Jump to content

Capitol Records

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Capitol Records
Parent companyEMI (1955–2012)
Universal Music Group (2012–present; company & most of catalogs)
Warner Music Group (2013–present; some recordings)
FoundedMarch 27, 1942; 82 years ago (1942-03-27) (as Liberty Records)
April 8, 1942; 82 years ago (1942-04-08) (as Capitol Records)
FounderJohnny Mercer
Buddy DeSylva
Glenn Wallichs
Distributor(s)
GenreVarious
Country of originUnited States
LocationCapitol Records Building, Hollywood, California, U.S.
Official websitecapitolrecords.com

Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States[1] in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955.[2] EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012, and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, California.

Capitol is known as the record label of the Beach Boys and The Kingston Trio, and as the U.S. label of the Beatles (their native label being Parlophone), especially during the years of Beatlemania in the U.S. from 1964 to 1967. Capitol Records artist roster also includes Ice Spice, Sam Smith, Katy Perry, Troye Sivan, Kodak Black, Doechii, Yeat, That Mexican OT, Young Miko, Maggie Rogers, Lewis Capaldi, Niall Horan, Kings of Leon, Paul McCartney, Beastie Boys, Bee Gees, and Meovv.

History

[edit]

Founding

[edit]

Songwriter Johnny Mercer founded Capitol Records in 1942.[3]

On March 27, 1942, the three men incorporated as Liberty Records (not affiliated with Capitol's future sister label Liberty Records). In May, the application was amended to change the label's name to Capitol Records.[4]

The earliest recording artists included co-owner Mercer, Johnnie Johnston, Morse, Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, Tex Ritter, Tilton, Paul Weston, Whiteman, and Margaret Whiting.[3] Capitol's first gold single was Morse's "Cow Cow Boogie" in 1942.[5]

Capitol was the first major west coast label to compete with major labels on the east coast such as RCA Victor, Columbia, and Decca. In addition to its Los Angeles recording studios, Capitol owned a second studio in New York City and occasionally sent mobile recording equipment to other cities.[citation needed]

Other genres

[edit]

In 1946, writer-producer Alan W. Livingston created Bozo the Clown for the company's children's record library, with Pinto Colvig (the voice of Goofy in Walt Disney cartoons) as Bozo. Mel Blanc reprised his own cartoon roles including Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes characters, as well as Woody Woodpecker, while several Disney records were narrated by radio announcer Don Wilson. Examples of notable Capitol albums for children during that era are Sparky's Magic Piano and Rusty in Orchestraville. Capitol also developed a noted jazz catalog that included the Capitol Jazz Men and issued the Miles Davis's album Birth of the Cool.[6]

In 1949, Capitol opened a branch office in Canada and purchased KHJ Studios on Melrose Avenue adjacent to Paramount in Hollywood.[7]

Capitol began recording rock and roll acts such as The Jodimars and Gene Vincent. There were comedy records by Stan Freberg, Johnny Standley, and Mickey Katz. On August 2, 1952, Billboard magazine contained a chronicle of the label's first ten years in business.[8]

Ownership under EMI

[edit]
Capitol logo from 1969 to 1978, designed by Roland Young.[9] Revived in 2017.[10]

In the 1950s, Decca Records broke its distribution contract with Panart, the first independent Cuban record company. This provided an opening for Capitol, which then contracted with Panart to have Capitol and Odeon records distributed in Cuba. In turn, Capitol distributed Panart records in the United States, growing the export percentage of Panart records from 20 percent to 50 percent. This was a coup for Capitol, as RCA Victor up to this point had huge predominance in the United States distribution of Cuban music recordings.[11][12]

In the realm of "Sweet Jazz" big-band music, Capitol also joined forces with the bandleader Guy Lombardo starting in the mid 1950s to issue a series of approximately thirty recordings until the late 1960s.[13]

The Capitol of the World series introduced in 1956 and active into the 1970s encompassed German Beer Drinking Songs, Honeymoon in Rome, Australian Aboriginals, and Kasongo! Modern Music of the Belgian Congo. Many were produced by Dave Dexter Jr. This series contained over 400 albums. It was also in this period that Capitol issued Christmas music recordings from various countries outside the United States.[14][15] In the 1960s Capitol established subsidiary labels including Tower Records. Capitol was the US distributor of the Beatles' Apple Records.

