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Columbia Records

January 02, 2023

Not to be confused with Columbia Record.
This article is about the American record label active worldwide. For the former record company owned by EMI, see Columbia Graphophone Company. For the Japanese record label, see Nippon Columbia.

Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the American Graphophone Company, the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company.[3] Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business,[4][5][6] and the second major company to produce records.[7] From 1961 to 1991, its recordings were released outside North America under the name CBS Records to avoid confusion with EMI's Columbia Graphophone Company. Columbia is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels, alongside former longtime rival RCA Records, as well as Arista Records and Epic Records.

Columbia Records
Parent company
FoundedJanuary 15, 1889; 133 years ago (1889-01-15) (as Columbia Phonograph Company)
FounderEdward D. Easton
Distributor(s)Sony Music Entertainment
GenreVarious
Country of originUnited States
LocationNew York City, New York, U.S.
Official websitewww.columbiarecords.com

Artists who have recorded for Columbia include AC/DC, Adele, Aerosmith, Alice in Chains, Julie Andrews, Louis Armstrong, Gene Autry, Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Leonard Bernstein, Beyoncé, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Blue Öyster Cult, David Bowie, the Byrds, Mariah Carey, Frankie Carle, Johnny Cash, Cheap Trick, Chicago, The Chainsmokers, The Clash, The Chambers Brothers, Tyler, the Creator, Leonard Cohen, Ray Conniff, Mac Davis, Miles Davis, Doris Day, The Dorsey Brothers, Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, Bob Dylan, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ruth Etting, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Dan Hornsby, Harry James, Billy Joel, Janis Joplin, Journey, Roger Wolfe Kahn, André Kostelanetz, Kay Lande, The Manhattans, Johnny Mathis, George Michael, Wham!, Mitch Miller, Willie Nelson, Will Osborne, Pink Floyd, Iggy Pop, Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, Santana, Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Jerry Vale, Paul Whiteman Andy Williams, Tammy Wynette, Harry Styles, Rudy Vallee, Miley Cyrus, and numerous others.

History

Beginnings (1889–1929)

 
Original home of Columbia in Washington, D.C., in 1889

The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded on January 15, 1889, by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward D. Easton (1856–1915) and a group of investors. It derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered.[8][9] At first it had a local monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Delaware. As was the custom of some of the regional phonograph companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own, and its catalogue of musical records in 1891 was 10 pages.

Columbia's ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Company's breakup. Thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the "XP" record, a molded brown wax record, to use up old stock. Columbia introduced black wax records in 1903. According to one source, they continued to mold brown waxes until 1904 with the highest number being 32601, "Heinie", which is a duet by Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan. The molded brown waxes may have been sold to Sears for distribution (possibly under Sears' Oxford trademark for Columbia products).[10]

 
A Columbia type AT cylinder graphophone was produced in 1898.[11]

Columbia began selling disc records (invented and patented by Victor Talking Machine Company's Emile Berliner) and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their "Toy Graphophone" of 1899, which used small, vertically cut records. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound.

In order to add prestige to its early catalog of artists, Columbia contracted a number of New York Metropolitan Opera stars to make recordings (from 1903 onward). These stars included Marcella Sembrich, Lillian Nordica, Antonio Scotti and Edouard de Reszke, but the technical standard of their recordings was not considered to be as high as the results achieved with classical singers during the pre–World War I period by Victor, Edison, England's His Master's Voice (The Gramophone Company Ltd.) or Italy's Fonotipia Records. After an abortive attempt in 1904 to manufacture discs with the recording grooves stamped into both sides of each disc—not just one—in 1908 Columbia commenced successful mass production of what they called their "Double-Faced" discs, the 10-inch variety initially selling for 65 cents apiece. The firm also introduced the internal-horn "Grafonola" to compete with the extremely popular "Victrola" sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company.

During this era, Columbia began to use the "Magic Notes" logo—a pair of sixteenth notes (semiquavers) in a circle—both in the United States and overseas (where this particular logo would never substantially change).

 
The American label of an electrically recorded Columbia disc by Art Gillham from the mid-twenties

Columbia stopped recording and manufacturing wax cylinder records in 1908, after arranging to issue celluloid cylinder records made by the Indestructible Record Company of Albany, New York, as "Columbia Indestructible Records". In July 1912, Columbia decided to concentrate exclusively on disc records and stopped manufacturing cylinder phonographs, although they continued selling Indestructible's cylinders under the Columbia name for a year or two more. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players. Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation.[8]

 
The British label of an electrically recorded Columbia disc by Paul Whiteman

Columbia Phonograph Company ownership (1925–1931)

In late 1922, Columbia entered receivership.[12]

The company was bought by its English subsidiary, the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1925 and the label, record numbering system, and recording process changed. On February 25, 1925, Columbia began recording with the electric recording process licensed from Western Electric.[13] "Viva-tonal" records set a benchmark in tone and clarity unequaled on commercial discs during the 78-rpm era. The first electrical recordings were made by Art Gillham, the "Whispering Pianist". In a secret agreement with Victor, electrical technology was kept secret to avoid hurting sales of acoustic records.

Louis Sterling, Managing Director of British Columbia Graphophone Company, had been the moving force behind bringing Western Electric's recording process, and the British takeover. Originally from New York, Sterling became Chairman of Columbia NY from 1925 until 1931, and oversaw stability and success.[citation needed]

In 1926, Columbia acquired Okeh Records and its growing stable of jazz and blues artists, including Louis Armstrong and Clarence Williams. Columbia had already built a catalog of blues and jazz artists, including Bessie Smith in their 14000-D Race series. Columbia also had a successful "Hillbilly" series (15000-D). In 1928, Paul Whiteman, the nation's most popular orchestra leader, left Victor to record for Columbia. During the same year, Columbia executive Frank Buckley Walker pioneered some of the first country music or "hillbilly" genre recordings with the Johnson City sessions in Tennessee, including artists such as Clarence Horton Greene and "Fiddlin'" Charlie Bowman. He followed that with a return to Tennessee the next year, as well as recording sessions in other cities of the South. Moran and Mack as The Two Black Crows 1926 recording ‘The Early Bird Catches the Worm’ sold 2.5 million copies.[14]

In 1929, Ben Selvin became house bandleader and A. & R. director. Other favorites in the Viva-tonal era included Ruth Etting, Paul Whiteman, Fletcher Henderson, Ipana Troubadours (a Sam Lanin group), and Ted Lewis. Columbia used acoustic recording for "budget label" pop product well into 1929 on the labels Harmony, Velvet Tone (both general purpose labels), and Diva (sold exclusively at W.T. Grant stores). When Edison Records folded, Columbia was the oldest surviving record label.

Columbia ownership separation (1931–1936)

The repercussions of the stock market Crash of 1929 led to huge losses in the recording industry and, in March 1931, J.P Morgan, the major shareholder, steered the Columbia Graphophone Company (along with Odeon records and Parlophone, which it had owned since 1926) into a merger with the Gramophone Company ( ("His Master's Voice") to form Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI).[15][16][17] Since the Gramophone Company (HMV) was a wholly owned subsidiary of Victor, and Columbia in America was a subsidiary of UK Columbia, Victor now technically owned its largest rival in the US.[15] To avoid antitrust legislation, EMI had to sell off its US Columbia operation, which continued to release pressings of matrices made in the UK.[15]

In December, 1931, the U.S. Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc., was acquired by the Grigsby-Grunow Company, the manufacturers of Majestic radios and refrigerators. When Grigsby-Grunow was declared bankrupt in November 1933, Columbia was placed in receivership, and in June 1934, the company was sold[18] to Sacro Enterprises Inc. ("Sacro") for $70,000. Sacro was incorporated a few days before the sale in New York. Public documents do not contain any names. Many suspect that it was a shell corporation set up by Consolidated Films Industries, Inc. ("CFI") to hold the Columbia stock, while its subsidiary, American Record Corporation ("ARC"), operated the label. This assumption grew out of the ease which CFI later exhibited in selling Columbia in 1938.[19]

On December 3, 1931, CFI made a deal with Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. ("WB"} to lease Brunswick Record Corporation, which included the trademarks and masters of the Brunswick, Vocalion, and Melotone labels to ARC. WB would receive a portion of the sales of its catalogues, while ARC was free to use the labels for new recordings. Brunswick immediately became the premium $.75 label, Melotone would release new hillbilly and other $.35 dime-store discounted discs, and Vocalion, while re-releasing prior ARC records, would also be the blues-R&B label, and the exclusive outlet for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, a phenomenal mid-1930s Western Swing band, which drew 10,000+ customers nightly to dance. Columbia was added in mid-1932, relegated to slower sellers such as the Hawaiian music of Andy Iona, the Irving Mills stable of artists and songs, and the still unknown Benny Goodman. It tried a marketing ploy, the Columbia "Royal Blue Record", a brilliant blue laminated product with matching label. Royal Blue issues, made from late 1932 through 1935, are particularly popular with collectors for their rarity and musical interest. The Columbia plant in Oakland, California, did Columbia's pressings for sale west of the Rockies and continued using the Royal Blue material for these until about mid-1936.

As southern gospel developed, Columbia had astutely sought to record the artists associated with the emerging genre; for example, Columbia was the only company to record Charles Davis Tillman. Most fortuitously for Columbia in its Depression Era financial woes, in 1936 the company entered into an exclusive recording contract with the Chuck Wagon Gang, a hugely successful relationship which continued into the 1970s. A signature group of southern gospel, the Chuck Wagon Gang became Columbia's bestsellers with at least 37 million records,[20] many of them through the aegis of the Mull Singing Convention of the Air sponsored on radio (and later television) by southern gospel broadcaster J. Bazzel Mull (1914–2006).

In 1935, Herbert M. Greenspon, an 18-year-old shipping clerk, led a committee to organize the first trade union shop at the main manufacturing factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Elected as president of the Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO) local, Greenspon negotiated the first contract between factory workers and Columbia management. In a career with Columbia that lasted 30 years, Greenspon retired after achieving the position of executive vice president of the company. Columbia also hired talent scout, music writer, producer, and impresario John Hammond in 1937. Alongside his significance as a discoverer, promoter, and producer of jazz, blues, and folk artists during the swing music era, Hammond had already been of great help to Columbia in 1932–33. Through his involvement in the UK music paper Melody Maker, Hammond had arranged for the struggling US Columbia label to provide recordings for the UK Columbia label, mostly using the specially created Columbia W-265000 matrix series. Hammond recorded Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Joe Venuti, Roger Wolfe Kahn and other jazz performers during a time when the economy was bad enough that many of them would not have had the opportunity to enter a studio and play real jazz (a handful of these in this special series were issued in the US). Hammond's work for Columbia was interrupted by his service during World War II, and he had less involvement with the music scene during the bebop era, but when he returned to work as a talent scout for Columbia in the 1950s, his career proved to be of incalculable historical and cultural importance - the list of superstar artists he would discover and sign to Columbia over the course of his career included Charlie Christian, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and in the early 1960s Hammond would also exert an enormous cultural effect on the emerging rock music scene thanks to his championing of reissue LPs of the music of blues artists Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith.

By 1937-38, the record business was finally recovering from the near-death blow of the Great Depression, at least for RCA Victor and Decca, but privately, there were doubts about ARC.[21] In a 1941 court case brought by unhappy shareholders of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. ("CBS"), Edward Wallerstein, an executive with RCA 1932 thru 1938, was asked to comment on ARC. "The chief value was that the record industry had come back tremendously, especially in the case of two other record companies; and the American Record Company, with all its facilities, had not, so far as I could learn, increased its business in any degree at all in the previous six years."[2]

CBS takes over (1938–1947)

 
Columbia "notes and mic" logo

On December 17, 1938, ARC, including the Columbia label in the U.S., was acquired by William S. Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. for $700,000 USD,.[2][1] ten times the price ARC paid in 1934, which would spark lawsuits later by disgruntled shareholders. (Columbia Records had originally co-founded CBS in 1927 along with New York talent agent Arthur Judson, but soon cashed out of the partnership leaving only the name; Paley acquired the fledgling radio network in 1928.) On January 3, 1939, Wallerstein left Victor to become president of the CBS phonograph subsidiary, a position he would hold for twelve years. CBS kept the ARC name for three months. then on April 4, it amended the New York Department of State record of "Columbia Phonograph Company, Inc.," naming several of its own employees to directorships, and announced in a press release, "The American Record Co. tag is discarded". Columbia Records was actually reborn on May 22, 1939 as "Columbia Recording Corporation, Inc.", a Delaware corporation.[22] The NYDOS shows a later incorporation date of April 4, 1947. This corporation changed its name to Columbia Records, Inc. on October 11, 1954, and reverted back to Columbia Recording Corporation on January 2, 1962.[23] The Columbia trademark remained under Columbia Records, Inc. of Delaware, filed back in 1929.[24]

In February 1939, NYC Studios moved from ARC headquarters at 1776 Broadway, to 799 7th Avenue, 6th&7th flrs, New York City ("Studio A"). Corporate offices, studio and Pressing Plant would also continue at 1473 Barnum Avenue, Bridgeport, CT. John Hammond was hired by Wallerstein as "Associate Director Popular Recording" (at 7th Ave). Another executive from ARC, Art Satherley, was not expected to transition over as easily. "It is understood that CBS and the Levys are not interested in retaining American Record's hillbilly department, and that Art Satherly, who has been running this section for many years, will take it out of the company with him". Fortunately, to the delight of many, this did not happen, and Art went on to many more successful years supervising all aspects of Columbia's Hillbilly/Country artists and sessions.

On August 30, 1939, Columbia replaced its $.75 Brunswick record for a $.50 Columbia label.[25] Brunswick was gradually phased out, the final issue being Brunswick 8520, in April 1940. Wallerstein and Paley knew in advance that their course of action would lead to violation of the 1931 Brunswick lease agreement, so they discontinued Vocalion in June 1940, and fired up Okeh. By July, it was releasing new Hillbilly platters by Gene Autry and Bob Wills, and re-issuing past Vocalion discs, using the same catalogue numbers with a leading zero added. When a January 1941 audit found that not more than 150,000 Brunswick records had sold during the period from December 1, 1939 through December 31, 1940, control of the loaned trademarks and catalog of master recordings made prior to December 3, 1931 reverted back to Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Columbia trademark from this point until the late 1950s was two overlapping circles with the Magic Notes in the left circle and a CBS microphone in the right circle. The Royal Blue labels now disappeared in favor of a deep red, which caused RCA Victor to claim infringement on its Red Seal trademark (RCA lost the case). The blue Columbia label was kept for its classical music Columbia Masterworks Records line until it was later changed to a green label before switching to a gray label in the late 1950s, and then to the bronze that is familiar to owners of its classical and Broadway albums. Columbia Phonograph Company of Canada did not survive the Great Depression, so CBS made a distribution deal with Sparton Records in 1939 to release Columbia records in Canada under the Columbia name.

During the 1940s, Columbia had a contract with Frank Sinatra. Sinatra helped boost Columbia in revenue. Sinatra recorded over 200 songs with Columbia which include his most popular songs from his early years. Other popular artists on Columbia included Benny Goodman (signed from Victor 1939 by Hammond), Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford (both signed from Decca), Eddy Duchin, Ray Noble (both moved to Columbia from Brunswick), Kate Smith, Mildred Bailey, and Will Bradley.

