Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States[1] in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955.[2] EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012 and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
History
Founding
Songwriter Johnny Mercer founded Capitol Records in 1942[3] with financial help from songwriter and film producer Buddy DeSylva and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs, owner of Wallichs Music City. Mercer raised the idea of starting a record company while golfing with Harold Arlen and Bobby Sherwood and with Wallichs at Wallichs's record store. On February 2, 1942, Mercer and Wallichs met DeSylva at a restaurant in Hollywood to talk about investment by Paramount Pictures.
On March 27, 1942, the three men incorporated as Liberty Records (not affiliated with Capitol's future sister label Liberty Records). In May, the application was amended to change the label's name to Capitol Records.[4]
On April 6, 1942, Mercer supervised Capitol's first recording session where Martha Tilton recorded the song "Moon Dreams". On May 5, Bobby Sherwood and his orchestra recorded two tracks in the studio. On May 21, Freddie Slack and his orchestra recorded three tracks in the studio: one with the orchestra, one with Ella Mae Morse called "Cow-Cow Boogie" and "Air-Minded Executive" supervised by Mercer. On June 4, Capitol opened its first office in a second-floor room south of Sunset Boulevard. On that same day, Wallichs presented the company's first free record to Los Angeles disc jockey Peter Potter. On June 5, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded four songs at the studio. On June 12, the orchestra recorded five more songs in the studio, including "Trav'lin' Light" with Billie Holiday. On June 11, Tex Ritter recorded "(I Got Spurs That) Jingle Jangle Jingle" and "Goodbye My Little Cherokee" for his first Capitol recording session, and the songs comprised Capitol's 110th produced record.
The earliest recording artists included co-owner Mercer, Johnnie Johnston, Morse, Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, Tex Ritter, Tilton, Paul Weston, Whiteman, and Margaret Whiting.[3] Capitol's first gold single was Morse's "Cow Cow Boogie" in 1942.
Capitol's first album, A–1, was Capitol Presents Songs by Johnny Mercer, a four–disc set with recordings by Mercer, Stafford and the Pied Pipers, all with Weston's orchestra.
Capitol was the first major west coast label to compete with major labels on the east coast such as RCA Victor, Columbia, and Decca. In addition to its Los Angeles recording studios, Capitol owned a second studio in New York City and occasionally sent mobile recording equipment to other cities.
Other genres
In 1946, writer-producer Alan W. Livingston created Bozo the Clown for the company's children's record library, with Pinto Colvig (the voice of Goofy in Walt Disney cartoons) as Bozo. Mel Blanc reprised his own cartoon roles including Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes characters, as well as Woody Woodpecker, while several Disney records were narrated by radio announcer Don Wilson. Examples of notable Capitol albums for children during that era are Sparky's Magic Piano and Rusty in Orchestraville. Capitol also developed a noted jazz catalog that included the Capitol Jazz Men and issued the Miles Davis's album Birth of the Cool.[5]
Capitol released a few classical albums in the 1940s, some of which contained handsome heavily embossed, leather-like covers. These recordings appeared on the 78 rpm format and were subsequently reissued on the new LP format in 1949.
Ownership under EMI
In 1955, the British record company EMI (Electric and Musical Industries Limited) purchased Capitol Records, ending the 55-year mutual distribution agreement between EMI and RCA Victor in the Western Hemisphere in 1957. EMI acquired 96% of Capitol's stock for $8.5 million. EMI built a studio at Hollywood and Vine to match its state-of-the-art Abbey Road Studios in London.
In the 1950s, Decca Records broke its distribution contract with Panart, the first independent Cuban record company. This provided an opening for Capitol, which then contracted with Panart to have Capitol and Odeon records distributed in Cuba. In turn, Capitol distributed Panart records in the United States, growing the export percentage of Panart records from 20 percent to 50 percent. This was a coup for Capitol, as RCA Victor up to this point had huge predominance in the United States distribution of Cuban music recordings.[10][11]
In 1957, EMI's classical label Angel
Distribution under Universal Music Group
In 2012, the recorded music operations of EMI were sold to the Universal Music Group and the world headquarters were re-established in the Capitol Tower in Hollywood as part of the subsequent reorganization of the Capitol Music Group. Steve Barnett, previously an employee of Columbia, was hired as chairman and CEO of the division.[18][19]
Capitol filed a lawsuit against Vimeo, an online video-sharing website, for audio copyright infringement. Capitol filed the claim after users were visibly lip-synching to some of their tracks.[20]
Following legal action by Capitol against the ReDigi.com online company in April 2013, the latter was found to have violated copyright law. Capitol Records claimed that ReDigi was guilty of copyright infringement due to a business model that facilitated the creation of additional copies of Capitol's digital music files, whereby users could upload the files for downloading or streaming to the new purchaser of the file.
Headquarters
Designed by Welton Becket with Louis Naidorf, a young architect from Becket's office, serving as project designer,[29][2] the thirteen-story, earthquake-resistant Capitol Records Tower was the world's first circular office building and it is the base for several recording studios. Although not intended as a tribute to record players, its wide curved awnings and tall narrow tower mimic the appearance of a stack of gramophone records atop a phonograph. The building was commissioned by EMI after its acquisition of Capitol Records in 1955 and was completed in April 1956. The building is north of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine and is the center of the company's consolidated West Coast operations. It was nicknamed "The House That Nat Built" after the financial success of Capitol singer Nat King Cole.[30][31] The rectangular ground floor is a separate structure joined to the tower after it was completed.
In September 2006, EMI announced that it had sold the tower and adjacent properties for $50 million to New York-based developer Argent Ventures.[32]
Studios
Capitol's recording studios were designed to minimize noise and vibration, then newly important goals in the high-fidelity sound era. An inner wall floating on layers of rubber and cork was erected inside the building's 10 in concrete exterior walls, leaving a one-inch air gap to provide complete sound isolation.[35] The facility also features subterranean echo chambers that allow engineers to add reverberation during the recording process. Eight trapezoidal chambers are located 30 ft underground, with 10-inch concrete walls and 12 in concrete ceilings. Speakers on one side and microphones on the other permit an echo effect of up to five seconds. Studios A and B can be combined for the recording of orchestral music and symphonic film soundtracks. The first album recorded in the tower was Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color.
International operations
Capitol modified albums that were originally released in other countries on other labels. Albums released in the United States contained fewer tracks, usually no more than 11 or 12, compared to albums released in the United Kingdom, due to differences in how publishing royalties were calculated in the two countries.[36] Also, in the American market it was expected that albums would include the current hit single, whereas British albums typically did not duplicate songs released as singles.
The Beatles
Capitol released various albums by the Beatles.[37]
United Kingdom
Beginning in 1948, Capitol Records were released in the UK on the Capitol label by Decca. After its 1955 acquisition of Capitol, EMI took over distribution in 1956.[38] EMI's Parlophone unit handled Capitol label marketing in the UK in later years.
See also
- Capitol Records Nashville
- Capitol Records, Inc. v. Naxos of America, Inc.
- List of Capitol Records artists
- List of record labels
External links
References
- Capitol Records Johnnymercerfoundation.org, retrieved October 15, 2019^
- Christopher Hawthorne. Critic's Notebook: Hollywood landmark at a crossroads Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2011, retrieved April 18, 2013^
- {{Pop Chronicles 40s|1|B |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1633237/m1/#track/3 }}^