Liberty Records
Encyclopedia
Liberty Records was a United States
-based record label
. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker
in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep
as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom
and had two previous revivals.
's "The Girl Upstairs." Its first big hit, in 1955, was by Julie London
singing her version of torch song Cry Me a River, which climbed to US#9. It helped Liberty sell her first album, Julie Is Her Name
. She was to record 32 albums in her career.
In 1956, Liberty signed the little-known Henry Mancini
. They released two singles and several albums for him, but he left in 1959 when he got hot. Billy Rose
and Lee David song Tonight You Belong to Me scored a US#4 and UK#28 as performed by teen sisters Patience and Prudence
(McIntyre), selling over a million copies.(It was first recorded in 1927, revived by Frankie Laine
in 1952.)
Their biggest early rock and roll artist was Eddie Cochran
, who had just starred in his second film, Untamed Youth
. His first hit for the label was John D. Loudermilk
's "Sittin' in the Balcony" in 1957, then came Summertime Blues
and C'mon Everybody
.
The label was also home to R&B veterans Billy Ward and His Dominoes after Jackie Wilson
quit, replacing him with ex-Lark
Eugene Mumford. They hit with hoary Hoagy Carmichael
1927 song Stardust
– already recorded by many artists – which rode the pop charts for 24 weeks and got as high as US#13. The track also reached #13 in the UK Singles Chart
in October 1957. It was to be their only million seller.
By 1958, Liberty was close to bankruptcy when Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. convinced them that they might as well press singles of "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)
" with the leftover vinyl pucks and labels in their warehouse. (The 'Munks were named after Liberty execs.) In just a few months leading up to Christmas of 1958, the record shot to the top of the charts. It became the only Christmas record to reach #1 on the pop chart, selling 4.5 million copies. Liberty was back in business.
In 1957, Liberty acquired Dick Bock's jazz
label, Pacific Jazz Records
. That same year, the World Pacific label was started in conjunction with Pacific Jazz.
-born teen idol Bobby Vee
. They picked up his single recorded for Soma
with his combo The Shadows, "Suzie Baby", and stuck with him as a solo act. Ears perked up over his reading of The Clovers
' 1955 doo-wop
ballad Devil or Angel in mid-1960. In the summer of 1961 he got a hole-in-one with the Gerry Goffin
/Carole King
tune Take Good Care of My Baby
... a US#1, UK#3. He regularly cranked out Hot-100 hits through 1970.
Other major singings included Johnny Burnette
, Eugene McDaniels, Del Shannon
, and Gary Lewis and The Playboys.
In 1963, the Liberty Records label was sold to Avnet
(an electronics
corporation) for $
12 million. Avnet also bought Blue Note Records
, Imperial Records
, Dolton Records
, Aladdin Records
and Minit Records
. After two years of losses, Avnet sold the labels back to Al Bennett for $8 million. In 1966, a reissue label, Sunset Records
, was started to deal with previously issued records from the new labels.
Liberty recordings were first distributed in England
by Decca Records
on London Records
, then by EMI
, which released the recordings on the Liberty label. Liberty established a branch office in London
, which signed acts such as the Bonzo Dog Band, Idle Race
and The Anysley Dunbar Retaliation
. Liberty also signed The Searchers
for a short time in 1968 and in 1967 they issued the first single by Family
. Ron Kass, onetime president of Liberty Records, later became the head of the Beatles' record label, Apple Records
, and Ron Bledsoe, assistant to Al
Bennett, was picked by Clive Davis to run the Nashville arm of Columbia Records.
In 1966, singer (and Imperial artist) Johnny Rivers
started another Liberty subsidiary, Soul City Records
. The following year, Liberty discontinued the Dolton label and moved its artists to the parent label.
In 1968, Liberty was bought for $38 million by Transamerica Corporation
(an insurance company) and combined with their other label United Artists Records
. Two years later they shut down Imperial and Minit and transferred their artists to Liberty. Finally in 1971, Liberty and its remaining labels (with the exception of Soul City in which the name was held onto by its owner Johnny Rivers and its catalog sold to Bell Records) were shifted to United Artists Records and Liberty Records was no more.
In 1970, Liberty act Sugarloaf
scored a top 10 hit in the United States
with "Green-Eyed Lady
", which reached #3 on the Billboard
chart
. Sugarloaf
would score again in 1975 with "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" (US #9).
