RSO Records was a 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,...

, formed by rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 and musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 impresario Robert Stigwood

Robert Stigwood

Robert Stigwood is an impresario and entertainment entrepreneur who relocated to England in 1954...

 in 1973. The "RSO" stands for the Robert Stigwood Organisation. The company's main headquarters were at 67 Brook Street, in London's Mayfair. It underwent four distribution stages: first by Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

, then as an independent label, then by Polydor Records

Polydor Records

Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...

, and finally by Polygram Records.

RSO managed the careers of several superstars (Bee Gees

Bee Gees

The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...

, Yvonne Elliman

Yvonne Elliman

Yvonne Marianne Elliman is an American singer who performed for four years in the first cast of Jesus Christ Superstar...

, Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

, Andy Gibb

Andy Gibb

Andy Gibb was an English singer and teen idol, and the youngest brother of the family whose other male siblings formed the Bee Gees: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.-The early years:...

), and, as a record label, released the soundtracks to Fame, Sparkle

Sparkle

Sparkle may refer to:* Spark * Sparkle * Sparkle , a lemon-flavored soft drink* Sparkle, California, in Contra Costa County* Sparkle, a brand of paper towels owned by Georgia-Pacific...

, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan...

, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...

, Times Square

Times Square (film)

Times Square is a 1980 film starring Trini Alvarado, Robin Johnson, and Tim Curry. The plot of the film essentially embodies a punk rock ethic - misunderstood youth forming a band and, through music, articulating their frustrations toward adult authority, personified in the film as parents, the...

, Grease

Grease (film)

Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...

(over 25 million copies sold worldwide), and Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance...

(over 30 million copies sold worldwide). The release of the latter two albums made RSO one of the most financially successful labels of the 1970s.

As successful as the label was financially, the independent label produced successes on the pop charts never before seen by the recording industry. By one point in 1978, the label boasted an unprecedented 6th consecutive #1 single 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...

(US) pop charts, holding the top spot for 21 consecutive weeks. With singles releases from the Grease

Grease (soundtrack album)

Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 1978 film Grease released by Polydor Records. The song "You're the One That I Want" was a US and UK #1 for stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John...

album ("You're The One That I Want

You're the One That I Want

"You're the One That I Want" is a song written by John Farrar for the 1978 film version of the musical Grease. It was performed by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John....

", and the title track) and another huge Andy Gibb

Andy Gibb

Andy Gibb was an English singer and teen idol, and the youngest brother of the family whose other male siblings formed the Bee Gees: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.-The early years:...

 smash ("Shadow Dancing

Shadow Dancing (song)

"Shadow Dancing" is a song by Andy Gibb that reached number one for seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. According to Billboard's Book Of Number One Hits, Gibb became the first solo artist in the history of the U.S. pop charts to have his first three singles hit the number-one spot...

"), RSO would log a further 10 weeks at the #1 position, giving the label a record nine in one calendar year. This feat remains unduplicated by any record label to date.

As high as the label was flying in 1978, the disastrous commercial and critical failure of RSO's movie version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a 1978 American musical film. Its soundtrack, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, features new versions of songs originally written and performed by The Beatles. The film draws primarily from two of their albums, 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club...

crippled the company. The woes of this failure were only somewhat offset by the middle of 1979, as the Bee Gees

Bee Gees

The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...

 album, Spirits Having Flown

Spirits Having Flown

Spirits Having Flown is the Bee Gees' fifteenth original album, released in 1979. It was the group's first album after their collaboration on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The album's first three tracks were released as singles which all went to no.1 in the US...

, went on to eventually sell nearly 20 million copies (with the album producing three further #1 singles that each sold more than 1 million copies in their own right).

In 1980, the label's most famous act, the Bee Gees

Bee Gees

The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...

, filed a $200 million lawsuit against both RSO and Stigwood, claiming mismanagement. The lawsuit was subsequently settled for an undisclosed amount, and after a public reconciliation, the band remained with the label until its dissolution.

By 1981, Stigwood had ended his involvement with the label, which was absorbed into Polygram a few years later. All previous RSO releases were later re-released under Polydor's label. The Star Wars soundtracks would pass through several hands before ultimately ending up with Sony Classical in the 90's, and the Bee Gees catalog reverted back to the Gibb family, who set up a new distribution arrangement with Warner Music's Rhino Records division, who has reissued their albums and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack on the Reprise label.

Label variations

• Atlantic-owned label: Tan label with small logo
• Independently owned label: Tan label with larger logo
• Polydor-owned label: Tan label with large logo, Polydor logo at bottom perimeter of label
• Polygram-owned label: Silver label with large logo
• RSO Top Line reissue label: White label with gold or silver star, very small logo at top of label between TOP and LINE

In popular culture

The chyron of the RSO logo is seen during the end credits of Tommy

Tommy

Tommy is a given name that is usually the English diminutive of Thomas. The name also could refer to:- People with the given name Tommy :* Tommy Alcedo , Venezuelan road cyclist* Tommy G...

, Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance...

and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a 1978 American musical film. Its soundtrack, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, features new versions of songs originally written and performed by The Beatles. The film draws primarily from two of their albums, 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club...

. In the Sgt. Pepper's movie, the organization is represented as "Big Deal Records".