In 1947, the company was renamed Columbia Records Inc.[26] and founded its Mexican record company, Discos Columbia de Mexico.[27] 1948 saw the first classical LP Nathan Milstein's recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Columbia's 33 rpm format quickly spelled the death of the classical 78 rpm record and for the first time in nearly fifty years, gave Columbia a commanding lead over RCA Victor Red Seal.[28][29]

The LP record (1948–1959)

Columbia's president Edward Wallerstein was instrumental in steering Paley towards the ARC purchase. He set his talents to his goal of hearing an entire movement of a symphony on one side of an album. Ward Botsford writing for the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Issue of High Fidelity Magazine relates: "He was no inventor—he was simply a man who seized an idea whose time was ripe and begged, ordered, and cajoled a thousand men into bringing into being the now accepted medium of the record business." Despite Wallerstein's stormy tenure, in June 1948, Columbia introduced the Long Playing "microgroove" LP record format (sometimes written "Lp" in early advertisements), which rotated at 33⅓ revolutions per minute, to be the standard for the gramophone record for forty years. CBS research director Dr. Peter Goldmark played a managerial role in the collaborative effort, but Wallerstein credits engineer William Savory with the technical prowess that brought the long-playing disc to the public.[30]

By the early 1940s, Columbia had been experimenting with higher fidelity recordings, as well as longer masters, which paved the way for the successful release of the LPs in 1948. One such record that helped set a new standard for music listeners was the 10" LP reissue of The Voice of Frank Sinatra, originally released on March 4, 1946, as an album of four 78 rpm records, which was the first pop album issued in the new LP format. Sinatra was arguably Columbia's hottest commodity and his artistic vision combined with the direction Columbia were taking the medium of music, both popular and classic, were well suited. The Voice of Frank Sinatra was also considered to be the first genuine concept album. Since the term "LP" has come to refer to the 12-inch 33+1⁄3 rpm vinyl disk, the first LP is the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor played by Nathan Milstein with Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic (then called the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York), Columbia ML 4001, found in the Columbia Record Catalog for 1949, published in July 1948. The other "LP's" listed in the catalog were in the 10 inch format starting with ML 2001 for the light classics, CL 6001 for popular songs and JL 8001 for children's records.[30] The Library of Congress in Washington DC now holds the Columbia Records Paperwork Archive which shows the Label order for ML 4001 being written on March 1, 1948. One can infer that Columbia was pressing the first LPs for distribution to their dealers for at least 3 months prior to the introduction of the LP on June 21,[31] 1948.[32] The catalog numbering system has had minor changes ever since.

Columbia's LPs were particularly well-suited to classical music's longer pieces, so some of the early albums featured such artists as Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The success of these recordings persuaded Capitol Records to begin releasing LPs in 1949. Even before the LP record was officially demonstrated, Columbia offered to share the new speed with rival RCA Victor, who initially rejected it and soon introduced their new competitive 45 RPM record. When it became clear that the LP was the preferred format for classical recordings, RCA Victor announced that the company would begin releasing its own LPs in January 1950. This was quickly followed by the other major American labels. Decca Records in the U.K. was the first to release LPs in Europe, beginning in 1949. EMI would not fully adopt the LP format until 1955.

An "original cast recording" of Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific with Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin was recorded in 1949. Both conventional metal masters and tape were used in the sessions in New York City. For some reason, the taped version was not used until Sony released it as part of a set of CDs devoted to Columbia's Broadway albums.[33] Over the years, Columbia joined Decca and RCA Victor in specializing in albums devoted to Broadway musicals with members of the original casts. In the 1950s, Columbia also began releasing LPs drawn from the soundtracks of popular films.

Many album covers put together by Columbia and the other major labels were put together using one piece of cardboard (folded in half) and two paper "slicks", one for the front and one for the back. The front slick bent around the top, bottom, and left sides (the right side is open for the record to be inserted into the cover) and glued the two halves of cardboard together at the top and bottom. The back slick is pasted over the edges of the pasted-on front slick to make it appear that the album cover is one continuous piece.

Columbia discovered that printing two front cover slicks, one for mono and one for stereo, was inefficient and therefore needlessly costly. Starting in the summer of 1959 with some of the albums released in August, they went to the "paste-over" front slick, which had the stereo information printed on the top and the mono information printed on the bottom. For stereo issues, they moved the front slick down so the stereo information was showing at the top, and the mono information was bent around the bottom to the back and "pasted over" by the back slick. Conversely, for a mono album, they moved the slick up so the mono information showed at the bottom, and the stereo information was pasted over.

The 1950s

 
Columbia used this label for its 45 r.p.m. records from 1951 until 1958.

In 1951, Columbia US began issuing records in the 45 rpm format RCA Victor had introduced two years earlier.[34] The same year, Ted Wallerstein retired as Columbia Records chairman;[35] and Columbia US also severed its decades-long distribution arrangement with EMI and signed a distribution deal with Philips Records to market Columbia recordings outside North America.[36] EMI continued to distribute Okeh and later Epic label recordings until 1968. EMI also continued to distribute Columbia recordings in Australia and New Zealand. American Columbia was not happy with EMI's reluctance to introduce long playing records.[37]

Columbia became the most successful non-rock record company in the 1950s after it lured producer and bandleader Mitch Miller away from the Mercury label in 1950. Despite its many successes, Columbia remained largely uninvolved in the teenage rock'n'roll market until the mid-1960s, despite a handful of crossover hits, largely because of Miller's frequently expressed loathing of rock'n'roll. (Miller was a classically trained oboist who had been a friend of Columbia executive Goddard Lieberson since their days at the Eastman School of Music in the 1930s.)[38] Miller quickly signed up Mercury's biggest artist at the time, Frankie Laine, and discovered several of the decade's biggest recording stars including Tony Bennett, Mahalia Jackson, Jimmy Boyd, Guy Mitchell (whose stage surname was taken from Miller's first name), Johnnie Ray, The Four Lads, Rosemary Clooney, Ray Conniff, Jerry Vale and Johnny Mathis. He also oversaw many of the early singles by the label's top female recording star of the decade, Doris Day.

In 1953, Columbia formed a new subsidiary label Epic Records.[39] 1954 saw Columbia end its distribution arrangement with Sparton Records and form Columbia Records of Canada.[40] To enhance its country music stable, which already included Marty Robbins, Ray Price and Carl Smith, Columbia bid $15,000 for Elvis Presley's contract from Sun Records in 1955.[41] Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, turned down their offer and signed Presley with RCA Victor.[41] However, Columbia did sign two Sun artists in 1958: Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.[41]

 
Transitional 1955 promo 45 r.p.m. label showing both the old "notes and mike" and new "walking eye" logos

With 1954, Columbia US decisively broke with its past when it introduced its new, modernist-style "Walking Eye" logo,[42] designed by Columbia's art director S. Neil Fujita. This logo actually depicts a stylus (the legs) on a record (the eye); however, the "eye" also subtly refers to CBS's main business in television, and that division's iconic Eye logo. Columbia continued to use the "notes and mike" logo on record labels and even used a promo label showing both logos until the "notes and mike" was phased out (along with the 78 in the US) in 1958. In Canada, Columbia 78s were pressed with the "Walking Eye" logo in 1958. The original Walking Eye was tall and solid; it was modified in 1961[43] to the familiar one still used today (pictured on this page), despite the fact that the Walking Eye was used only sporadically during most of the 1990s.

Although the big band era had passed, Columbia had Duke Ellington under contract for several years, capturing the historic moment when Ellington's band provoked a post-midnight frenzy (followed by international headlines) at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, which proved a boost to a bandleader whose career had stalled. Under new head producer George Avakian, Columbia became the most vital label to the general public's appreciation and understanding (with help from Avakian's prolific and perceptive play-by-play liner notes) of jazz, releasing a series of LP's by Louis Armstrong, but also signing to long-term contracts Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis, the two modern jazz artists who would in 1959 record albums that remain—more than sixty years later—among the best-selling jazz albums by any label—viz., Time Out by the Brubeck Quartet and, to an even greater extent, Kind of Blue by the Davis Sextet, which, in 2003, appeared as number 12 in Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time".[44] With another producer, Teo Macero, a skilled modernist composer himself, Columbia cemented contracts with jazz composer/musicians Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, while Macero became a significant figure in Miles Davis career from an explorer of the art of modal jazz from Davis' sextets 1958 album Milestones to innovator and avatar of the marriage of jazz with rock and electronic sounds—commonly known as jazz fusion.

In 1954, Columbia embraced small-group modern jazz by signing of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which resulted in the release of the on-location, best-selling jazz album (up to this time), Jazz Goes to College. Contemporaneously with Columbia's first release of modern jazz by a small group, which was also the Brubeck Quartet's debut on the label, was a Time magazine cover story on the phenomenon of Brubeck's success on college campuses. The humble Dave Brubeck demurred, saying that the second Time cover story on a jazz musician (the first featured Louis Armstrong's picture) had been earned by Duke Ellington, not himself. Within two years Ellington's picture would appear on the cover of Time, following his success at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. Ellington at Newport, recorded on Columbia, was also the bandleader-composer-pianist's best-selling album. Moreover, this exclusive trinity of jazz giants featured on the cover of Time magazine were all Columbia artists. (In the early 1960s Columbia jazz artist Thelonious Monk would be afforded the same honor.)

Columbia changed distributors in Australia and New Zealand in 1956 when the Australian Record Company picked up distribution of U.S. Columbia product to replace the Capitol Records product which ARC lost when EMI bought Capitol. As EMI owned the Columbia trademark at that time, the U.S. Columbia material was issued in Australia and New Zealand on the CBS Coronet label.

In the same year, former Columbia A&R manager Goddard Lieberson was promoted to President of the entire CBS recording division, which included Columbia and Epic, as well as the company's various international divisions and licensees. Under his leadership the corporation's music division soon overtook RCA Victor as the top recording company in the world, boasting a star-studded roster of artists and an unmatched catalogue of popular, jazz, classical and stage and screen soundtrack titles. Lieberson, who had joined Columbia as an A&R manager in 1938, was known for both his personal elegance and his dedication to quality, overseeing the release of many hugely successful albums and singles, as well as championing prestige releases that sold relatively poorly, and even some titles that had limited appeal, such as complete editions of the works of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton von Webern. One of his first major successes was the original Broadway cast album of My Fair Lady, which sold over 5 million copies worldwide in 1957, becoming the most successful LP ever released up to that time. Lieberson also convinced long-serving CBS President William S. Paley to become the sole backer of the original Broadway production, a $500,000 investment which subsequently earned the company some $32 million in profits.[45]

In October 1958, Columbia, in time for the Christmas season, put out a series of "Greatest Hits" packages by such artists as Johnny Mathis, Doris Day, Guy Mitchell, Johnnie Ray, Jo Stafford, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Frankie Laine and the Four Lads; months later, it put out another Mathis compilation as well as that of Marty Robbins. Only Mathis' compilations charted, since there were only 25 positions on Billboard's album charts at the time.[46] However, the compilations were so successful that they led to Columbia doing such packages on a widespread basis, usually when an artist's career was in decline.

Stereo

Although Columbia began recording in stereo in 1956, stereo LPs did not begin to be manufactured until 1958. One of Columbia's first stereo releases was an abridged and re-structured performance of Handel's Messiah by the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir conducted by Leonard Bernstein (recorded on December 31, 1956, on 1⁄2-inch tape, using an Ampex 300-3 machine).[47] Bernstein combined the Nativity and Resurrection sections, and ended the performance with the death of Christ. As with RCA Victor, most of the early stereo recordings were of classical artists, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Leonard Bernstein, and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, who also recorded an abridged Messiah for Columbia. Some sessions were made with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble drawn from leading New York musicians, which had first made recordings with Sir Thomas Beecham in 1949 in Columbia's New York City studios. George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra recorded mostly for Epic. When Epic dropped classical music, the roster and catalogue was moved to Columbia Masterworks Records.

Columbia released its first pop stereo albums in the summer of 1958. All of the first dozen or so were stereo versions of albums already available in mono. It was not until September 1958, that Columbia began simultaneous mono/stereo releases. Mono versions of otherwise stereo recordings were discontinued in 1968. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the LP, in 1958 Columbia initiated the "Adventures in Sound" series that showcased music from around the world.[48][49]

As far as the catalog numbering system went, there was no correlation between mono and stereo versions for the first few years. Columbia started a new CS 8000 series for pop stereo releases, and figuring the stereo releases as some sort of specialty niche records, didn't bother to link the mono and stereo numbers for two years. Masterworks classical LPs had an MS 6000 series, while showtunes albums on Masterworks were OS 2000. Finally, in 1960, the pop stereo series jumped from 8300 to 8310 to match Lambert, Hendricks & Ross Sing Ellington, the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross album issued as CL-1510. From that point, the stereo numbers on pop albums were exactly 6800 higher than the mono; stereo classical albums were the mono number plus 600; and showtunes releases were the mono number MINUS 3600. Only the last two digits in the respective catalog series' matched.

Pop stereo LPs got into the high 9000s by 1970, when CBS Records revamped and unified its catalog numbering system across all its labels. Masterworks classical albums were in the 7000s, while showtunes stayed in the low 2000s.

Columbia's engineering department developed a process for emulating stereo from a mono source. They called this process "Electronically Rechanneled for Stereo". In the June 16, 1962, issue of Billboard magazine (page 5), Columbia announced it would issue "rechanneled" versions of greatest hits compilations that had been recorded in mono, including albums by Doris Day, Frankie Laine, Percy Faith, Mitch Miller, Marty Robbins, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and Johnny Mathis.

The 1960s

Outing of "deep groove"

By the latter half of 1961, Columbia started using pressing plants with newer equipment. The "deep groove" pressings were made on older pressing machines, where the groove was an artifact of the metal stamper being affixed to a round center "block" to assure the resulting record would be centered. Newer machines used parts with a slightly different geometry, that only left a small "ledge" where the deep groove used to be. This changeover did not happen all at once, as different plants replaced machines at different times, leaving the possibility that both deep groove and ledge varieties could be original pressings. The changeover took place starting in late 1961.[50]

CBS Records

 
CBS Records logo outside of the United States

In 1961, CBS ended its arrangement with Philips Records and formed its own international organization, CBS Records International, in 1962. This subsidiary label released Columbia recordings outside the US and Canada on the CBS label (until 1964 marketed by Philips in Britain).[51] The recordings could not be released under the Columbia Records name because EMI operated a separate record label by that name, Columbia Graphophone Company, outside North America. This was the result of legal maneuvers which led to the creation of EMI in the early 1930s.

While this happened, starting in late 1961, both the mono and the stereo labels of domestic Columbia releases started carrying a small "CBS" at the top of the label. This was not something that changed at a certain date, but rather, pressing plants were told to use up the stock of old (pre-CBS) labels first, resulting in a mixture of labels for some given releases. Some are known with the CBS text on mono albums, and not on stereo of the same album, and vice versa; diggings brought up pressings with the CBS text on one side and not on the other. Many, but certainly not all, of the early numbers with the "ledge" variation (i.e., no deep groove), had the small "CBS".[52] This text would be used on the Columbia labels until June 1962.[53]

Columbia's Mexican unit, Discos Columbia, was renamed Discos CBS.[51]

With the formation of CBS Records International, CBS started establishing its own distribution in the early 1960s, beginning in Australia. In 1960 CBS took over its distributor in Australia and New Zealand, the Australian Record Company (founded in 1936) including Coronet Records, one of the leading Australian independent recording and distribution companies of the day. The CBS Coronet label was replaced by the CBS label with the 'walking eye' logo in 1963. ARC continued trading under that name until the late 1970s when it formally changed its business name to CBS Australia.