In 1978, Artie Mogull and Jerry Rubinstein acquired United Artists and Liberty Records (with money they borrowed from Capitol Records
, which ironically was originally going to be named Liberty Records before changing names prior to incorporation). In February 1979, Capitol's parent company EMI
foreclosed
on them and has owned
the rights of the Liberty labels since then.
In 1980, EMI dropped the United Artists name and revived the Liberty name. Initially, EMI used Liberty to reissue the United Artists, Liberty and Imperial catalogues. From 1980 until 1984, Capitol used Liberty as a country music
label, featuring such artists as Kenny Rogers
and Dottie West
. In 1991, EMI renamed its Capitol Nashville label to Liberty Records, before switching back to the Capitol Nashville name four years later.
In 1994, Liberty Records president Jimmy Bowen
also founded a sister label to Liberty called Patriot Records, whose roster included Bryan Austin
, Lisa Brokop
, John Berry, Deana Carter
, John Bunzow and Noah Gordon
. Berry had previously been on Liberty, while the other acts were newly signed. After the label closed in 1995, Berry, Brokop and Carter transferred to Capitol Nashville.
records like the Hermes House Band
, EMI reformatted the label in 2001 to focus on 'heritage acts'. The label, now operating in a similar sphere to that of rival Sanctuary
, signed a number of acts, such as The Alarm MMVI
, The Stranglers
and Prefab Sprout
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-based record label
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,...
. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker
Simon Waronker
Simon "Si" Waronker was a violinist and record producer from Los Angeles, California. Graduating from high school at 13 years old, he won a scholarship to study music in France....
in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep
Theodore Keep
Theodore "Ted" Keep was a co-founder of Liberty Records. In his role as chief of engineering at the label and afterward, Keep introduced a number of innovations to commercial sound recording....
as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and had two previous revivals.
1950s
Liberty's early releases focused on film and orchestral music. Its first single was Lionel NewmanLionel Newman
Lionel Newman was an American conductor, pianist, and film and television composer. He was the brother of Alfred Newman and Emil Newman, uncle of Randy Newman, David Newman and Thomas Newman, and grandfather of Joey Newman....
's "The Girl Upstairs." Its first big hit, in 1955, was by Julie London
Julie London
Julie London was an American singer and actress. She was best known for her smoky, sensual voice. London was at her singing career's peak in the 1950s. Her acting career lasted more than 35 years...
singing her version of torch song Cry Me a River, which climbed to US#9. It helped Liberty sell her first album, Julie Is Her Name
Julie Is Her Name
Julie Is Her Name was the first LP album by Julie London, released by Liberty Records in December, 1955, under catalog numbers LRP-3006, in monaural form. It was subsequently reprocessed to produce a stereophonic album, and this stereophonic version was released on May 25, 1960 as catalog number...
. She was to record 32 albums in her career.
In 1956, Liberty signed the little-known Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
. They released two singles and several albums for him, but he left in 1959 when he got hot. Billy Rose
Billy Rose
William "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
and Lee David song Tonight You Belong to Me scored a US#4 and UK#28 as performed by teen sisters Patience and Prudence
Patience and Prudence
Patience and Prudence McIntyre, known professionally as Patience and Prudence, were two sisters who were a young singing act in the 1950s.-Career:...
(McIntyre), selling over a million copies.(It was first recorded in 1927, revived by Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...
in 1952.)
Their biggest early rock and roll artist was Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the...
, who had just starred in his second film, Untamed Youth
Untamed Youth
Untamed Youth is a 1957 film starring Mamie Van Doren and released by Warner Bros. The film has been featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.-Plot:...
. His first hit for the label was John D. Loudermilk
John D. Loudermilk
John D. Loudermilk is an American singer and songwriter.-Biography:Born in Durham, North Carolina, Loudermilk grew up in a family who were members of the Salvation Army faith and was influenced by the church singing. His cousins Ira and Charlie Loudermilk were known professionally as the Louvin...