In October 1979, EMI merged with Thorn Electrical Industries to form Thorn EMI[16] and, due to business models increasingly diverging, on August 16, 1996, Thorn EMI's shareholders voted to demerge. The resulting media company was then known as the EMI Group.[17] In June 1997, Capitol, together with Virgin Records, absorbed EMI USA, which folded.[18]

Distribution under Universal Music Group

[edit]

In 2012, the recorded music operations of EMI were sold to the Universal Music Group and the world headquarters were re-established in the Capitol Tower in Hollywood as part of the subsequent reorganization of the Capitol Music Group. Steve Barnett, previously an employee of Columbia, was hired as chairman and CEO of the division.[19][20]

Capitol filed a lawsuit against Vimeo, an online video-sharing website, for audio copyright infringement. Capitol filed the claim after users were visibly lip-synching to some of their tracks.[21]

Following legal action by Capitol against the ReDigi.com online company in April 2013, the latter was found to have violated copyright law. Capitol Records claimed that ReDigi was guilty of copyright infringement due to a business model that facilitated the creation of additional copies of Capitol's digital music files, whereby users could upload the files for downloading or streaming to the new purchaser of the file. ReDigi argued that the resale of MP3/digital music files is permitted under certain doctrines ("fair use" and "first sale") but the court maintained that the doctrines' application "was limited to material items that the copyright owner put into the stream of commerce."[22]

In 2014, PGH Live Music joined the team and Katy Perry founded the record label Metamorphosis Music, starting a label venture with Capitol.[23] The name of the label was later changed to Unsub Records in 2016.[24]

Also that year, Capitol rose to number two market share and won four categories at the Grammy Awards for music by Beck and Sam Smith.[25]

In 2018, Capitol's electronic division Astralwerks relaunched with a new team and moved its entire operations to Capitol's tower in Los Angeles.[26]

In 2019, Jeff Vaughn was named President of Capitol Records, assuming his position as of January 1, 2020.[27]

In 2021, Michelle Jubelirer was named the Chair & CEO of Capitol.[28]

Headquarters

[edit]
Main article: Capitol Records Building
Capitol Records headquarters building in Hollywood

Designed by Welton Becket with Louis Naidorf, a young architect from Becket's office, serving as project designer[29][2] the thirteen-story, earthquake-resistant Capitol Records Tower was the world's first circular office building and it is the base for several recording studios. Although not intended as a tribute to record players, its wide curved awnings and tall narrow tower mimic the appearance of a stack of gramophone records atop a phonograph. The building was commissioned by EMI after its acquisition of Capitol Records in 1955 and was completed in April 1956. The building is north of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine and is the center of the company's consolidated West Coast operations. It was nicknamed "The House That Nat Built" after the financial success of Capitol singer Nat King Cole.[30][31]

In September 2006, EMI announced that it had sold the tower and adjacent properties for $50 million to New York-based developer Argent Ventures.[32] In mid-2008, a controversy erupted over a plan to build a condominium complex next door, igniting fears that the building's acoustic properties, specifically its underground echo chambers, would be compromised. It was announced in November 2012 that Steve Barnett would become chairman and CEO of Capitol Music Group and would be based at the Capitol Records Building.[33] Capitol and artist Richard Wyatt Jr. restored his Hollywood Jazz Mural on the south wall of the Capitol Records Building.[34]

Studios

[edit]
Main article: Capitol Studios

Capitol's recording studios were designed to minimize noise and vibration, then newly important goals in the high-fidelity sound era. An inner wall floating on layers of rubber and cork was erected inside the building's 10-inch-thick (250 mm) concrete exterior walls, leaving a one-inch air gap to provide complete sound isolation.[35]

International operations

[edit]

Capitol modified albums that were originally released in other countries on other labels. Albums released in the United States contained fewer tracks, usually no more than 11 or 12, compared to albums released in the United Kingdom due to differences in the method of publishing royalties were calculated in the two countries.[36] Also, in the American market it was expected that albums would include the current hit single, whereas British albums typically did not duplicate songs released as singles.