Mitch Miller on television

In 1961, Columbia's music repertoire was given an enormous boost when Mitch Miller, its A&R manager and bandleader, became the host of the variety series Sing Along with Mitch on NBC.[54] The show was based on Miller's 'folksy' but appealing 'chorus' style performance of popular standards. During its four-season run, the series promoted Miller's "Singalong" albums, which sold over 20 million units, and received a 34% audience share when it was cancelled in 1964.[55]

Bob Dylan

In September 1961, CBS A&R manager John Hammond was producing the first Columbia album by folk singer Carolyn Hester, who invited a friend to accompany her on one of the recording sessions. It was here that Hammond first met Bob Dylan, whom he signed to the label, initially as a harmonica player.[56] Dylan's self-titled debut album was released in March 1962 and sold only moderately.[57] Some executives in Columbia dubbed Dylan "Hammond's folly" and suggest that Dylan be dropped from the label.[58] But John Hammond and Johnny Cash defended Dylan, who over the next four years became one of Columbia's highest earning acts.

Over the course of the 1960s, Dylan achieved a prominent position in Columbia. His early folk songs were recorded by many acts and became hits for Peter, Paul & Mary and The Turtles.[59] Some of these cover versions became the foundation of the folk rock genre. The Byrds achieved their pop breakthrough with a version of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man". In 1965, Dylan's controversial decision to 'go electric' and work with rock musicians divided his audience but catapulted him to greater commercial success with his 1965 hit single "Like a Rolling Stone". Following his withdrawal from touring in 1966, Dylan recorded a large group of songs with his backing group The Band which reached other artists as 'demo recordings'. These resulted in hits by Manfred Mann ("The Mighty Quinn") and Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll & Trinity ("This Wheel's On Fire"). Dylan's late 1960s albums John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline became cornerstone recordings of the emergent country rock genre and influenced The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Rock and roll

When the British Invasion arrived in January 1964, Columbia had no rock musicians on its roster except for Dion, who was signed in 1963 as the label's first major rock star, and Paul Revere & the Raiders who were also signed in 1963. The label released a merseybeat album, The Exciting New Liverpool Sound (Columbia CL-2172, issued in mono only). Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day, produced the hard driving "Don't Make My Baby Blue" for Frankie Laine, who had gone six years without a hit record. The song reached No. 51 on the pop chart and No. 17 on the easy listening chart.

Melcher and Bruce Johnston discovered and brought to Columbia The Rip Chords, a vocal group consisting of Ernie Bringas and Phil Stewart, and turned it into a rock group through production techniques. The group had hits in "Here I Stand", a remake of the song by Wade Flemons, and "Hey Little Cobra". Columbia saw the two recordings as a start to getting into rock and roll. Melcher and Johnston recorded several additional singles for Columbia in 1964 as "Bruce & Terry" and later as "The Rogues". Melcher produced early albums by The Byrds and Paul Revere & the Raiders for Columbia while Johnston produced The Beach Boys for Capitol Records.

Ascension of Clive Davis

When Mitch Miller retired in 1965,[60] Columbia was at a turning point. Miller's disdain for rock and roll and pop rock had dominated Columbia's A&R policy. The label's only significant "pop" acts at the time were Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Paul Revere & The Raiders and Simon & Garfunkel. In its catalogue were other genres: classical, jazz and country, along with a select group of R&B artists, among them Aretha Franklin.[56] Most historians observed that Columbia had problems marketing Franklin as a major talent in the R&B genre, which led to her leaving the label for Atlantic Records in 1967.[61][62]

In 1967, Brooklyn-born lawyer Clive Davis became president of Columbia. Sales of Broadway soundtracks and Mitch Miller's singalong series were waning. Pretax earnings had flattened to about $5 million annually.[55] Following the appointment of Davis, the Columbia label became more of a rock music label, thanks mainly to Davis's fortuitous decision to attend the Monterey International Pop Festival, where he spotted and signed several leading acts including Janis Joplin. Joplin led the way for several generations of female rock and rollers. However, Columbia/CBS still had a hand in traditional pop and jazz and one of its key acquisitions during this period was Barbra Streisand. She released her first solo album on Columbia in 1963 and remains with the label to this day. Additionally, the label kept Miles Davis on the roster, and his late 1960s recordings, In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, pioneered a fusion of jazz and rock music.[63]

A San Francisco group called Moby Grape had been gaining popularity on the West Coast, and were signed by Davis in 1967. As a way of introducing them to the world with a splash, they released their debut album, along with five singles from the album, all on the same day, June 6, 1967, 23 years following D-Day. The album hit made No. 24 on the Billboard 200, but the singles barely made a dent in the charts, the best performer being "Omaha", which lasted a mere three weeks on the Hot 100 reaching only No. 88. The other charter, "Hey Grandma", only reached the Bubbling Under chart and faded within a week. Also, there were some complaints about the obscene gesture made to the American flag on the front cover that had to be edited out on the second pressing, not to mention that the group started to decline in sales after that. The return on all the promotional budget for the singles realized nothing. Although the group made two more albums, this particular publicity stunt was never again attempted by Columbia or any other major label.[citation needed]

Simon & Garfunkel

Arguably the most commercially successful Columbia pop act of this period, other than Bob Dylan, was Simon & Garfunkel. The duo scored a surprise No. 1 hit in 1965 when Columbia producer Tom Wilson, inspired by the folk-rock experiments of The Byrds and others, added drums and bass to the duo's earlier recording of "The Sound of Silence" without their knowledge or approval. Indeed, the duo had already broken up some months earlier, discouraged by the poor sales of their debut LP, and Paul Simon had relocated to the UK, where he only found out about the single being a hit via the music press. The dramatic success of the song prompted Simon to return to the US; the duo reformed, and they soon became one of the flagship acts of the folk-rock boom of the mid-1960s. Their next album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, went to No. 4 on the Billboard album chart. The duo subsequently had a Top 20 single, "A Hazy Shade of Winter", but progress slowed during 1966-67 as Simon struggled with writer's block and the demands of constant touring. They shot back to the top in 1968 after Simon agreed to write songs for the Mike Nichols film The Graduate. The resulting single, "Mrs. Robinson", became a smash hit. Both The Graduate soundtrack and Simon & Garfunkel's next studio album, Bookends, were major hits on the album chart, with combined total sales in excess of five million copies. Simon and Garfunkel's fifth and final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970), reached number one in the US album charts in January 1970 and became one of the most successful albums of all time.[64]

Hoyt Axton and Tom Rush

Davis lured artists Hoyt Axton and Tom Rush to Columbia in 1969, and both were given what was known as "the pop treatment" by the label. Hoyt Axton had been a folk/blues singer-songwriter since the early 1960s, when he made several albums for Horizon, then Vee-Jay. By the time he joined Columbia, he had mixed successful pop songs like "Greenback Dollar", with hard rock songs for Steppenwolf, such as "The Pusher", which was used in the film Easy Rider in the same year. When he landed at Columbia, his album My Griffin Is Gone was described as "the poster child for 'overproduced,' full of all kinds of instruments and even strings".[65] After that album, Axton left and joined Capitol Records, where his next albums contained "Joy to the World" and "Never Been to Spain", which became hits for Three Dog Night on Dunhill. Axton eventually became a country singer, and founded his own record label, Jeremiah.

Tom Rush had always been the "storyteller" or "balladeer" type of folk artist, before and after his stint with Columbia, to which Rush was lured from Elektra. As with Axton, Rush was given "the treatment" on his self-titled Columbia debut. The multitude of instruments added to his usual solo guitar were all done "tastefully", of course, but was not really on par with Rush's audience expectations. He commented to record label historian Mike Callahan:

Well, when you're in the studio, they bring out all these "sweeteners" and things they have, and while you're there, you say, yeah, that sounds good. But then you get the album home and you almost can't hear yourself under all that.[65]

Eventually, Rush returned to his usual sound (which he applied to his next three albums for Columbia) and has been playing to appreciative audiences ever since.

The 1970s

Catalog numbers

The Columbia album series began in 1951 with album GL-500 (CL-500) and reached an awkward milestone in 1970, when the stereo numbering sequence reached CS-9999, assigned to the Patti Page album Honey Come Back. This presented a catalog numbering system challenge as Columbia had used a four-digit catalog number for 13 years, and CS-10000 seemed cumbersome. Columbia decided to start issuing albums at CS-1000 instead, preserving the four-digit catalog number. However, this resulted in the reuse of numbers previously used in 1957–58, although the prefix was now different. In July 1970, the cataloging department implemented a new system, combining all their labels into a unified catalog numbering system starting with 30000, with the prefix letter indicating the label: C=Columbia, E=Epic, H=Harmony (budget reissue line), M=Columbia Masterworks, S=movie soundtrack and original Broadway cast albums, Y=Columbia Odyssey, and Z=every other label that CBS distributed. The prefix letter G was also used for two album sets—or the number of records in the set after the label letter, such as KC2.[66] The first CBS album released under the new system was The Elvin Bishop Group's self-titled album on Fillmore Records, assigned with F 30001 (the earliest Fillmore albums had the 'F' prefix , rather than a 'Z'), while the first actual Columbia release under the system was Herschel Bernardi's Show Stopper, assigned with C 30004.[67] The highest catalog number released in the old system was CS-1069, assigned to The Sesame Street Book and Record. Chronologically, Columbia issued at least one album in this series in August, but by that time, the CBS Consolidated 30000 series, which started issuing albums in July with the new label design, was well underway, having issued nearly 100 albums. The system was later expanded with even more prefix letters (including R for Portrait, W for labels distributed but not promoted or marketed by CBS, L for Sony Wonder, S for Sony Classical, V for Chrysalis Records, and B for 550 Music), which continued until 2005.

Quadraphonics

In September 1970, under the guidance of Clive Davis, Columbia Records entered the West Coast rock market, opening a state-of-the art recording studio (which was located at 827 Folsom St. in San Francisco and later morphed into the Automatt) and establishing an A&R head and office in San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf, headed by George Daly, a producer and artist for Monument Records (who inked a distribution deal with Columbia at the time) and a former bandmate of Nils Lofgren and Roy Buchanan. The recording studio operated under CBS until 1978.[68]

During the early 1970s, Columbia began recording in a four-channel process called quadraphonic, using the "SQ" (Stereo Quadraphonic) standard that used an electronic encoding process that could be decoded by special amplifiers and then played through four speakers, with each speaker placed in the corner of a room. Remarkably, RCA countered with another quadraphonic process that required a special cartridge to play the "discrete" recordings for four-channel playback. Both Columbia and RCA's quadraphonic records could be played on conventional stereo equipment. Although the Columbia process required less equipment and was quite effective, many were confused by the competing systems and sales of both Columbia's matrix recordings and RCA's discrete recordings were disappointing. A few other companies also issued some matrix recordings for a few years. Quadraphonic recording was used by both classical artists, including Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez, and popular artists such as Electric Light Orchestra, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash, Barbra Streisand, Ray Conniff, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, The Clash and Blue Öyster Cult. Columbia even released a soundtrack album of the movie version of Funny Girl in quadraphonic. Many of these recordings were later remastered and released in Dolby surround sound on CD.

Yetnikoff becomes president

In 1975, Walter Yetnikoff was promoted to become President of Columbia Records, and his vacated position as President of CBS Records International was filled by Dick Asher. At this point, according to music historian Frederic Dannen, the shy and introverted Yetnikoff began to transform his personality, becoming (in Asher's words) "wild, menacing, crude, and above all, very loud". In Dannen's view, Yetnikoff was probably over-compensating for his naturally sensitive and generous personality, and that he had little hope of being recognised as a "record man" (someone with a musical ear and an intuitive understanding of current trends and artists' intentions) because he was tone-deaf, so he instead determined to become a "colourful character".[69] Yetnikoff soon became notorious for his violent temper and regular tantrums: "He shattered glassware, spewed a mixture of Yiddish and barnyard epithets, and had people physically ejected from the CBS building."[70]

In 1976, Columbia Records of Canada was renamed CBS Records Canada Ltd.[40] The Columbia label continued to be used by CBS Canada, but the CBS label was introduced for French-language recordings. On May 5, 1979, Columbia Masterworks began digital recording in a recording session of Stravinsky's Petrouchka by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, in New York (using 3M's 32-channel multitrack digital recorder).

Dick Asher vs "The Network"

CBS Records had a popular roster of musicians. It distributed Philadelphia International Records, Blue Sky Records, the Isley Brothers' T-Neck Records and Monument Records (from 1971 to 1976). But the music industry was in financial decline. Total sales fell by 11%, the biggest drop since World War II. In 1979, CBS had a pre-tax income of $51 million and sales of over $1 billion. The label laid off hundreds of employees.

To deal with the crisis, CEO John Backe promoted Dick Asher from Vice President of Business Affairs to Deputy President. Charged with cutting costs and restoring profits, Asher was reportedly reluctant to take on the role. He was worried that Yetnikoff would resent his promotion. But Backe had confidence in Asher's experience. In 1972, Asher had turned the British division of CBS from loss to profit. Backe considered him to be honest and trustworthy, and he appealed to Asher's loyalty to the company. Employees at CBS thought Asher was a bore and an interloper. He cut back on expenses and on perks like limousines and restaurants. His relationship with Yetnikoff deteriorated.

Asher became increasingly concerned about the huge and rapidly growing cost of hiring independent agents, who were paid to promote new singles to radio station program directors. "Indies" had been used by record labels for many years to promote new releases, but as he methodically delved into CBS Records' expenses, Asher was dismayed to discover that hiring these independent promoters was now costing CBS alone as much as $10 million per year. When Asher took over CBS' UK division in 1972, a freelance promoter might only charge $100 per week, but by 1979 the top American independent promoters had organized themselves into a loose collective known as "The Network", and their fees were now running into the tens millions of dollars per year, Music historian Frederic Dannen estimates that by 1980 the major labels were paying anywhere from to $100,000 to $300,000 per song to the "Network" promoters, and that it was costing the industry as whole as much as $80 million annually.

During this period, Columbia scored a Top 40 hit with the Pink Floyd single "Another Brick in the Wall", and its parent album The Wall would spend four months at No. 1 on the Billboard LP chart in early 1980, but few in the industry knew that Dick Asher was in fact using the single as a covert experiment to test the extent of the pernicious influence of The Network - by not paying them to promote the new Pink Floyd single. The results were immediate and deeply troubling - not one of the major radio stations in Los Angeles would program the record, despite the fact that the group was in town, performing the first seven concerts on their elaborate The Wall Tour at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena to rave reviews and sold-out crowds. Asher was already worried about the growing power of The Network, and the fact it operated entirely outside the control of the label, but he was profoundly dismayed to realize that "The Network" was in effect a huge extortion racket, and that the operation could well be linked to organized crime - a concern vehemently dismissed by Yetnikoff, who resolutely defended the "indies" and declared them to be "mensches". But Dick Asher now knew that The Network's real power lay in their ability to prevent records from being picked up by radio, and as an experienced media lawyer and a loyal CBS employee, he was also acutely aware that this could become a new payola scandal which had the potential to engulf the entire CBS corporation, and that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could even revoke CBS' all-important broadcast licenses if the corporation was found to be involved in any illegality.[71]

The 1980s and sale to Sony

The structure of US Columbia remained the same until 1980, when it spun off the classical/Broadway unit, Columbia Masterworks Records, into a separate imprint, CBS Masterworks Records.