's "Sittin' in the Balcony" in 1957, then came Summertime Blues
Summertime Blues
"Summertime Blues" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American rockabilly artist Eddie Cochran. It was written in the late 1950s by Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart. Originally a single B-side, it was released in August 1958 and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on...
and C'mon Everybody
C'mon Everybody
"C'mon Everybody" is a 1958 song by Eddie Cochran and Jerry Capehart, originally released as a B-side. In 1959 it peaked in the UK at No. 6 in the singles chart, and, thirty years later, in 1988, the track was re-issued there and became a No. 14 hit. In the United States the song got to No. 35 on...
.
The label was also home to R&B veterans Billy Ward and His Dominoes after Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
quit, replacing him with ex-Lark
The Larks
The Larks were an African American vocal group, active in the early 1950s. They were not the same group as the Los Angeles-based Larks featuring Don Julian.-Original members:...
Eugene Mumford. They hit with hoary Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael
Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
1927 song Stardust
Stardust (song)
"Stardust" is an American popular song composed in 1927 by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics added in 1929 by Mitchell Parish. Originally titled "Star Dust", Carmichael first recorded the song at the Gennett Records studio in Richmond, Indiana...
– already recorded by many artists – which rode the pop charts for 24 weeks and got as high as US#13. The track also reached #13 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in October 1957. It was to be their only million seller.
By 1958, Liberty was close to bankruptcy when Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. convinced them that they might as well press singles of "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)
The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)
"The Chipmunk Song " is a song written by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. Although it was written and sung by Bagdasarian , the singing credits are given to The Chipmunks, a fictitious singing group consisting of three chipmunks by the names of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore...
" with the leftover vinyl pucks and labels in their warehouse. (The 'Munks were named after Liberty execs.) In just a few months leading up to Christmas of 1958, the record shot to the top of the charts. It became the only Christmas record to reach #1 on the pop chart, selling 4.5 million copies. Liberty was back in business.
In 1957, Liberty acquired Dick Bock's jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
label, Pacific Jazz Records
Pacific Jazz Records
Pacific Jazz Records was a Los Angeles-based record label best known for releasing cool jazz or West coast jazz. It was founded by Richard Bock and drummer Roy Harte in 1952....
. That same year, the World Pacific label was started in conjunction with Pacific Jazz.
1960s and 70s
Liberty's most successful signing of the early '60s would be FargoFargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
-born teen idol Bobby Vee
Bobby Vee
Robert Thomas Velline , known as Bobby Vee, is an American pop music singer. According to Billboard magazine, Vee has had 38 Hot 100 chart hits, 10 of which hit the Top 20.-Career:...
. They picked up his single recorded for Soma
Soma Records (U.S. label)
Soma Records was an American record company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and owned by wholesale record distributor Amos Heilicher. The Soma name was "Amos" spelled backwards. Heilicher, along with his brother Danny, was also in the jukebox business and owned the Musicland chain of retail...
with his combo The Shadows, "Suzie Baby", and stuck with him as a solo act. Ears perked up over his reading of The Clovers
The Clovers
-History:The group formed in 1946 at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C., with members Harold Lucas, Billy Shelton, and Thomas Woods. John "Buddy" Bailey was added soon after, and they began calling themselves the "Four Clovers", with Bailey on lead...
' 1955 doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
ballad Devil or Angel in mid-1960. In the summer of 1961 he got a hole-in-one with the Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...
/Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
tune Take Good Care of My Baby
Take Good Care of My Baby
"Take Good Care of My Baby" is a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin and made famous by Bobby Vee, when it was released in 1961. It quickly became popular, reaching #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in September. The song was covered by The Beatles during their audition at Decca Records on...
... a US#1, UK#3. He regularly cranked out Hot-100 hits through 1970.
Other major singings included Johnny Burnette
Johnny Burnette
John Joseph "Johnny" Burnette was an American rockabilly musician. Along with his older brother Dorsey Burnette, and also a friend named Paul Burlison, Burnette was a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. He was the father of 1980s rockabilly singer Rocky Burnette.-Early life:Johnny Burnette...
, Eugene McDaniels, Del Shannon
Del Shannon
Del Shannon was an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit, "Runaway", in 1961.- Biography :...
, and Gary Lewis and The Playboys.
In 1963, the Liberty Records label was sold to Avnet
Avnet
Avnet, Inc. is a technology Business-to-business B2B distributor headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Electronics Supply & Manufacturing magazine reports that Avnet Inc., a Fortune 500 company, may be the world's largest franchised distributor of electronic components and subsystems...
