
SGC Records
A related label to Colgems was SGC (Screen Gems-Columbia) Records, which issued albums by Nazz through Atlantic RecordsAtlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, in a distribution deal
Distribution deal
A distribution deal is a legal agreement between one party and another, to handle distribution of a product....
similar to the one Screen Gems held with RCA.