In 1988, the CBS Records Group, including the Columbia Records unit, was acquired by Sony, which re-christened the parent division Sony Music Entertainment in 1991. As Sony only had a temporary license on the CBS Records name, it then acquired the rights to the Columbia trademarks (Columbia Graphophone) outside the U.S., Canada, Spain (trademark owned by BMG) and Japan (Nippon Columbia) from EMI, which generally had not been used by them since the early 1970s. The CBS Records label was officially renamed Columbia Records on January 1, 1991, worldwide except Spain (where Sony got the rights in 2004 by forming a joint venture with BMG[72]) and Japan.[73] CBS Masterworks Records was renamed Sony Classical Records. In December 2006, CBS Corporation revived the CBS Records name for a new minor label closely linked with its television properties (coincidentally, the new CBS Records is currently distributed by another Sony Music division, RED Distribution).

The 1990s–present

Columbia Records remains a premier subsidiary label of Sony Music Entertainment. In 2009, during the re-consolidation of Sony Music, Columbia was partnered with its Epic Records sister to form the Columbia/Epic Label Group[74] under which it operated as an imprint. In July 2011, as part of further corporate restructuring, Epic was split from the Columbia/Epic Group as Epic took in multiple artists from Jive Records.[75]

As of March 2013, Columbia Records was home to 90 artists such as Lauren Jauregui, Robbie Williams, Calvin Harris and Daft Punk.[76]

On January 2, 2018, Ron Perry was named as the chairman and CEO of Columbia Records.[77] In September 2018, Jennifer Mallory was appointed EVP and general manager.[78]

Logos and branding

The acquisition of rights to the Columbia trademarks by EMI (including the "Magic Notes" logo) presented the company with a dilemma of which logo to use. For much of the 1990s, Columbia released its albums without a logo, just the "COLUMBIA" word mark in the Bodoni Classic Bold typeface.[79] Columbia experimented with bringing back the "Notes and Mic" logo but without the CBS mark on the microphone. That logo is currently used in the "Columbia Jazz" series of jazz releases and reissues.[80] A modified "Magic Notes" logo is found on the logo for Sony Classical. In mid to late 1999, it was eventually decided that the "Walking Eye" (previously the CBS Records logo outside North America) would be Columbia's logo, with the retained Columbia word mark design, throughout the world except in Japan where Nippon Columbia has the rights to the Columbia trademark to this day and continues to use the "Magic Notes" logo. In Japan, CBS/Sony Records was renamed Sony Records in 1991 and stopped using the "Walking Eye" logo in 1998.

List of Columbia Records artists

Main article: List of Columbia Records artists

As of October 2012, there were 85 recording artists signed to Columbia Records,[81] making it the largest of the three flagship labels owned by Sony Music (followed by RCA Records with 78 artists and Epic Records with 43 artists).

Subsidiaries

Affiliated labels

American Recording Company (ARC)

During August 1978 Maurice White, founder and leader of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, re-launched the American Recording Company (ARC). In addition to White's Earth, Wind & Fire, the Columbia Records-distributed label artist roster included successful R&B and pop singer Deniece Williams, jazz-fusion group Weather Report, and R&B trio the Emotions.[82][83] Since the 1940s, Columbia has also re-issued thousands of 1930s records issued on ARC labels.

Columbia Label Group (UK)

In January 2006, Sony BMG UK split its front-line operations into two separate labels. RCA Label Group, mainly dealing with Pop and R&B and Columbia Label Group, mainly dealing with Rock, Dance and Alternative music. Mike Smith is the managing director of Columbia Label Group, Ian Dutt is marketing director and Alison Donald is Director of A&R.

Aware Records

In 1997, Columbia made an affiliation with unsigned artist promotion label Aware Records to distribute Aware's artists' music. Through this venture, Columbia has found highly successful artists. In 2002, Columbia and Aware accepted the option to continue this relationship.

Columbia Nashville

In 2007, Columbia formed Columbia Nashville, which is part of Sony Music Nashville. This gave Columbia Nashville complete autonomy and managerial separation from Columbia in New York City. Columbia had given its country music department semi-autonomy for many years and through the 1950s, had a 20,000 series catalog for country music singles while the rest of Columbia's output of singles had a 30,000, then 40,000 series catalog number.

In 2009, Columbia Nashville became part of Sony Music Nashville under the Sony Group Corporation umbrella through Sony Music Group.

Recording studios

Columbia Records operated recording studios, the most notable of which were in New York City, Nashville, Hollywood and San Francisco. Columbia's first recording studio was established in 1913, after the company moved into the Woolworth Building in Manhattan, the tallest building in the world at the time.[84] In 1917, Columbia used this studio to make one of the earliest jazz records, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band.[85][86]

7th Avenue, New York

In 1939, Columbia established Studio A at 799 Seventh Avenue in New York City.[22] This studio – well known for its use by Bob Dylan in the 1960s – was purchased in 1967 by Jack Arnold and Phil Ramone's A & R Recording, and became Studios A-1 and A-2 for A & R. The building was demolished in 1983 to make way for the Equitable Tower.

52nd Street, New York

Main article: CBS Studio Building

Studio B and Studio E were located in the CBS Studio Building at 49 East 52nd Street in New York City – on the second and fifth floor, respectively.[87]

30th Street, New York

Main article: CBS 30th Street Studio

Columbia's New York Studio C and Studio D were located at The Columbia 30th Street Studio at 207 East 30th Street in New York City. This complex, nicknamed "The Church", was considered by some in the music industry to be the best-sounding room of its time, and many consider it to have been the greatest recording studio in history.[87] The 1875 building, in Manhattan's Murray Hill district, had been originally constructed as a Christian church. In 1952 CBS leased the building and converted it into a state-of-the-art recording studio.[88] CBS never took up the option to buy the building outright, giving up its lease and closing the studio in 1982. In spite of the building's inherent heritage status and its cultural significance, it was sold to developers in 1985, demolished, and replaced by a high-rise apartment complex.

Columbia Square, Hollywood

See also: CBS Columbia Square

In 1961, Columbia Records renovated and repurposed CBS Radio Studio A at the company's Columbia Square complex at 6121 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Columbia utilized the studio for recording and mastering services until its closure in 1972.

Columbia Studio B, Nashville

See also: Quonset Hut Studio

In 1962, Columbia Records purchased Bradley's Film & Recording Studios, Harold and Owen Bradley's Nashville recording studio known as the Quonset Hut, and established Columbia Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. Columbia operated the studio from 1962 through 1982, when it was converted into office space.[89] In 2006, philanthropist Mike Curb bought the structure and had it restored. Today it serves as a recording classroom for Belmont University.[89]

Liederkranz Hall Studio, New York

Columbia also recorded in the highly respected Liederkranz Hall, at 111 East 58th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, in New York City, it was built by and formerly belonged to a German cultural and musical society, The Liederkranz Society, and used as a recording studio (Victor also recorded in Liederkranz Hall in the late 1920s).[87][90][91][92] The producer Morty Palitz had been instrumental in convincing Columbia Records to begin to use the Liederkranz Hall studio for recording music, additionally convincing the conductor Andre Kostelanetz to make some of the first recordings in Liederkranz Hall which until then had only been used for CBS Symphony radio shows.[93] In 1949, the large Liederkranz Hall space was physically rearranged to create four television studios.[87][94]

Executives

  • Ron Perry – Chairman & CEO
  • Jennifer Mallory – GM
  • Stephen Russo - EVP & CFO
  • Abou "Bu" Thiam – EVP
  • Edward Wallerstein – Chairman & CEO (1939–1951)

See also

References

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  47. ^ This stereo LP Box Set (2 LPs) have released first as M2S-603 (MS 6038-9) in 1958.
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  • Dannen, Frederic (1991). Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside The Music Business. London: Vintage. ISBN 0099813106.

Further reading

  • Cogan, Jim; Clark, William, Temples of sound : inside the great recording studios, San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 2003. ISBN 0-8118-3394-1. Cf. chapter on Columbia Studios, pp. 181–192.
  • Hoffmann, Frank, Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, New York & London : Routledge, 1993 & 2005, Volume 1. Cf. pp. 209–213, article on "Columbia (Label)"
  • Koenigsberg, Allen, The Patent History of the Phonograph, 1877–1912, APM Press, 1990/1991, ISBN 0-937612-10-3.
  • Revolution in Sound: A Biography of the Recording Industry. Little, Brown and Company, 1974. ISBN 0-316-77333-6.
  • High Fidelity Magazine, ABC, Inc. April 1976, "Creating the LP Record."
  • Rust, Brian, (compiler), The Columbia Master Book Discography, Greenwood Press, 1999.
  • Marmorstein, Gary. The Label: The Story of Columbia Records. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press; 2007. ISBN 1-56025-707-5
  • Ramone, Phil; Granata, Charles L., Making records: the scenes behind the music, New York: Hyperion, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7868-6859-9. Many references to the Columbia Studios, especially when Ramone bought Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue from Columbia. Cf. especially pp. 136–137.
  • Dave Marsh; 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story Legends and Legacy, Free eBook released by Columbia Records that puts a spotlight on the label's 263 greatest recordings from 1890 to 2011.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Columbia Records.
  • Official website
  • Columbia masters in the Discography of American Historical Recordings
  • See the Profile of Designer Alex Steinweiss