(an electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
corporation) for $
Dollar sign
The dollar or peso sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various peso and dollar units of currency around the world.- Origin :...
12 million. Avnet also bought Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, Imperial Records
Imperial Records
Imperial Records is a United States based label started in 1947 by Lew Chudd and reactivated in 2006 by label owner EMI.- The independent and Liberty Records years :...
, Dolton Records
Dolton Records
Dolton Records was a record label based in Seattle that was originally known as Dolphin Records. It was owned by Bob Reisdorf and Bonnie Guitar. Success for the label came early with "Come Softly to Me" by The Fleetwoods, the first single to be released on that label...
, Aladdin Records
Aladdin Records
Aladdin Records was a post-World War II United States record label, with headquarters in Hollywood, California. The label was founded in 1945 by brothers Eddie, Leo, and Ira Mesner and was originally called Philo Records, before changing to its better-known name in April 1946.Aladdin Records...
and Minit Records
Minit Records
Minit Records was a record label originally based in New Orleans and founded by Joe Banashak. After making a distribution deal with Imperial Records, the label released its biggest hit, the #1 Mother-in Law by Ernie K-Doe. A number of Allen Toussaint productions were issued on Minit, including...
. After two years of losses, Avnet sold the labels back to Al Bennett for $8 million. In 1966, a reissue label, Sunset Records
Sunset Records
Sunset Records was a record label started in 1966 as the budget album subsidiary of Liberty Records to reissue the Liberty, Imperial, and Minit material.The label stopped operating around 1974....
, was started to deal with previously issued records from the new labels.
Liberty recordings were first distributed in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
on London Records
London Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....
, then by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, which released the recordings on the Liberty label. Liberty established a branch office in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, which signed acts such as the Bonzo Dog Band, Idle Race
Idle Race
The Idle Race were a British rock group from Birmingham in the late 1960s and early 1970s who had a cult following but never enjoyed mass commercial success...
and The Anysley Dunbar Retaliation
Aynsley Dunbar
Aynsley Thomas Dunbar is an English drummer. He has worked with some of the top names in rock, including Eric Burdon, John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, Jefferson Starship, Jeff Beck, David Bowie, Whitesnake, Sammy Hagar, UFO, and Journey...
. Liberty also signed The Searchers
The Searchers (band)
The Searchers are an English beat group, who emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with The Beatles, The Fourmost, The Merseybeats, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry & The Pacemakers....
for a short time in 1968 and in 1967 they issued the first single by Family
Family (band)
Family were an English rock band that formed in late 1966 and disbanded in October 1973. Their style has been characterised as progressive rock, although their sound often explored other genres, incorporating elements of styles like as folk, psychedelia, acid, jazz fusion and rock and roll...
. Ron Kass, onetime president of Liberty Records, later became the head of the Beatles' record label, Apple Records
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
, and Ron Bledsoe, assistant to Al
Bennett, was picked by Clive Davis to run the Nashville arm of Columbia Records.
In 1966, singer (and Imperial artist) Johnny Rivers
Johnny Rivers
Johnny Rivers is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. His styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs and some original material...
started another Liberty subsidiary, Soul City Records
Soul City Records (U.S. label)
Soul City Records is an American record label founded by singer Johnny Rivers in 1966. The most notable acts on Soul City were The 5th Dimension, Al Wilson, and Rivers himself. The label was distributed by Liberty Records. Rivers sold the label to Bell Records in 1970...
. The following year, Liberty discontinued the Dolton label and moved its artists to the parent label.
In 1968, Liberty was bought for $38 million by Transamerica Corporation
Transamerica Corporation
Transamerica Corporation is a holding company for various life insurance companies and investment firms doing business primarily in the United States. It was acquired by the Dutch financial services conglomerate AEGON in 1999.-History:...
(an insurance company) and combined with their other label United Artists Records
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 initially to distribute records of its movie soundtracks, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres.-History:...
. Two years later they shut down Imperial and Minit and transferred their artists to Liberty. Finally in 1971, Liberty and its remaining labels (with the exception of Soul City in which the name was held onto by its owner Johnny Rivers and its catalog sold to Bell Records) were shifted to United Artists Records and Liberty Records was no more.
