Capitol Records, LLC is a major American record label that is part of the Capitol Music Group and is a wholly owned division of Universal Music Group. Founded as the first West Coast-based label in the U.S. in 1942 by three industry insiders, it has recorded and released material by artists such as Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, The Kingston Trio, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Glen Campbell, Kraftwerk, Frank Zappa, Megadeth, Merle Haggard, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, and Katy Perry among many others. Eventually acquired by EMI (which was acquired by Universal Music in 2012 and merged with UMG in 2013 after selling former sister label Parlophone to Warner Music), the label has released records in many musical genres. Its circular Los Angeles headquarters building Capitol Records Tower is a recognized landmark.
The Company was founded by songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942, with the financial help of fellow songwriter and film producer Buddy DeSylva, and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs (1910–1971). Wallichs was the owner of Wallichs Music City, the biggest record store in Los Angeles at the time.
Mercer first raised the idea of starting a record company while golfing with Harold Arlen and Bobby Sherwood. By 1941, Mercer was an experienced songwriter and a singer with multiple successful releases. Mercer next suggested the idea to his friend Wallichs while visiting Wallichs' record store. Wallichs expressed interest and the pair negotiated an agreement whereby Mercer would run the company and identify the artists, while Wallichs managed the business side.
On February 2, 1942, Mercer and Wallichs met with DeSylva at a Hollywood restaurant to inquire about the possibility of investment from Paramount Pictures. While DeSylva declined the Paramount proposal, he handed the pair a check worth US$15,000. On March 27, 1942, the three men incorporated as "Liberty Records" (not to be confused with an unrelated label founded in 1955, Liberty Records, eventually acquired by Capitol). In May 1942, the application was amended to change the name to "Capitol Records".
On April 6, 1942, Mercer supervised Capitol's first recording session, recording Martha Tilton singing "Moon Dreams". On May 5, Bobby Sherwood and his orchestra recorded two tracks. On May 21, Freddie Slack and his orchestra recorded three tracks: one with the orchestra; one with Ella Mae Morse called "Cow-Cow Boogie"; and "Air-Minded Executive" with Mercer.
On June 4, 1942, Capitol opened its first office in a second-floor room south of Sunset Boulevard. On the same day, Wallichs presented the first free record to Los Angeles disc jockey Peter Potter, originating the practice of distributing free discs to DJs.
On June 5, 1942, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded four sides. On June 12, the orchestra recorded five more, including one with Billie Holiday. On June 11, Tex Ritter recorded "(I Got Spurs That) Jingle Jangle Jingle" and "Goodbye My Little Cherokee" at his first Capitol recording session, and the songs formed record #110.
Broadway and films
Capitol Records released some of the most notable original cast albums and motion picture soundtrack albums ever made. Between 1955 and 1956, they released the soundtracks of three now-classic Rodgers and Hammerstein films, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The King and I. The mono versions of these soundtrack albums were all released the year that the films were released. The films had been released in then state-of-the-art stereo, so Capitol later released stereo albums of the soundtracks. However, the mono and stereo versions did not always contain identical material. Because stereo grooves took up more space than their mono counterparts, the stereo versions were somewhat shorter than their predecessors. This was not much of a problem with Oklahoma!, because the soundtrack was relatively short. The only piece missing from the stereo edition of the album was a few seconds of the overture. With Carousel, however, half of the Carousel Waltz had to be lopped off, and with The King and I, the instrumental bridge from the song Getting to Know You was removed. These albums (especially Oklahoma!) were bestsellers for Capitol for many years, until, in the 1990s, Angel Records bought the rights to them. Angel Records restored the omitted portions, and in 2001 issued new expanded editions that included all music left out of every previous edition of these soundtracks, bringing the playing time of each to well over an hour.
The Capitol Records Building
Designed by Welton Becket and a young architect from Becket's office, the thirteen-story, earthquake-resistant Capitol Records Tower is the world's first circular office building. Home to several recording studios, it is one of Hollywood's most distinctive landmarks. While not originally intended as a tribute to record players,[13] its wide curved awnings and tall narrow tower mimic the appearance of a stack of gramophone records atop a phonograph.
The building was ordered by British company EMI soon after its 1955 acquisition of Capitol Records and was completed in April 1956. The building is located just north of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine and is the center of the Company's consolidated West Coast operations–and was nicknamed "The House That Nat Built" to recognize the enormous financial contributions of Capitol star Nat "King" Cole. The rectangular ground floor is a separate structure, joined to the tower after it was completed.
In September 2006, owner EMI announced that it had sold the tower and adjacent properties for $50 million to New York-based developer Argent Ventures. In mid-2008, a controversy erupted over a plan to build a condominium complex next door, igniting fears that the building's legendary acoustic properties (specifically its renowned underground echo chambers) would be compromised.
It was announced in November 2012 that Steve Barnett would become Chairman & CEO of Capitol Music Group and would be based at the Capitol Records Building.
Recently, Capitol Records and artist Richard Wyatt Jr. joined forces to restore his iconic Hollywood Jazz Mural on the south wall of the Capitol Records building.
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Morna Anne Murray CC ONS (born June 20, 1945), known professionally as Anne Murray, is a Canadian singer in pop, country, and adult contemporary music whose albums have sold over 54 million copies worldwide as of 2012.
Murray was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts, and also the first to earn a Gold record for one of her signature songs, "Snowbird" (1970). She is often cited as the one who paved the way for other international Canadian success stories such as Alanis Morissette, Nelly Furtado, Céline Dion, Sarah McLachlan, and Shania Twain. She is also the first woman and the first Canadian to win "Album of the Year" at the 1984 Country Music Association Awards for her Gold-plus 1983 album A Little Good News.
Murray has received four Grammys, a record 24 Junos, three American Music Awards, three Country Music Association Awards, and three Canadian Country Music Association Awards. She has been inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, the Juno Hall of Fame, and The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. She is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame Walkway of Stars in Nashville, and has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles and on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.
In 2011, Billboard ranked her 10th on their list of the 50 Biggest AC Artists Ever.
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The Cheers were an American rock and roll vocal group, that had a string of hits in the mid-1950s starting with "(Bazoom) I Need Your Lovin'." which hit number three on the U.S. chart in 1954. This was the first hit written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller to chart on the Pop charts in the United States, and was one of the first rock and roll hits by a white group (after The Crew Cuts and Bill Haley and the Comets). The following year, they followed it up with "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots" (also written by Leiber and Stoller), a song about a wild-living leather-jacketed motorcyclist, which went to number six on the charts. The Cheers members included Bert Convy (1933—1991) who would later be the host of Tattletales, Super Password, Win, Lose or Draw and 3rd Degree, Sue Allen and Gil Garfield (1933—2011).