January 02, 2023
columbia, records, confused, with, columbia, record, this, article, about, american, record, label, active, worldwide, former, record, company, owned, columbia, graphophone, company, japanese, record, label, nippon, columbia, american, record, label, owned, so. Not to be confused with Columbia Record This article is about the American record label active worldwide For the former record company owned by EMI see Columbia Graphophone Company For the Japanese record label see Nippon Columbia Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony It was founded on January 15 1889 evolving from the American Graphophone Company the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company 3 Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business 4 5 6 and the second major company to produce records 7 From 1961 to 1991 its recordings were released outside North America under the name CBS Records to avoid confusion with EMI s Columbia Graphophone Company Columbia is one of Sony Music s four flagship record labels alongside former longtime rival RCA Records as well as Arista Records and Epic Records Columbia RecordsParent companyColumbia Graphophone Company October 5 1925 1925 10 05 March 31 1931 1931 03 31 Grigsby Grunow Company December 1931 1931 12 May 1934 1934 05 American Record Corporation June 1934 1934 06 December 1938 1938 12 Columbia Broadcasting System CBS Inc December 17 1938 1938 12 17 1 2 1988 Sony Corporation 1988 1991 Sony Music Entertainment 1991 2004 2008 present Sony BMG Music Entertainment 2004 2008 FoundedJanuary 15 1889 133 years ago 1889 01 15 as Columbia Phonograph Company FounderEdward D EastonDistributor s Sony Music EntertainmentGenreVariousCountry of originUnited StatesLocationNew York City New York U S Official websitewww wbr columbiarecords wbr comArtists who have recorded for Columbia include AC DC Adele Aerosmith Alice in Chains Julie Andrews Louis Armstrong Gene Autry Count Basie Tony Bennett Leonard Bernstein Beyonce Blood Sweat and Tears Blue Oyster Cult David Bowie the Byrds Mariah Carey Frankie Carle Johnny Cash Cheap Trick Chicago The Chainsmokers The Clash The Chambers Brothers Tyler the Creator Leonard Cohen Ray Conniff Mac Davis Miles Davis Doris Day The Dorsey Brothers Neil Diamond Celine Dion Bob Dylan Earth Wind amp Fire Ruth Etting Duke Ellington Benny Goodman Billie Holiday Dan Hornsby Harry James Billy Joel Janis Joplin Journey Roger Wolfe Kahn Andre Kostelanetz Kay Lande The Manhattans Johnny Mathis George Michael Wham Mitch Miller Willie Nelson Will Osborne Pink Floyd Iggy Pop Gary Puckett and The Union Gap Santana Frank Sinatra Simon amp Garfunkel Bruce Springsteen Barbra Streisand James Taylor Jerry Vale Paul Whiteman Andy Williams Tammy Wynette Harry Styles Rudy Vallee Miley Cyrus and numerous others Contents 1 History 1 1 Beginnings 1889 1929 1 2 Columbia Phonograph Company ownership 1925 1931 1 3 Columbia ownership separation 1931 1936 1 4 CBS takes over 1938 1947 1 5 The LP record 1948 1959 1 6 The 1950s 1 6 1 Stereo 1 7 The 1960s 1 7 1 Outing of deep groove 1 7 2 CBS Records 1 7 3 Mitch Miller on television 1 7 4 Bob Dylan 1 7 5 Rock and roll 1 7 6 Ascension of Clive Davis 1 7 7 Simon amp Garfunkel 1 7 8 Hoyt Axton and Tom Rush 1 8 The 1970s 1 8 1 Catalog numbers 1 8 2 Quadraphonics 1 8 3 Yetnikoff becomes president 1 8 4 Dick Asher vs The Network 1 9 The 1980s and sale to Sony 1 10 The 1990s present 2 Logos and branding 3 List of Columbia Records artists 4 Subsidiaries 5 Affiliated labels 5 1 American Recording Company ARC 5 2 Columbia Label Group UK 5 3 Aware Records 5 4 Columbia Nashville 6 Recording studios 6 1 7th Avenue New York 6 2 52nd Street New York 6 3 30th Street New York 6 4 Columbia Square Hollywood 6 5 Columbia Studio B Nashville 6 6 Liederkranz Hall Studio New York 7 Executives 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External linksHistory EditBeginnings 1889 1929 Edit Original home of Columbia in Washington D C in 1889 The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded on January 15 1889 by stenographer lawyer and New Jersey native Edward D Easton 1856 1915 and a group of investors It derived its name from the District of Columbia where it was headquartered 8 9 At first it had a local monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington D C Maryland and Delaware As was the custom of some of the regional phonograph companies Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own and its catalogue of musical records in 1891 was 10 pages Columbia s ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Company s breakup Thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture In 1902 Columbia introduced the XP record a molded brown wax record to use up old stock Columbia introduced black wax records in 1903 According to one source they continued to mold brown waxes until 1904 with the highest number being 32601 Heinie which is a duet by Arthur Collins and Byron G Harlan The molded brown waxes may have been sold to Sears for distribution possibly under Sears Oxford trademark for Columbia products 10 A Columbia type AT cylinder graphophone was produced in 1898 11 Columbia began selling disc records invented and patented by Victor Talking Machine Company s Emile Berliner and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901 preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899 which used small vertically cut records For a decade Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound In order to add prestige to its early catalog of artists Columbia contracted a number of New York Metropolitan Opera stars to make recordings from 1903 onward These stars included Marcella Sembrich Lillian Nordica Antonio Scotti and Edouard de Reszke but the technical standard of their recordings was not considered to be as high as the results achieved with classical singers during the pre World War I period by Victor Edison England s His Master s Voice The Gramophone Company Ltd or Italy s Fonotipia Records After an abortive attempt in 1904 to manufacture discs with the recording grooves stamped into both sides of each disc not just one in 1908 Columbia commenced successful mass production of what they called their Double Faced discs the 10 inch variety initially selling for 65 cents apiece The firm also introduced the internal horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company During this era Columbia began to use the Magic Notes logo a pair of sixteenth notes semiquavers in a circle both in the United States and overseas where this particular logo would never substantially change The American label of an electrically recorded Columbia disc by Art Gillham from the mid twenties Columbia stopped recording and manufacturing wax cylinder records in 1908 after arranging to issue celluloid cylinder records made by the Indestructible Record Company of Albany New York as Columbia Indestructible Records In July 1912 Columbia decided to concentrate exclusively on disc records and stopped manufacturing cylinder phonographs although they continued selling Indestructible s cylinders under the Columbia name for a year or two more Columbia was split into two companies one to make records and one to make players Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut and Ed Easton went with it Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation 8 The British label of an electrically recorded Columbia disc by Paul Whiteman Columbia Phonograph Company ownership 1925 1931 Edit In late 1922 Columbia entered receivership 12 The company was bought by its English subsidiary the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1925 and the label record numbering system and recording process changed On February 25 1925 Columbia began recording with the electric recording process licensed from Western Electric 13 Viva tonal records set a benchmark in tone and clarity unequaled on commercial discs during the 78 rpm era The first electrical recordings were made by Art Gillham the Whispering Pianist In a secret agreement with Victor electrical technology was kept secret to avoid hurting sales of acoustic records Louis Sterling Managing Director of British Columbia Graphophone Company had been the moving force behind bringing Western Electric s recording process and the British takeover Originally from New York Sterling became Chairman of Columbia NY from 1925 until 1931 and oversaw stability and success citation needed In 1926 Columbia acquired Okeh Records and its growing stable of jazz and blues artists including Louis Armstrong and Clarence Williams Columbia had already built a catalog of blues and jazz artists including Bessie Smith in their 14000 D Race series Columbia also had a successful Hillbilly series 15000 D In 1928 Paul Whiteman the nation s most popular orchestra leader left Victor to record for Columbia During the same year Columbia executive Frank Buckley Walker pioneered some of the first country music or hillbilly genre recordings with the Johnson City sessions in Tennessee including artists such as Clarence Horton Greene and Fiddlin Charlie Bowman He followed that with a return to Tennessee the next year as well as recording sessions in other cities of the South Moran and Mack as The Two Black Crows 1926 recording The Early Bird Catches the Worm sold 2 5 million copies 14 In 1929 Ben Selvin became house bandleader and A amp R director Other favorites in the Viva tonal era included Ruth Etting Paul Whiteman Fletcher Henderson Ipana Troubadours a Sam Lanin group and Ted Lewis Columbia used acoustic recording for budget label pop product well into 1929 on the labels Harmony Velvet Tone both general purpose labels and Diva sold exclusively at W T Grant stores When Edison Records folded Columbia was the oldest surviving record label Columbia ownership separation 1931 1936 Edit The repercussions of the stock market Crash of 1929 led to huge losses in the recording industry and in March 1931 J P Morgan the major shareholder steered the Columbia Graphophone Company along with Odeon records and Parlophone which it had owned since 1926 into a merger with the Gramophone Company His Master s Voice to form Electric and Musical Industries Ltd EMI 15 16 17 Since the Gramophone Company HMV was a wholly owned subsidiary of Victor and Columbia in America was a subsidiary of UK Columbia Victor now technically owned its largest rival in the US 15 To avoid antitrust legislation EMI had to sell off its US Columbia operation which continued to release pressings of matrices made in the UK 15 In December 1931 the U S Columbia Phonograph Company Inc was acquired by the Grigsby Grunow Company the manufacturers of Majestic radios and refrigerators When Grigsby Grunow was declared bankrupt in November 1933 Columbia was placed in receivership and in June 1934 the company was sold 18 to Sacro Enterprises Inc Sacro for 70 000 Sacro was incorporated a few days before the sale in New York Public documents do not contain any names Many suspect that it was a shell corporation set up by Consolidated Films Industries Inc CFI to hold the Columbia stock while its subsidiary American Record Corporation ARC operated the label This assumption grew out of the ease which CFI later exhibited in selling Columbia in 1938 19 On December 3 1931 CFI made a deal with Warner Brothers Pictures Inc WB to lease Brunswick Record Corporation which included the trademarks and masters of the Brunswick Vocalion and Melotone labels to ARC WB would receive a portion of the sales of its catalogues while ARC was free to use the labels for new recordings Brunswick immediately became the premium 75 label Melotone would release new hillbilly and other 35 dime store discounted discs and Vocalion while re releasing prior ARC records would also be the blues R amp B label and the exclusive outlet for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys a phenomenal mid 1930s Western Swing band which drew 10 000 customers nightly to dance Columbia was added in mid 1932 relegated to slower sellers such as the Hawaiian music of Andy Iona the Irving Mills stable of artists and songs and the still unknown Benny Goodman It tried a marketing ploy the Columbia Royal Blue Record a brilliant blue laminated product with matching label Royal Blue issues made from late 1932 through 1935 are particularly popular with collectors for their rarity and musical interest The Columbia plant in Oakland California did Columbia s pressings for sale west of the Rockies and continued using the Royal Blue material for these until about mid 1936 As southern gospel developed Columbia had astutely sought to record the artists associated with the emerging genre for example Columbia was the only company to record Charles Davis Tillman Most fortuitously for Columbia in its Depression Era financial woes in 1936 the company entered into an exclusive recording contract with the Chuck Wagon Gang a hugely successful relationship which continued into the 1970s A signature group of southern gospel the Chuck Wagon Gang became Columbia s bestsellers with at least 37 million records 20 many of them through the aegis of the Mull Singing Convention of the Air sponsored on radio and later television by southern gospel broadcaster J Bazzel Mull 1914 2006 In 1935 Herbert M Greenspon an 18 year old shipping clerk led a committee to organize the first trade union shop at the main manufacturing factory in Bridgeport Connecticut Elected as president of the Congress of Industrial Unions CIO local Greenspon negotiated the first contract between factory workers and Columbia management In a career with Columbia that lasted 30 years Greenspon retired after achieving the position of executive vice president of the company Columbia also hired talent scout music writer producer and impresario John Hammond in 1937 Alongside his significance as a discoverer promoter and producer of jazz blues and folk artists during the swing music era Hammond had already been of great help to Columbia in 1932 33 Through his involvement in the UK music paper Melody Maker Hammond had arranged for the struggling US Columbia label to provide recordings for the UK Columbia label mostly using the specially created Columbia W 265000 matrix series Hammond recorded Fletcher Henderson Benny Carter Joe Venuti Roger Wolfe Kahn and other jazz performers during a time when the economy was bad enough that many of them would not have had the opportunity to enter a studio and play real jazz a handful of these in this special series were issued in the US Hammond s work for Columbia was interrupted by his service during World War II and he had less involvement with the music scene during the bebop era but when he returned to work as a talent scout for Columbia in the 1950s his career proved to be of incalculable historical and cultural importance the list of superstar artists he would discover and sign to Columbia over the course of his career included Charlie Christian Count Basie Teddy Wilson Pete Seeger Bob Dylan Leonard Cohen Aretha Franklin Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan and in the early 1960s Hammond would also exert an enormous cultural effect on the emerging rock music scene thanks to his championing of reissue LPs of the music of blues artists Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith By 1937 38 the record business was finally recovering from the near death blow of the Great Depression at least for RCA Victor and Decca but privately there were doubts about ARC 21 In a 1941 court case brought by unhappy shareholders of Columbia Broadcasting System Inc CBS Edward Wallerstein an executive with RCA 1932 thru 1938 was asked to comment on ARC The chief value was that the record industry had come back tremendously especially in the case of two other record companies and the American Record Company with all its facilities had not so far as I could learn increased its business in any degree at all in the previous six years 2 CBS takes over 1938 1947 Edit Columbia notes and mic logo On December 17 1938 ARC including the Columbia label in the U S was acquired by William S Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System Inc for 700 000 USD 2 1 ten times the price ARC paid in 1934 which would spark lawsuits later by disgruntled shareholders Columbia Records had originally co founded CBS in 1927 along with New York talent agent Arthur Judson but soon cashed out of the partnership leaving only the name Paley acquired the fledgling radio network in 1928 On January 3 1939 Wallerstein left Victor to become president of the CBS phonograph subsidiary a position he would hold for twelve years CBS kept the ARC name for three months then on April 4 it amended the New York Department of State record of Columbia Phonograph Company Inc naming several of its own employees to directorships and announced in a press release The American Record Co tag is discarded Columbia Records was actually reborn on May 22 1939 as Columbia Recording Corporation Inc a Delaware corporation 22 The NYDOS shows a later incorporation date of April 4 1947 This corporation changed its name to Columbia Records Inc on October 11 1954 and reverted back to Columbia Recording Corporation on January 2 1962 23 The Columbia trademark remained under Columbia Records Inc of Delaware filed back in 1929 24 In February 1939 NYC Studios moved from ARC headquarters at 1776 Broadway to 799 7th Avenue 6th amp 7th flrs New York City Studio A Corporate offices studio and Pressing Plant would also continue at 1473 Barnum Avenue Bridgeport CT John Hammond was hired by Wallerstein as Associate Director Popular Recording at 7th Ave Another executive from ARC Art Satherley was not expected to transition over as easily It is understood that CBS and the Levys are not interested in retaining American Record s hillbilly department and that Art Satherly who has been running this section for many years will take it out of the company with him Fortunately to the delight of many this did not happen and Art went on to many more successful years supervising all aspects of Columbia s Hillbilly Country artists and sessions On August 30 1939 Columbia replaced its 75 Brunswick record for a 50 Columbia label 25 Brunswick was gradually phased out the final issue being Brunswick 8520 in April 1940 Wallerstein and Paley knew in advance that their course of action would lead to violation of the 1931 Brunswick lease agreement so they discontinued Vocalion in June 1940 and fired up Okeh By July it was releasing new Hillbilly platters by Gene Autry and Bob Wills and re issuing past Vocalion discs using the same catalogue numbers with a leading zero added When a January 1941 audit found that not more than 150 000 Brunswick records had sold during the period from December 1 1939 through December 31 1940 control of the loaned trademarks and catalog of master recordings made prior to December 3 1931 reverted back to Warner Bros Pictures The Columbia trademark from this point until the late 1950s was two overlapping circles with the Magic Notes in the left circle and a CBS microphone in the right circle The Royal Blue labels now disappeared in favor of a deep red which caused RCA Victor to claim infringement on its Red Seal trademark RCA lost the case The blue Columbia label was kept for its classical music Columbia Masterworks Records line until it was later changed to a green label before switching to a gray label in the late 1950s and then to the bronze that is familiar to owners of its classical and Broadway albums Columbia Phonograph Company of Canada did not survive the Great Depression so CBS made a distribution deal with Sparton Records in 1939 to release Columbia records in Canada under the Columbia name During the 1940s Columbia had a contract with Frank Sinatra Sinatra helped boost Columbia in revenue Sinatra recorded over 200 songs with Columbia which include his most