The Beatles

[edit]

Capitol also issued "duophonic" stereo releases of some recordings where the original master was monophonic. Capitol engineers split the single master mono track into two, boosted the bass on the right channel, boosted treble on the left channel and added a split-second delay between channels to produce a "stereo" release. This duophonic process meant that the Beatles' American fans occasionally heard a slightly different song from that heard by the rest of the world if they listened to the stereo version.[37]

United Kingdom

[edit]

Beginning in 1948, Capitol Records were released in the UK on the Capitol label by Decca. After its 1955 acquisition of Capitol, EMI took over distribution in 1956.[38] EMI's Parlophone unit handled Capitol label marketing in the UK in later years.[39]

In 2012, EMI was sold to Universal Music Group. Universal Music started Capitol as an autonomous label in the UK with the rights to the Beatles' catalog.[40] This marks the first time that Capitol in the UK operated as an autonomous label.[41]

Canada

[edit]

Capitol Records of Canada was established in 1949 by businessman W. Lockwood Miller. Capitol broke with Miller's company and formed Capitol Record Distributors of Canada Limited in 1954. EMI acquired this company when it acquired Capitol. The company was renamed Capitol Records of Canada Ltd. in 1958 after Miller's rights to the name expired. In 1959, Capitol of Canada picked up distribution rights for EMI's labels Angel, Pathé, Odeon, and Parlophone.[42]

In 1957, Paul White joined Capitol of Canada and in 1960 established an A&R department independent of the American company to promote talent for the Canadian market.[43] The division found native talent such as Anne Murray and EMI musicians from other countries. Beginning in 1962, Capitol of Canada issued albums by British musicians such as Cliff Richard, Helen Shapiro and Frank Ifield. They accepted the Beatles long before the American company. By 1967, they were distributing non-EMI labels such as 20th Century Fox, Buena Vista Records, Disneyland, and Pickwick.[43] The company was renamed Capitol Records-EMI of Canada in 1974, before the EMI Music Canada name was adopted in 1993.[44][45][46] EMI Music Canada was absorbed into Universal Music Canada in 2012. In 2016, Universal Music Canada donated the EMI Music Canada archives to the University of Calgary.[47]

Other countries

[edit]

Capitol Latin focuses on Latin music artists in Latin America and the United States. It was founded in 1989 as EMI Latin and was renamed to Capitol Latin in 2009.[48][49] Capitol Latin was merged with Universal Music Latin Entertainment in 2013.[50]