In 1970, Liberty act Sugarloaf
Sugarloaf (band)
Sugarloaf was an American, Denver, Colorado based, rock and roll band in the 1970s, featuring Jerry Corbetta.Jerry Corbetta founded the band with guitarist Bob Webber of the Moonrakers; the other initial bandmembers were drummer Bob MacVittie on drums and rhythm guitarist Veeder Van Dorn III, also...
scored a top 10 hit in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with "Green-Eyed Lady
Green-Eyed Lady
"Green-Eyed Lady" is a popular single by the 1970s psychedelic rock band Sugarloaf. Written by band members Jerry Corbetta and Dave Riordan, the song was featured on the band's debut album, Sugarloaf and was the band's first single. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970 and was...
", which reached #3 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
. Sugarloaf
Sugarloaf (band)
Sugarloaf was an American, Denver, Colorado based, rock and roll band in the 1970s, featuring Jerry Corbetta.Jerry Corbetta founded the band with guitarist Bob Webber of the Moonrakers; the other initial bandmembers were drummer Bob MacVittie on drums and rhythm guitarist Veeder Van Dorn III, also...
would score again in 1975 with "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" (US #9).
In 1978, Artie Mogull and Jerry Rubinstein acquired United Artists and Liberty Records (with money they borrowed from Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, which ironically was originally going to be named Liberty Records before changing names prior to incorporation). In February 1979, Capitol's parent company EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
foreclosed
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
on them and has owned
Ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...
the rights of the Liberty labels since then.
1980s and 1990s
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
label, featuring such artists as Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
and Dottie West
Dottie West
Dottie West was an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with her friends and co-recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, she is considered one of the genre's most influential and groundbreaking female artists...
. In 1991, EMI renamed its Capitol Nashville label to Liberty Records, before switching back to the Capitol Nashville name four years later.
In 1994, Liberty Records president Jimmy Bowen
Jimmy Bowen
Jimmy Bowen is an American record producer and former pop music performer.Bowen was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico. He began as a teenage recording star in 1957 with "I'm Stickin' With You," originally the flip side of the hit record "Party Doll" by Buddy Knox, but ultimately a Top 20 recording...
also founded a sister label to Liberty called Patriot Records, whose roster included Bryan Austin
Bryan Austin
-Track listing:#"Radio Active" – 3:20#"You're Right, I'm Wrong" – 2:44#"That's What She Said" – 3:45#"Is It Just Me" – 3:55...
, Lisa Brokop
Lisa brokop
Lisa Brokop is a Canadian country music singer/songwriter and actress. Active since 1990 in the country music field, she has released a total of six studio albums, and has charted more than twenty singles on the country music charts in her native Canada...
, John Berry, Deana Carter
Deana Carter
Deana Carter is a country music artist who broke through in 1996 with the release of debut album Did I Shave My Legs for This?, which was certified 5× Multi-Platinum in the United States for sales of over five million...
, John Bunzow and Noah Gordon
Noah Gordon (singer)
Noah Adrian Gordon is an American country music singer and songwriter. He had been a musician since childhood, playing mandolin and drums in his parents' band, and he began playing drums for Randy Travis at age ten....
. Berry had previously been on Liberty, while the other acts were newly signed. After the label closed in 1995, Berry, Brokop and Carter transferred to Capitol Nashville.
Liberty Records in the 2000s in the United Kingdom
After releasing many late-1990s EuropopEuropop
Europop refers to a style of pop music that first developed in today's form in Europe, throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and ’90s...
records like the Hermes House Band
Hermes House Band
The Hermes House Band is a Dutch pop band, established in 1984 by members of the Hermes fraternity/sorority in Rotterdam, Netherlands. They have released more than twenty five albums and singles.-History:...
, EMI reformatted the label in 2001 to focus on 'heritage acts'. The label, now operating in a similar sphere to that of rival Sanctuary
Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...
, signed a number of acts, such as The Alarm MMVI
The Alarm
The Alarm are an alternative rock band that emerged from North Wales in the late 1970s. They started as a mod band and stayed together for over ten years. As a rock band, they displayed marked influences from Welsh language and culture...
, The Stranglers
The Stranglers
The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...
and Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout are an alternative English pop rock band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham, England who rose to fame during the 1980s. Eight of their albums have reached the Top 40 in the UK Albums Chart, and one of their singles, "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", peaked at number seven in the UK...
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