popular songs from his early years Other popular artists on Columbia included Benny Goodman signed from Victor 1939 by Hammond Count Basie Jimmie Lunceford both signed from Decca Eddy Duchin Ray Noble both moved to Columbia from Brunswick Kate Smith Mildred Bailey and Will Bradley In 1947 the company was renamed Columbia Records Inc 26 and founded its Mexican record company Discos Columbia de Mexico 27 1948 saw the first classical LP Nathan Milstein s recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Columbia s 33 rpm format quickly spelled the death of the classical 78 rpm record and for the first time in nearly fifty years gave Columbia a commanding lead over RCA Victor Red Seal 28 29 The LP record 1948 1959 Edit Columbia s president Edward Wallerstein was instrumental in steering Paley towards the ARC purchase He set his talents to his goal of hearing an entire movement of a symphony on one side of an album Ward Botsford writing for the Twenty Fifth Anniversary Issue of High Fidelity Magazine relates He was no inventor he was simply a man who seized an idea whose time was ripe and begged ordered and cajoled a thousand men into bringing into being the now accepted medium of the record business Despite Wallerstein s stormy tenure in June 1948 Columbia introduced the Long Playing microgroove LP record format sometimes written Lp in early advertisements which rotated at 33 revolutions per minute to be the standard for the gramophone record for forty years CBS research director Dr Peter Goldmark played a managerial role in the collaborative effort but Wallerstein credits engineer William Savory with the technical prowess that brought the long playing disc to the public 30 By the early 1940s Columbia had been experimenting with higher fidelity recordings as well as longer masters which paved the way for the successful release of the LPs in 1948 One such record that helped set a new standard for music listeners was the 10 LP reissue of The Voice of Frank Sinatra originally released on March 4 1946 as an album of four 78 rpm records which was the first pop album issued in the new LP format Sinatra was arguably Columbia s hottest commodity and his artistic vision combined with the direction Columbia were taking the medium of music both popular and classic were well suited The Voice of Frank Sinatra was also considered to be the first genuine concept album Since the term LP has come to refer to the 12 inch 33 1 3 rpm vinyl disk the first LP is the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor played by Nathan Milstein with Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic then called the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York Columbia ML 4001 found in the Columbia Record Catalog for 1949 published in July 1948 The other LP s listed in the catalog were in the 10 inch format starting with ML 2001 for the light classics CL 6001 for popular songs and JL 8001 for children s records 30 The Library of Congress in Washington DC now holds the Columbia Records Paperwork Archive which shows the Label order for ML 4001 being written on March 1 1948 One can infer that Columbia was pressing the first LPs for distribution to their dealers for at least 3 months prior to the introduction of the LP on June 21 31 1948 32 The catalog numbering system has had minor changes ever since Columbia s LPs were particularly well suited to classical music s longer pieces so some of the early albums featured such artists as Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The success of these recordings persuaded Capitol Records to begin releasing LPs in 1949 Even before the LP record was officially demonstrated Columbia offered to share the new speed with rival RCA Victor who initially rejected it and soon introduced their new competitive 45 RPM record When it became clear that the LP was the preferred format for classical recordings RCA Victor announced that the company would begin releasing its own LPs in January 1950 This was quickly followed by the other major American labels Decca Records in the U K was the first to release LPs in Europe beginning in 1949 EMI would not fully adopt the LP format until 1955 An original cast recording of Rodgers amp Hammerstein s South Pacific with Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin was recorded in 1949 Both conventional metal masters and tape were used in the sessions in New York City For some reason the taped version was not used until Sony released it as part of a set of CDs devoted to Columbia s Broadway albums 33 Over the years Columbia joined Decca and RCA Victor in specializing in albums devoted to Broadway musicals with members of the original casts In the 1950s Columbia also began releasing LPs drawn from the soundtracks of popular films Many album covers put together by Columbia and the other major labels were put together using one piece of cardboard folded in half and two paper slicks one for the front and one for the back The front slick bent around the top bottom and left sides the right side is open for the record to be inserted into the cover and glued the two halves of cardboard together at the top and bottom The back slick is pasted over the edges of the pasted on front slick to make it appear that the album cover is one continuous piece Columbia discovered that printing two front cover slicks one for mono and one for stereo was inefficient and therefore needlessly costly Starting in the summer of 1959 with some of the albums released in August they went to the paste over front slick which had the stereo information printed on the top and the mono information printed on the bottom For stereo issues they moved the front slick down so the stereo information was showing at the top and the mono information was bent around the bottom to the back and pasted over by the back slick Conversely for a mono album they moved the slick up so the mono information showed at the bottom and the stereo information was pasted over The 1950s Edit Columbia used this label for its 45 r p m records from 1951 until 1958 In 1951 Columbia US began issuing records in the 45 rpm format RCA Victor had introduced two years earlier 34 The same year Ted Wallerstein retired as Columbia Records chairman 35 and Columbia US also severed its decades long distribution arrangement with EMI and signed a distribution deal with Philips Records to market Columbia recordings outside North America 36 EMI continued to distribute Okeh and later Epic label recordings until 1968 EMI also continued to distribute Columbia recordings in Australia and New Zealand American Columbia was not happy with EMI s reluctance to introduce long playing records 37 Columbia became the most successful non rock record company in the 1950s after it lured producer and bandleader Mitch Miller away from the Mercury label in 1950 Despite its many successes Columbia remained largely uninvolved in the teenage rock n roll market until the mid 1960s despite a handful of crossover hits largely because of Miller s frequently expressed loathing of rock n roll Miller was a classically trained oboist who had been a friend of Columbia executive Goddard Lieberson since their days at the Eastman School of Music in the 1930s 38 Miller quickly signed up Mercury s biggest artist at the time Frankie Laine and discovered several of the decade s biggest recording stars including Tony Bennett Mahalia Jackson Jimmy Boyd Guy Mitchell whose stage surname was taken from Miller s first name Johnnie Ray The Four Lads Rosemary Clooney Ray Conniff Jerry Vale and Johnny Mathis He also oversaw many of the early singles by the label s top female recording star of the decade Doris Day In 1953 Columbia formed a new subsidiary label Epic Records 39 1954 saw Columbia end its distribution arrangement with Sparton Records and form Columbia Records of Canada 40 To enhance its country music stable which already included Marty Robbins Ray Price and Carl Smith Columbia bid 15 000 for Elvis Presley s contract from Sun Records in 1955 41 Presley s manager Colonel Tom Parker turned down their offer and signed Presley with RCA Victor 41 However Columbia did sign two Sun artists in 1958 Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins 41 Transitional 1955 promo 45 r p m label showing both the old notes and mike and new walking eye logos With 1954 Columbia US decisively broke with its past when it introduced its new modernist style Walking Eye logo 42 designed by Columbia s art director S Neil Fujita This logo actually depicts a stylus the legs on a record the eye however the eye also subtly refers to CBS s main business in television and that division s iconic Eye logo Columbia continued to use the notes and mike logo on record labels and even used a promo label showing both logos until the notes and mike was phased out along with the 78 in the US in 1958 In Canada Columbia 78s were pressed with the Walking Eye logo in 1958 The original Walking Eye was tall and solid it was modified in 1961 43 to the familiar one still used today pictured on this page despite the fact that the Walking Eye was used only sporadically during most of the 1990s Although the big band era had passed Columbia had Duke Ellington under contract for several years capturing the historic moment when Ellington s band provoked a post midnight frenzy followed by international headlines at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival which proved a boost to a bandleader whose career had stalled Under new head producer George Avakian Columbia became the most vital label to the general public s appreciation and understanding with help from Avakian s prolific and perceptive play by play liner notes of jazz releasing a series of LP s by Louis Armstrong but also signing to long term contracts Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis the two modern jazz artists who would in 1959 record albums that remain more than sixty years later among the best selling jazz albums by any label viz Time Out by the Brubeck Quartet and to an even greater extent Kind of Blue by the Davis Sextet which in 2003 appeared as number 12 in Rolling Stone s list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time 44 With another producer Teo Macero a skilled modernist composer himself Columbia cemented contracts with jazz composer musicians Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus while Macero became a significant figure in Miles Davis career from an explorer of the art of modal jazz from Davis sextets 1958 album Milestones to innovator and avatar of the marriage of jazz with rock and electronic sounds commonly known as jazz fusion In 1954 Columbia embraced small group modern jazz by signing of the Dave Brubeck Quartet which resulted in the release of the on location best selling jazz album up to this time Jazz Goes to College Contemporaneously with Columbia s first release of modern jazz by a small group which was also the Brubeck Quartet s debut on the label was a Time magazine cover story on the phenomenon of Brubeck s success on college campuses The humble Dave Brubeck demurred saying that the second Time cover story on a jazz musician the first featured Louis Armstrong s picture had been earned by Duke Ellington not himself Within two years Ellington s picture would appear on the cover of Time following his success at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival Ellington at Newport recorded on Columbia was also the bandleader composer pianist s best selling album Moreover this exclusive trinity of jazz giants featured on the cover of Time magazine were all Columbia artists In the early 1960s Columbia jazz artist Thelonious Monk would be afforded the same honor Columbia changed distributors in Australia and New Zealand in 1956 when the Australian Record Company picked up distribution of U S Columbia product to replace the Capitol Records product which ARC lost when EMI bought Capitol As EMI owned the Columbia trademark at that time the U S Columbia material was issued in Australia and New Zealand on the CBS Coronet label In the same year former Columbia A amp R manager Goddard Lieberson was promoted to President of the entire CBS recording division which included Columbia and Epic as well as the company s various international divisions and licensees Under his leadership the corporation s music division soon overtook RCA Victor as the top recording company in the world boasting a star studded roster of artists and an unmatched catalogue of popular jazz classical and stage and screen soundtrack titles Lieberson who had joined Columbia as an A amp R manager in 1938 was known for both his personal elegance and his dedication to quality overseeing the release of many hugely successful albums and singles as well as championing prestige releases that sold relatively poorly and even some titles that had limited appeal such as complete editions of the works of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton von Webern One of his first major successes was the original Broadway cast album of My Fair Lady which sold over 5 million copies worldwide in 1957 becoming the most successful LP ever released up to that time Lieberson also convinced long serving CBS President William S Paley to become the sole backer of the original Broadway production a 500 000 investment which subsequently earned the company some 32 million in profits 45 In October 1958 Columbia in time for the Christmas season put out a series of Greatest Hits packages by such artists as Johnny Mathis Doris Day Guy Mitchell Johnnie Ray Jo Stafford Tony Bennett Rosemary Clooney Frankie Laine and the Four Lads months later it put out another Mathis compilation as well as that of Marty Robbins Only Mathis compilations charted since there were only 25 positions on Billboard s album charts at the time 46 However the compilations were so successful that they led to Columbia doing such packages on a widespread basis usually when an artist s career was in decline Stereo Edit Although Columbia began recording in stereo in 1956 stereo LPs did not begin to be manufactured until 1958 One of Columbia s first stereo releases was an abridged and re structured performance of Handel s Messiah by the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir conducted by Leonard Bernstein recorded on December 31 1956 on 1 2 inch tape using an Ampex 300 3 machine 47 Bernstein combined the Nativity and Resurrection sections and ended the performance with the death of Christ As with RCA Victor most of the early stereo recordings were of classical artists including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter Dimitri Mitropoulos and Leonard Bernstein and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy who also recorded an abridged Messiah for Columbia Some sessions were made with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra an ensemble drawn from leading New York musicians which had first made recordings with Sir Thomas Beecham in 1949 in Columbia s New York City studios George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra recorded mostly for Epic When Epic dropped classical music the roster and catalogue was moved to Columbia Masterworks Records Columbia released its first pop stereo albums in the summer of 1958 All of the first dozen or so were stereo versions of albums already available in mono It was not until September 1958 that Columbia began simultaneous mono stereo releases Mono versions of otherwise stereo recordings were discontinued in 1968 To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the LP in 1958 Columbia initiated the Adventures in Sound series that showcased music from around the world 48 49 As far as the catalog numbering system went there was no correlation between mono and stereo versions for the first few years Columbia started a new CS 8000 series for pop stereo releases and figuring the stereo releases as some sort of specialty niche records didn t bother to link the mono and stereo numbers for two years Masterworks classical LPs had an MS 6000 series while showtunes albums on Masterworks were OS 2000 Finally in 1960 the pop stereo series jumped from 8300 to 8310 to match Lambert Hendricks amp Ross Sing Ellington the Lambert Hendricks amp Ross album issued as CL 1510 From that point the stereo numbers on pop albums were exactly 6800 higher than the mono stereo classical albums were the mono number plus 600 and showtunes releases were the mono number MINUS 3600 Only the last two digits in the respective catalog series matched Pop stereo LPs got into the high 9000s by 1970 when CBS Records revamped and unified its catalog numbering system across all its labels Masterworks classical albums were in the 7000s while showtunes stayed in the low 2000s Columbia s engineering department developed a process for emulating stereo from a mono source They called this process Electronically Rechanneled for Stereo In the June 16 1962 issue of Billboard magazine page 5 Columbia announced it would issue rechanneled versions of greatest hits compilations that had been recorded in mono including albums by Doris Day Frankie Laine Percy Faith Mitch Miller Marty Robbins Dave Brubeck Miles Davis and Johnny Mathis The 1960s Edit Outing of deep groove Edit By the latter half of 1961 Columbia started using pressing plants with newer equipment The deep groove pressings were made on older pressing machines where the groove was an artifact of the metal stamper being affixed to a round center block to assure the resulting record would be centered Newer machines used parts with a slightly different geometry that only left a small ledge where the deep groove used to be This changeover did not happen all at once as different plants replaced machines at different times leaving the possibility that both deep groove and ledge varieties could be original pressings The changeover took place starting in late 1961 50 CBS Records Edit CBS Records logo outside of the United States In 1961 CBS ended its arrangement with Philips Records and formed its own international organization CBS Records International in 1962 This subsidiary label released Columbia recordings outside the US and Canada on the CBS label until 1964 marketed by Philips in Britain 51 The recordings could not be released under the Columbia Records name because EMI operated a separate record label by that name Columbia Graphophone Company outside North America This was the result of legal maneuvers which led to the creation of EMI in the early 1930s While this happened starting in late 1961 both the mono and the stereo labels of domestic Columbia releases started carrying a small CBS at the top of the label This was not something that changed at a certain date but rather pressing plants were told to use up the stock of old pre CBS labels first resulting in a mixture of labels for some given releases Some are known with the CBS text on mono albums and not on stereo of the same album and vice versa diggings brought up pressings with the CBS text on one side and not on the other Many but certainly not all of the early numbers with the ledge variation i e no deep groove had the small CBS 52 This text would be used on the Columbia labels until June 1962 53 Columbia s Mexican unit Discos Columbia was renamed Discos CBS 51 With the formation of CBS Records International CBS started establishing its own distribution in the early 1960s beginning in Australia In 1960 CBS took over its distributor in Australia and New Zealand the Australian Record Company founded in 1936 including Coronet Records one of the leading Australian independent recording and distribution companies of the day The CBS Coronet label was replaced by the CBS label with the walking eye logo in 1963 ARC continued trading under that name until the late 1970s when it formally changed its business name to CBS Australia Mitch Miller on television Edit In 