Capitol Records of Mexico was founded in the 60s decade by Capitol Records, years before Capitol belonged to EMI.[51]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Capitol Records". Johnnymercerfoundation.org. Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Hawthorne, Christopher (May 29, 2011). "Critic's Notebook: Hollywood landmark at a crossroads". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s (audiobook). ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854. Tape 1, side B.
  4. ^ "Happy Birthdays!". popculturefanboy. April 18, 2013. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  5. ^ Gilliland 1994, tape 1, side A.
  6. ^ "Birth of the Cool". Miles Davis. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  7. ^ "Peggy Lee Discography - The Capitol Years, Part 3". www.peggyleediscography.com. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
  8. ^ "The Record Decade, 1942-42." Billboard, August 2, 1952, 49-82.
  9. ^ Staff writer (July 5, 1969). "New Capitol Logo" (PDF). Record World. 24 (1151). Record World Publishing: 22 – via World Radio History.
  10. ^ "Capitol labels" (PDF). Friktech. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  11. ^ Schlicke, Cornelius (2003). Tonträgerindustrie und Vermittlung von Livemusik in Kuba (in German). Berlin: LIT Verlag. pp. 225–238. ISBN 9783825802400.
  12. ^ Moore, Robin (2006). Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 9780520247109.
  13. ^ The Canadian Encyclopedia: "Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians" Mookg, Edward B. (6 April 2008 rev. 4 March 2015) on thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en
  14. ^ Borgerson, Janet (2017). Designed for hi-fi living : the vinyl LP in midcentury America. Schroeder, Jonathan E. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262036238. OCLC 958205262.
  15. ^ Nelson, Chris (March 23, 2004). "Hands-On Leader Fuels Rare Revival in Record Industry". The New York Times.
  16. ^ "EMI: a giant at war with itself". The Telegraph. London. January 18, 2008. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022.
  17. ^ "Vote solid for Thorn demerger". Independent. August 17, 1996.
  18. ^ "EMI shutting 2 New York-based record labels". The New York Times. Bloomberg News. June 21, 1997.
  19. ^ Brown, August (November 26, 2012). "Steve Barnett to lead Capitol Music Group". Los Angeles Times.
  20. ^ "It's Official: Steve Barnett Named Chairman and CEO of Capitol Music Group". The Hollywood Reporter. November 26, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  21. ^ Lawler, Ryan (December 15, 2009). "Vimeo Sued Over Lip Dubs". Gigaom. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  22. ^ Fitzgerald, Anne; Seidenspinner, Tim (April 17, 2013). "Selling MP3s? You should have stuck with CDs". The Conversation. The Conversation Media Group. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  23. ^ "Introducing my new label venture with @capitolrecords featuring my first artist FERRAS". June 17, 2014.
  24. ^ Kaufman, Gil (July 14, 2017). "Katy Perry Really Wants You to Get 'Together' with Her Latest Signing, CYN". Billboard. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  25. ^ Lewis, Randy (February 9, 2015). "Grammy Awards bring gold to revitalized Capitol Records". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  26. ^ "Acclaimed Label Astralwerks Relaunches With New Team, Major Signings". Billboard. September 11, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  27. ^ "Jeff Vaughn Named President of Capitol Records". Variety. December 3, 2019. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  28. ^ "Michelle Jubelirer Upped to Capitol Music Group Chair and CEO". Variety. December 13, 2021.
  29. ^ "Capitol Records Tower". Los Angeles Conservancy. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  30. ^ "Maria Cole Sues Capitol Records over Royalties from Nat King Cole's Classic Recordings". Jet: 52–53. May 15, 1995 – via Google Books.
  31. ^ Henry, Mike (December 27, 2012). Black History: More than Just a Month. R&L Education. ISBN 978-1-4758-0262-7.
  32. ^ Vincent, Roger (September 29, 2006). "Capitol Records Tower to Be Sold". Los Angeles Times.
  33. ^ Brown, August (November 26, 2012). "Steve Barnett to lead Capitol Music Group". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  34. ^ "Capitol Records Jazz Mural restored!". Millennium Hollywood. Millennium Hollywood Partners. January 30, 2013. Archived from the original on May 25, 2013. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  35. ^ Pool, Bob (June 18, 2008). "Capitol fears for its sonic signature". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  36. ^ Fox, Hank. "Disk Firms Swing to Less-Groove Policy" Billboard March 4, 1967: 10
  37. ^ Spizer, Bruce (1995–2013). "Capitol Albums Finally Coming Out on CD". Abbeyrd's Beatles Page. Steve Marinucci. Archived from the original on November 20, 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  38. ^ Erling (July 1, 1942). "Capitol Records UK". 45-sleeves. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  39. ^ Duffy, Thom (June 11, 1994). "Raitt Takes to the Road in Europe, with 'Longing'". Billboard. pp. 39–. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  40. ^ Ingham, Tim (November 26, 2012). "Universal's Capitol takes shape: Barnett in, Beatles on roster". Music Week. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  41. ^ Smirke, Richard (April 25, 2013). "Capitol Records U.K. Launches, Nick Raphael Named President". Billboard. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  42. ^ "Cap Canadian Distribution". Billboard. July 6, 1959. p. 4. Retrieved December 9, 2018 – via Google Books.
  43. ^ a b "Label's Dominion Milestone Coincides with Anniversary". Billboard. September 16, 1967. Retrieved December 9, 2018 – via Google Books.
  44. ^ Moogk, Edward B. "Capitol Records - EMI of Canada Limited/Disques Capitol". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica-Dominion. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  45. ^ "The Capitol 6000 website - The Corporate History of Capitol Records of Canada". Capitol6000.com. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  46. ^ White, Paul (1997). "The Canadian Butcher Cover". Mitch McGeary's Songs, Pictures and Stories of The Beatles website. Mitch McGeary. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  47. ^ "Universal Music Canada donates EMI Music Canada archive to University of Calgary". March 31, 2016.
  48. ^ "EMI Latin A Retrospective". Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 17. April 24, 1999. p. LM-20. ISSN 0006-2510.
  49. ^ Cobo, Leila (January 26, 2010). "Billboard.biz Q&A: Diana Rodriguez, Senior VP of Capitol Latin". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 5, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
  50. ^ "Universal Music Latin Entertainment Announces Key Senior Appointments in Mexico, Latin America". Billboard. January 29, 2013. Archived from the original on August 25, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
  51. ^ "Discos Capitol De Mexico, S.A. De C.V." Discogs (in Spanish). Retrieved August 13, 2022.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Capitol Records.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capitol_Records&oldid=1245749664"