1961 Columbia s music repertoire was given an enormous boost when Mitch Miller its A amp R manager and bandleader became the host of the variety series Sing Along with Mitch on NBC 54 The show was based on Miller s folksy but appealing chorus style performance of popular standards During its four season run the series promoted Miller s Singalong albums which sold over 20 million units and received a 34 audience share when it was cancelled in 1964 55 Bob Dylan Edit In September 1961 CBS A amp R manager John Hammond was producing the first Columbia album by folk singer Carolyn Hester who invited a friend to accompany her on one of the recording sessions It was here that Hammond first met Bob Dylan whom he signed to the label initially as a harmonica player 56 Dylan s self titled debut album was released in March 1962 and sold only moderately 57 Some executives in Columbia dubbed Dylan Hammond s folly and suggest that Dylan be dropped from the label 58 But John Hammond and Johnny Cash defended Dylan who over the next four years became one of Columbia s highest earning acts Over the course of the 1960s Dylan achieved a prominent position in Columbia His early folk songs were recorded by many acts and became hits for Peter Paul amp Mary and The Turtles 59 Some of these cover versions became the foundation of the folk rock genre The Byrds achieved their pop breakthrough with a version of Dylan s Mr Tambourine Man In 1965 Dylan s controversial decision to go electric and work with rock musicians divided his audience but catapulted him to greater commercial success with his 1965 hit single Like a Rolling Stone Following his withdrawal from touring in 1966 Dylan recorded a large group of songs with his backing group The Band which reached other artists as demo recordings These resulted in hits by Manfred Mann The Mighty Quinn and Brian Auger Julie Driscoll amp Trinity This Wheel s On Fire Dylan s late 1960s albums John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline became cornerstone recordings of the emergent country rock genre and influenced The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers Rock and roll Edit When the British Invasion arrived in January 1964 Columbia had no rock musicians on its roster except for Dion who was signed in 1963 as the label s first major rock star and Paul Revere amp the Raiders who were also signed in 1963 The label released a merseybeat album The Exciting New Liverpool Sound Columbia CL 2172 issued in mono only Terry Melcher son of Doris Day produced the hard driving Don t Make My Baby Blue for Frankie Laine who had gone six years without a hit record The song reached No 51 on the pop chart and No 17 on the easy listening chart Melcher and Bruce Johnston discovered and brought to Columbia The Rip Chords a vocal group consisting of Ernie Bringas and Phil Stewart and turned it into a rock group through production techniques The group had hits in Here I Stand a remake of the song by Wade Flemons and Hey Little Cobra Columbia saw the two recordings as a start to getting into rock and roll Melcher and Johnston recorded several additional singles for Columbia in 1964 as Bruce amp Terry and later as The Rogues Melcher produced early albums by The Byrds and Paul Revere amp the Raiders for Columbia while Johnston produced The Beach Boys for Capitol Records Ascension of Clive Davis Edit When Mitch Miller retired in 1965 60 Columbia was at a turning point Miller s disdain for rock and roll and pop rock had dominated Columbia s A amp R policy The label s only significant pop acts at the time were Bob Dylan The Byrds Paul Revere amp The Raiders and Simon amp Garfunkel In its catalogue were other genres classical jazz and country along with a select group of R amp B artists among them Aretha Franklin 56 Most historians observed that Columbia had problems marketing Franklin as a major talent in the R amp B genre which led to her leaving the label for Atlantic Records in 1967 61 62 In 1967 Brooklyn born lawyer Clive Davis became president of Columbia Sales of Broadway soundtracks and Mitch Miller s singalong series were waning Pretax earnings had flattened to about 5 million annually 55 Following the appointment of Davis the Columbia label became more of a rock music label thanks mainly to Davis s fortuitous decision to attend the Monterey International Pop Festival where he spotted and signed several leading acts including Janis Joplin Joplin led the way for several generations of female rock and rollers However Columbia CBS still had a hand in traditional pop and jazz and one of its key acquisitions during this period was Barbra Streisand She released her first solo album on Columbia in 1963 and remains with the label to this day Additionally the label kept Miles Davis on the roster and his late 1960s recordings In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew pioneered a fusion of jazz and rock music 63 A San Francisco group called Moby Grape had been gaining popularity on the West Coast and were signed by Davis in 1967 As a way of introducing them to the world with a splash they released their debut album along with five singles from the album all on the same day June 6 1967 23 years following D Day The album hit made No 24 on the Billboard 200 but the singles barely made a dent in the charts the best performer being Omaha which lasted a mere three weeks on the Hot 100 reaching only No 88 The other charter Hey Grandma only reached the Bubbling Under chart and faded within a week Also there were some complaints about the obscene gesture made to the American flag on the front cover that had to be edited out on the second pressing not to mention that the group started to decline in sales after that The return on all the promotional budget for the singles realized nothing Although the group made two more albums this particular publicity stunt was never again attempted by Columbia or any other major label citation needed Simon amp Garfunkel Edit Arguably the most commercially successful Columbia pop act of this period other than Bob Dylan was Simon amp Garfunkel The duo scored a surprise No 1 hit in 1965 when Columbia producer Tom Wilson inspired by the folk rock experiments of The Byrds and others added drums and bass to the duo s earlier recording of The Sound of Silence without their knowledge or approval Indeed the duo had already broken up some months earlier discouraged by the poor sales of their debut LP and Paul Simon had relocated to the UK where he only found out about the single being a hit via the music press The dramatic success of the song prompted Simon to return to the US the duo reformed and they soon became one of the flagship acts of the folk rock boom of the mid 1960s Their next album Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme went to No 4 on the Billboard album chart The duo subsequently had a Top 20 single A Hazy Shade of Winter but progress slowed during 1966 67 as Simon struggled with writer s block and the demands of constant touring They shot back to the top in 1968 after Simon agreed to write songs for the Mike Nichols film The Graduate The resulting single Mrs Robinson became a smash hit Both The Graduate soundtrack and Simon amp Garfunkel s next studio album Bookends were major hits on the album chart with combined total sales in excess of five million copies Simon and Garfunkel s fifth and final studio album Bridge over Troubled Water 1970 reached number one in the US album charts in January 1970 and became one of the most successful albums of all time 64 Hoyt Axton and Tom Rush Edit Davis lured artists Hoyt Axton and Tom Rush to Columbia in 1969 and both were given what was known as the pop treatment by the label Hoyt Axton had been a folk blues singer songwriter since the early 1960s when he made several albums for Horizon then Vee Jay By the time he joined Columbia he had mixed successful pop songs like Greenback Dollar with hard rock songs for Steppenwolf such as The Pusher which was used in the film Easy Rider in the same year When he landed at Columbia his album My Griffin Is Gone was described as the poster child for overproduced full of all kinds of instruments and even strings 65 After that album Axton left and joined Capitol Records where his next albums contained Joy to the World and Never Been to Spain which became hits for Three Dog Night on Dunhill Axton eventually became a country singer and founded his own record label Jeremiah Tom Rush had always been the storyteller or balladeer type of folk artist before and after his stint with Columbia to which Rush was lured from Elektra As with Axton Rush was given the treatment on his self titled Columbia debut The multitude of instruments added to his usual solo guitar were all done tastefully of course but was not really on par with Rush s audience expectations He commented to record label historian Mike Callahan Well when you re in the studio they bring out all these sweeteners and things they have and while you re there you say yeah that sounds good But then you get the album home and you almost can t hear yourself under all that 65 Eventually Rush returned to his usual sound which he applied to his next three albums for Columbia and has been playing to appreciative audiences ever since The 1970s Edit Catalog numbers Edit The Columbia album series began in 1951 with album GL 500 CL 500 and reached an awkward milestone in 1970 when the stereo numbering sequence reached CS 9999 assigned to the Patti Page album Honey Come Back This presented a catalog numbering system challenge as Columbia had used a four digit catalog number for 13 years and CS 10000 seemed cumbersome Columbia decided to start issuing albums at CS 1000 instead preserving the four digit catalog number However this resulted in the reuse of numbers previously used in 1957 58 although the prefix was now different In July 1970 the cataloging department implemented a new system combining all their labels into a unified catalog numbering system starting with 30000 with the prefix letter indicating the label C Columbia E Epic H Harmony budget reissue line M Columbia Masterworks S movie soundtrack and original Broadway cast albums Y Columbia Odyssey and Z every other label that CBS distributed The prefix letter G was also used for two album sets or the number of records in the set after the label letter such as KC2 66 The first CBS album released under the new system was The Elvin Bishop Group s self titled album on Fillmore Records assigned with F 30001 the earliest Fillmore albums had the F prefix rather than a Z while the first actual Columbia release under the system was Herschel Bernardi s Show Stopper assigned with C 30004 67 The highest catalog number released in the old system was CS 1069 assigned to The Sesame Street Book and Record Chronologically Columbia issued at least one album in this series in August but by that time the CBS Consolidated 30000 series which started issuing albums in July with the new label design was well underway having issued nearly 100 albums The system was later expanded with even more prefix letters including R for Portrait W for labels distributed but not promoted or marketed by CBS L for Sony Wonder S for Sony Classical V for Chrysalis Records and B for 550 Music which continued until 2005 Quadraphonics Edit In September 1970 under the guidance of Clive Davis Columbia Records entered the West Coast rock market opening a state of the art recording studio which was located at 827 Folsom St in San Francisco and later morphed into the Automatt and establishing an A amp R head and office in San Francisco at Fisherman s Wharf headed by George Daly a producer and artist for Monument Records who inked a distribution deal with Columbia at the time and a former bandmate of Nils Lofgren and Roy Buchanan The recording studio operated under CBS until 1978 68 During the early 1970s Columbia began recording in a four channel process called quadraphonic using the SQ Stereo Quadraphonic standard that used an electronic encoding process that could be decoded by special amplifiers and then played through four speakers with each speaker placed in the corner of a room Remarkably RCA countered with another quadraphonic process that required a special cartridge to play the discrete recordings for four channel playback Both Columbia and RCA s quadraphonic records could be played on conventional stereo equipment Although the Columbia process required less equipment and was quite effective many were confused by the competing systems and sales of both Columbia s matrix recordings and RCA s discrete recordings were disappointing A few other companies also issued some matrix recordings for a few years Quadraphonic recording was used by both classical artists including Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez and popular artists such as Electric Light Orchestra Billy Joel Pink Floyd Johnny Cash Barbra Streisand Ray Conniff Carlos Santana Herbie Hancock The Clash and Blue Oyster Cult Columbia even released a soundtrack album of the movie version of Funny Girl in quadraphonic Many of these recordings were later remastered and released in Dolby surround sound on CD Yetnikoff becomes president Edit In 1975 Walter Yetnikoff was promoted to become President of Columbia Records and his vacated position as President of CBS Records International was filled by Dick Asher At this point according to music historian Frederic Dannen the shy and introverted Yetnikoff began to transform his personality becoming in Asher s words wild menacing crude and above all very loud In Dannen s view Yetnikoff was probably over compensating for his naturally sensitive and generous personality and that he had little hope of being recognised as a record man someone with a musical ear and an intuitive understanding of current trends and artists intentions because he was tone deaf so he instead determined to become a colourful character 69 Yetnikoff soon became notorious for his violent temper and regular tantrums He shattered glassware spewed a mixture of Yiddish and barnyard epithets and had people physically ejected from the CBS building 70 In 1976 Columbia Records of Canada was renamed CBS Records Canada Ltd 40 The Columbia label continued to be used by CBS Canada but the CBS label was introduced for French language recordings On May 5 1979 Columbia Masterworks began digital recording in a recording session of Stravinsky s Petrouchka by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta in New York using 3M s 32 channel multitrack digital recorder Dick Asher vs The Network Edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed June 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message CBS Records had a popular roster of musicians It distributed Philadelphia International Records Blue Sky Records the Isley Brothers T Neck Records and Monument Records from 1971 to 1976 But the music industry was in financial decline Total sales fell by 11 the biggest drop since World War II In 1979 CBS had a pre tax income of 51 million and sales of over 1 billion The label laid off hundreds of employees To deal with the crisis CEO John Backe promoted Dick Asher from Vice President of Business Affairs to Deputy President Charged with cutting costs and restoring profits Asher was reportedly reluctant to take on the role He was worried that Yetnikoff would resent his promotion But Backe had confidence in Asher s experience In 1972 Asher had turned the British division of CBS from loss to profit Backe considered him to be honest and trustworthy and he appealed to Asher s loyalty to the company Employees at CBS thought Asher was a bore and an interloper He cut back on expenses and on perks like limousines and restaurants His relationship with Yetnikoff deteriorated Asher became increasingly concerned about the huge and rapidly growing cost of hiring independent agents who were paid to promote new singles to radio station program directors Indies had been used by record labels for many years to promote new releases but as he methodically delved into CBS Records expenses Asher was dismayed to discover that hiring these independent promoters was now costing CBS alone as much as 10 million per year When Asher took over CBS UK division in 1972 a freelance promoter might only charge 100 per week but by 1979 the top American independent promoters had organized themselves into a loose collective known as The Network and their fees were now running into the tens millions of dollars per year Music historian Frederic Dannen estimates that by 1980 the major labels were paying anywhere from to 100 000 to 300 000 per song to the Network promoters and that it was costing the industry as whole as much as 80 million annually During this period Columbia scored a Top 40 hit with the Pink Floyd single Another Brick in the Wall and its parent album The Wall would spend four months at No 1 on the Billboard LP chart in early 1980 but few in the industry knew that Dick Asher was in fact using the single as a covert experiment to test the extent of the pernicious influence of The Network by not paying them to promote the new Pink Floyd single The results were immediate and deeply troubling not one of the major radio stations in Los Angeles would program the record despite the fact that the group was in town performing the first seven concerts on their elaborate The Wall Tour at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena to rave reviews and sold out crowds Asher was already worried about the growing power of The Network and the fact it operated entirely outside the control of the label but he was profoundly dismayed to realize that The Network was in effect a huge extortion racket and that the operation could well be linked to organized crime a concern vehemently dismissed by Yetnikoff who resolutely defended the indies and declared them to be mensches But Dick Asher now knew that The Network s real power lay in their ability to prevent records from being picked up by radio and as an experienced media lawyer and a loyal CBS employee he was also acutely aware that this could become a new payola scandal which had the potential to engulf the entire CBS corporation and that the Federal Communications Commission FCC could even revoke CBS all important broadcast licenses if the corporation was found to be involved in any illegality 71 The 1980s and sale to Sony Edit The structure of US Columbia remained the same until 1980 when it spun off the classical Broadway unit Columbia Masterworks Records into a separate imprint CBS Masterworks Records In 1988 the CBS Records Group including the Columbia Records unit was acquired by Sony which re christened the parent division Sony Music Entertainment in 1991 As Sony only had a temporary license on the CBS Records name it then acquired the rights to the Columbia trademarks Columbia Graphophone outside the U S Canada Spain trademark owned by BMG and Japan Nippon Columbia from EMI which generally had not been used by them since the early 1970s The CBS Records label was officially renamed Columbia Records on January 1 1991 worldwide except Spain where Sony got the rights in 2004 by forming a joint venture with BMG 72 and Japan 73 CBS Masterworks Records was renamed Sony Classical Records In December 2006 CBS Corporation revived the CBS Records name for a new minor label closely linked with its television properties coincidentally the new CBS Records is currently distributed by another Sony Music division RED Distribution The 1990s present Edit Columbia Records remains a premier subsidiary label of Sony Music Entertainment In 2009 during the re consolidation of Sony Music Columbia was partnered with its Epic Records sister to form the Columbia Epic Label Group 74 under which it operated as an imprint In July 2011 as part of further corporate restructuring Epic was split from the Columbia Epic Group as Epic took in multiple artists from Jive Records 75 As of March 2013 Columbia Records was home to 90 artists such as Lauren Jauregui Robbie Williams Calvin Harris and Daft Punk 76 On January 2 2018 Ron Perry was named as the chairman and CEO of Columbia Records 77 In September 2018 Jennifer Mallory was appointed EVP and general manager 78 Logos and branding EditThe acquisition of rights to the Columbia trademarks by EMI including the Magic Notes logo presented the company with a dilemma of which logo to use For much of the 1990s Columbia released its albums without a logo just the COLUMBIA word mark in the Bodoni Classic Bold typeface 79 Columbia experimented with bringing back the Notes and Mic logo but without the CBS mark on the microphone That logo is currently used in the Columbia Jazz series of jazz releases and reissues 80 A modified Magic Notes logo is found on the logo for Sony Classical In mid to late 1999 it was eventually decided that the Walking Eye previously the CBS Records logo outside North America would be Columbia s logo with the retained Columbia word mark design throughout the world except in Japan where Nippon Columbia has the rights to the Columbia trademark to this day and continues to use the Magic Notes logo In Japan CBS Sony Records was renamed Sony Records in 1991 and stopped using the Walking Eye logo in 1998 List of Columbia Records artists EditMain article List of Columbia Records artists As of October 2012 there were 85 recording artists signed to Columbia Records 81 making it the largest of the three flagship labels owned by Sony Music followed by RCA Records with 78 artists and Epic Records with 43 artists Subsidiaries EditMr 305 Inc Kemosabe Records Small Giant Records CloudBoy RecordsAffiliated labels EditAmerican Recording Company ARC Edit During August 1978 Maurice White founder and leader of the band Earth Wind amp Fire re launched the American Recording Company ARC In addition to White s Earth Wind amp Fire the Columbia Records distributed label artist roster included successful R amp B and pop singer Deniece Williams jazz fusion group Weather Report and R amp B trio the Emotions 82 83 Since the 1940s Columbia has also re issued thousands of 1930s records issued on ARC labels Columbia Label Group UK Edit In January 2006 Sony BMG UK split its front line operations into two separate labels RCA Label Group mainly dealing with Pop and R amp B and Columbia Label Group mainly dealing with Rock Dance and Alternative music Mike Smith is the managing director of Columbia Label Group Ian Dutt is marketing director and Alison Donald is Director of A amp R Aware Records Edit In 1997 Columbia made an affiliation with unsigned artist promotion label Aware Records to distribute Aware s artists music Through this venture Columbia has found highly successful artists In 2002 Columbia and Aware accepted the option to continue this relationship Columbia Nashville Edit In 2007 Columbia formed Columbia Nashville which is part of Sony Music Nashville This gave Columbia Nashville complete autonomy and managerial separation from Columbia in New York City Columbia had given its country music department semi autonomy for many years and through the 1950s had a 20 000 series catalog for country music singles while the rest of Columbia s output of singles had a 30 000 then 40 000 series catalog number In 2009 Columbia Nashville became part of Sony Music Nashville under the Sony Group Corporation umbrella through Sony Music Group Recording studios EditColumbia Records operated recording studios the most notable of which were in New York City Nashville Hollywood and San Francisco Columbia s first recording studio was established in 1913 after the company moved into the Woolworth Building in Manhattan the tallest building in the world at the time 84 In 1917 Columbia used this studio to make one of the earliest jazz records by the Original Dixieland Jass Band 85 86 7th Avenue New York Edit In 1939 Columbia established Studio A at 799 Seventh Avenue in New York City 22 This studio well known for its use by Bob Dylan in the 1960s was purchased in 1967 by Jack Arnold and Phil Ramone s A amp R Recording and became Studios A 1 and A 2 for A amp R The building was demolished in 1983 to make way for the Equitable Tower 52nd Street New York Edit Main article CBS Studio Building Studio B and Studio E were located in the CBS Studio Building at 49 East 52nd Street in New York City on the second and fifth floor respectively 87 30th Street New York Edit Main article CBS 30th Street Studio Columbia s New York Studio C and Studio D were located at The Columbia 30th Street Studio at 207 East 30th Street in New York City This complex nicknamed The Church was considered by some in the music industry to be the best sounding room of its time and many consider it to have been the greatest recording studio in history 87 The 1875 building in Manhattan s Murray Hill district had been originally constructed as a Christian church In 1952 CBS leased the building and converted it into a state of the art recording studio 88 CBS never took up the option to buy the building outright giving up its lease and closing the studio in 1982 In spite of the building s inherent heritage status and its cultural significance it was sold to developers in 1985 demolished and replaced by a high rise apartment complex Columbia Square Hollywood Edit See also CBS Columbia Square In 1961 Columbia Records renovated and repurposed CBS Radio Studio A at the company s Columbia Square complex at 6121 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood California Columbia utilized the studio for recording and mastering services until its closure in 1972 Columbia Studio B Nashville Edit See also Quonset Hut Studio In 1962 Columbia Records purchased Bradley s Film amp Recording Studios Harold and Owen Bradley s Nashville recording studio known as the Quonset Hut and established Columbia Studio B in Nashville Tennessee Columbia operated the studio from 1962 through 1982 when it was converted into office space 89 In 2006 philanthropist Mike Curb bought the structure and had it restored Today it serves as a recording classroom for Belmont University 89 Liederkranz Hall Studio New York Edit Columbia also recorded in the highly respected Liederkranz Hall at 111 East 58th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues in New York City it was built by and formerly belonged to a German cultural and musical society The Liederkranz Society and used as a recording studio Victor also recorded in Liederkranz Hall in the late 1920s 87 90 91 92 The producer Morty Palitz had been instrumental in convincing Columbia Records to begin to use the Liederkranz Hall studio for recording music additionally convincing the conductor Andre Kostelanetz to make some of the first recordings in Liederkranz Hall which until then had only been used for CBS Symphony radio shows 93 In 1949 the large Liederkranz Hall space was physically rearranged to create four television studios 87 94 Executives EditRon Perry Chairman amp CEO Jennifer Mallory GM Stephen Russo EVP amp CFO Abou Bu Thiam EVP Edward Wallerstein Chairman amp CEO 1939 1951 See also EditJim Flora successor to Alex Steinweiss and legendary illustrator for the label during the 1940s List of record labels Sony BMG Alex Steinweiss the label s Art Director from 1938 to 1943 inventor of the illustrated album cover and the LP sleeveReferences Edit a b Frank Walker Variety December 21 1938 p 24 Retrieved June 18 2022 a b c Appeals New York State Court of 1941 New York Court of Appeals Records and Briefs Bilton Lynn The Columbia Graphophone and Grafonola A Beginner s Guide Intertique com website 2007 Retrieved December 19 2009 Nielsen Business Media Inc September 17 1955 Billboard Nielsen Business Media Inc p 35 ISSN 0006 2510 Ben Sisario October 30 2012 From One Mine the Gold of Pop History The New York Times Retrieved February 28 2013 125 Years of Columbia Records An Interactive Timeline Archived from the original on November 14 2017 Retrieved November 8 2016 Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry The Gramophone Retrieved November 8 2016 a b Edward Easton IEEE Retrieved January 22 2014 Bilton Lynn 1998 Hail Columbia A fresh book at last gives Edward Easton and his Graphophone company their due Retrieved January 22 2014 Gracyk Tim October 11 1904 Tim Gracyk s Phonographs Singers and Old Records How Late Did Columbia Use Brown Wax Gracyk com Retrieved December 31 2009 Hazelcorn Howard 1976 A Collector s Guide to the Columbia Spring Wound Cylinder Graphophone 1 ed Antique Phonograph Monthly pp 10 13 Rye Howard Kernfeld Barry 2002 Kernfeld Barry ed The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz Vol 1 2nd ed New York Grove s Dictionaries Inc p 172 ISBN 1 56159 284 6 Brooks Tim ed Columbia Corporate History Electrical Recording and the Late 1920s Columbia Master Book Discography Volume I Online ed Discography of American Historical Recordings DAHR Murrells Joseph 1978 The book of golden discs Internet Archive London Barrie amp Jenkins ISBN 978 0 214 20512 5 a b c Brooks Tim ed Columbia Corporate History Market Crash 1929 and the Early 1930s Columbia Master Book Discography Volume I Online ed Discography of American Historical Recordings DAHR See also Notes section Walworth Julia 2005 Sir Louis Sterling and his library Jewish Historical Studies Jewish Historical Society of England 40 161 JSTOR 24027031 EMI A Brief History BBC News January 24 2000 Retrieved January 15 2009 Grigsby Radio Holdings Sold Brooklyn Daily Eagle Associated Press June 17 1936 p 24 via Newspapers com Brooks Tim March 22 2013 360 Sound The Columbia Records Story ARSC Journal 44 1 130 135 Solid Gospel series brings Chuck Wagon Gang to Renaissance Center Archived from the original on August 10 2012 Retrieved November 8 2016 Wilentz Sean 2012 360 Sound the Columbia Records Story New York Chronicle Books pp 90 95 ISBN 9781452107561 a b Marmorstein Gary 2007 The label the story of Columbia Records New York Thunder s Mouth Press Avalon Publishing Group pp 100 110 ISBN 978 1560257073 Public Inquiry apps dos ny gov Retrieved July 1 2022 Division of Corporations Filing icis corp delaware gov Retrieved July 1 2022 Columbia drops its Brunswick label Variety August 30 1939 p 241 Retrieved June 18 2022 Columbia Records paperwork collection Library of Congress Nielsen Business Media Inc March 16 1963 Billboard Nielsen Business Media Inc p 60 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved July 21 2013 D Kern Holoman The Orchestra A Very Short Introduction 2012 Page 107 The first classical LP was the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Nathan Milstein Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic Symphony Columbia ML 4001 RCA capitulated in 1950 leaving 45s as the medium of choice for pop singles John F Morton Backstory in Blue Ellington at Newport 56 2008 Page 49 1947 The following year Columbia made what it regarded as record history introducing the first twelve inch LP Mendelssohn s Violin Concerto in E minor with violinist Nathan Milstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra Bruno Walter Within a year and a half of the introduction of the LP Columbia had sold twice as many Masterworks as RCA was selling of Red Seal RCA had begun to lose some its artists Some like opera tenor sic Ezio Pinza would go to Columbia a b Columbia Record Catalog 1949 Columbia Records Inc pp 1 20 The First Long Playing Disc Library of Congress Congress gov accessdate 21 June 2021 Library of Congress Columbia Records Paperwork Box 121 Sony liner notes Record Collector s Resource A History of Records Cubby net February 26 1917 Retrieved February 28 2013 Nielsen Business Media Inc September 26 1970 Billboard Nielsen Business Media Inc p 10 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved July 21 2013 Mitch Miller And His Orchestra And Chorus Mitch Miller Philips UK 45cat Retrieved February 28 2013 John Broven February 26 2009 Record Makers and Breakers Voices of the Independent Rock n Roll Pioneers University of Illinois Press p 22 ISBN 978 0 252 03290 5 Retrieved July 21 2013 Dannen 1991 p 62 Nielsen Business Media Inc September 19 1953 Billboard Nielsen Business Media Inc p 16 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved July 21 2013 a b Sony Music Entertainment Inc The Canadian Encyclopedia thecanadianencyclopedia ca Archived from the original on February 3 2010 a b c Worth Fred 1992 Elvis His Life from A to Z Outlet p 38 ISBN 978 0 517 06634 8 Billboard Nielsen Business Media Inc September 11 1954 p 45 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved July 21 2013 columbia representative Billboard August 14 1961 Kind of Blue Rollingstone com February 9 2003 Archived from the original on March 17 2011 Retrieved April 11 2012 Dannen 1991 pp 60 61 Columbia Album Discography Part 14 CL 1200 1299 1958 1959 Bsnpubs com Retrieved July 2 2018 This stereo LP Box Set 2 LPs have released first as M2S 603 MS 6038 9 in 1958 Billboard January 6 1958 Columbia s 1958 Tee Off Cues Big Product Campaign Program Set to Tie in with LP Disk s 10th Anniversary Year Billboard p 15 Borgerson Janet 2017 Designed for Hi Fi Living The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America Schroeder Jonathan E 1962 Cambridge Massachusetts MIT Press pp 283 297 ISBN 9780262036238 OCLC 958205262 Columbia Album Discography Part 12 CL 1600 1699 CS 8400 8499 1961 1962 Bsnpubs com Retrieved July 2 2018 a b Nielsen Business Media March 16 1963 Billboard Nielsen Business Media Inc p 40 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved July 21 2013 Columbia Album Discography Part 13 CL 1700 1799 CS 8500 8598 1961 1962 Bsnpubs com Retrieved July 2 2018 Columbia Album Discography Part 14 CL 1800 1899 CS 8600 8699 1960 1961 Bsnpubs com Retrieved July 2 2018 Remembering Singing Along With Mitch Miller NPR org Retrieved December 26 2017 a b Dannen 1991 p page needed a b Watts Randy Callahan Mike Edwards David Eyries Patrice Columbia Album Discography Part 17 CL 2100 2199 CS 8900 8999 1963 1964 Bsnpubs com Retrieved June 29 2017 20 Things You Might Not Know About Bob Dylan s Debut Album NME NME March 19 2013 Retrieved December 26 2017 50 Years Ago Today Bob Dylan Released His Debut Album Rolling Stone Retrieved December 26 2017 Willis Amy September 17 2009 Peter Paul and Mary Top songs of all time The Daily Telegraph ISSN 0307 1235 Archived from the original on January 10 2022 Retrieved December 26 2017 Nielsen Business Media Inc December 11 1965 Billboard Nielsen Business Media Inc p 3 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved July 21 2013 Gilliland John 1969 Show 52 The Soul Reformation Phase three soul music at the summit Part 8 UNT Digital Library audio Pop Chronicles University of North Texas Libraries Edwards David Callahan Mike Atlantic Records Story www bsnpubs com Retrieved August 23 2011 Jurek Thom Bitches Brew Allmusic com Retrieved April 11 2012 Eder Bruce Bridge Over Troubled Water AllMusic Retrieved April 11 2012 a b Watts Randy Callahan Mike Edwards David Eyries Patrice Columbia Album Discography Part 27 K CS 9000 9999 1969 1970 Bsnpubs com Retrieved June 29 2017 CBS LPs US unified numbering system Globaldogproductions info Retrieved July 2 2018 LP Discography for CBS Records US combined numbering system 30000 30499 Globaldogproductions info Retrieved May 5 2019 Johnson Heather 2006 If These Halls Could Talk A Historical Tour Through San Francisco Recording Studios Thomson Course Technology pp 90 94 ISBN 1 59863 141 1 Dannen 1991 p 19 Dannen 1991 p 21 Dannen 1991 pp 4 27 1 Archived February 4 2004 at the Wayback Machine CBS Records Changes Name NYTimes com Reuters October 16 1990 Retrieved December 31 2009 Sony Music Entertainment to be Exclusive Music Provider for ESPN s Winter X Games 13 October 27 2009 Retrieved November 8 2016 L A Reid s First Week at Epic Has Some Staffers Feeling Energized Retrieved November 8 2016 Columbia Records Music Moving Forward Columbiarecords com Retrieved on July 16 2013 Sony names new CEO of Columbia Records Anthony Noto bizjournals com January 2 2018 Retrieved on January 2 2018 Jenifer Mallory Named EVP General Manager Columbia Records Billboard September 4 2018 Retrieved March 26 2021 Columbia Records Online USA February 8 1999 Archived from the original on February 8 1999 Retrieved December 31 2009 Columbia Jazz Main Nav Columbiarecords com Archived from the original on January 15 1998 Retrieved December 31 2009 Columbia Records artists Columbia Records Sony Music Entertainment Retrieved October 25 2012 New ARC Columbia Label on debut Vol 90 Billboard Magazine August 5 1978 p 19 Maurice White s Prowling for Acts Building Studios Vol 91 Billboard Magazine July 14 1979 p 26 Hoffmann Frank Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound New York amp London Routledge 1993 amp 2005 Volume 1 Cf p 212 article on Columbia Label Cogan Jim 2003 Temples of Sound San Francisco Chronicle Books LLC pp 181 191 ISBN 0 8118 3394 1 The Woolworth Building NYC Architecture a b c d Simons David 2004 Studio Stories How the Great New York Records Were Made San Francisco Backbeat Books ISBN 978 0 87930 817 9 Milner Greg Perfecting Sound Forever The Story of recorded Music Granta Books London 2009 ISBN 978 1 84708 140 7 p 149 a b Skates Sarah June 30 2011 Quonset Hut Hosts Reunion Celebration Music Row Retrieved February 1 2013 History of The Liederkranz of the City of New York Archived July 27 2011 at the Wayback Machine The Liederkranz of the City of New York website The Liederkranz Club put up a building in 1881 at 111 119 East 58th Street east of Park Avenue North James H New York Philharmonic the authorized recordings 1917 2005 a discography Rowman amp Littlefield 2006 Cf especially p xx Behncke Bernhard Leiderkranz Hall The World s Best Recording Studio VJM s Jazz amp Blues Mart magazine Morty Palitz Dies at 53 Spanned 3 Record Decades Billboard December 1 1962 Kahn Ashley Kind of Blue The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece Da Capo Press 2001 Cf p 75 Dannen Frederic 1991 Hit Men Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside The Music Business London Vintage ISBN 0099813106 Further reading EditCogan Jim Clark William Temples of sound inside the great recording studios San Francisco Chronicle Books 2003 ISBN 0 8118 3394 1 Cf chapter on Columbia Studios pp 181 192 Hoffmann Frank Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound New York amp London Routledge 1993 amp 2005 Volume 1 Cf pp 209 213 article on Columbia Label Koenigsberg Allen The Patent History of the Phonograph 1877 1912 APM Press 1990 1991 ISBN 0 937612 10 3 Revolution in Sound A Biography of the Recording Industry Little Brown and Company 1974 ISBN 0 316 77333 6 High Fidelity Magazine ABC Inc April 1976 Creating the LP Record Rust Brian compiler The Columbia Master Book Discography Greenwood Press 1999 Marmorstein Gary The Label The Story of Columbia Records New York Thunder s Mouth Press 2007 ISBN 1 56025 707 5 Ramone Phil Granata Charles L Making records the scenes behind the music New York Hyperion 2007 ISBN 978 0 7868 6859 9 Many references to the Columbia Studios especially when Ramone bought Studio A 799 Seventh Avenue from Columbia Cf especially pp 136 137 Dave Marsh 360 Sound The Columbia Records Story Legends and Legacy Free eBook released by Columbia Records that puts a spotlight on the label s 263 greatest recordings from 1890 to 2011 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Columbia Records Official website Columbia masters in the Discography of American Historical Recordings See the Profile of Designer Alex Steinweiss Portal Companies Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Columbia Records amp oldid 1131045572, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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