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Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

History

Founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. Upon its creation, Atlantic was principally a jazz and R&B label, though it also released some country western recordings as well. In the early fifties Ahmet was joined by Jerry Wexler and then Nesuhi Ertegün. From 1955 Nesuhi headed the company's jazz division and was responsible for major signings such as Charles Mingus and John Coltrane; later Joel Dorn filled this position. Although it began as an independent record company, it became a major player in the music business in the 1960s, with mainstream pop signings like Sonny and Cher. Competing record labels included Columbia Records and RCA Records.

The engineer, and later producer, Tom Dowd headed Atlantic's engineering department. Several sub-labels have been created or acquired since then. Atco Records was started in 1955 by Herb Abramson. Spark Records (the record label of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) was purchased in November 1955. Others including Lava Records, and 143 Records became part of the Atlantic group. In 1960, Atlantic began a distribution relationship with a recording enterprise in Memphis, Tennessee, spearheaded by Jerry Wexler which became Stax Records. The association with Stax ended in 1968. Atlantic was acquired by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1967. It is currently a large part of the Warner Music Group, a former division of media conglomerate Time Warner that was sold to a group of investors in 2004. From 1968-1973 Led Zeppelin had a deal with Atlantic Records, then formed their own Atlantic distributed label, Swan Song Records.

In May of 1988, the label held a 40th Anniversary concert, broadcast on HBO. This featured performances by a large number of their artists and included reunions of some rock legends like Led Zeppelin and Crosby, Stills, and Nash (being David Crosby's first full band performance since being released from prison).

In the early 1990s, Atlantic owned 50% of Interscope Records, which released notable gangsta rap titles — many in conjunction with Death Row Records. Pressure from activist groups opposed to gangsta rap, however, later led to parent company Time Warner's decision to sell Atlantic's stake in the label.

Atlantic's biggest mainstream rock success could be found in the Stone Temple Pilots, a grunge band popular throughout the 1990s

The label has also a number of labels deals with independents such as Must Destroy (which brought Goldie Lookin' Chain and The Darkness into the label) and VP Records in Jamaica, home to reggae artists such as Sean Paul.

Craig Kallman is currently Chairman and CEO of Atlantic Records.

Ahmet Ertegün served as "Founding Chairman" until his death on December 14, 2006 at age 83.

In popular culture

In 2006, "Weird Al" Yankovic gained James Blunt's permission to record a parody of "You're Beautiful." However, after Yankovic had recorded "You're Pitiful," Atlantic Records rescinded this permission. The parody was pulled from Yankovic's Straight Outta Lynwood due to his label's unwillingness to "go to war" with Atlantic. Yankovic released the song as a free download on his MySpace profile, as well as his official website, since it was not Blunt himself objecting to the parody. In the "White & Nerdy" video, Yankovic's character is seen vandalizing the record label's Misplaced Pages entry with the exclamation "YOU SUCK!" After the video was released online, Misplaced Pages's Atlantic Records article mirrored the video with numerous "vandals" editing it. Due to its constant vandalism, the Atlantic Records page on Misplaced Pages is semi-protected to this day. Yankovic has said that he does not approve of the vandalism, though he admits being amused by it.

References

1. Kurutz, Steve. "Jerry Wexler Biography". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2006-06-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors= and |month= (help)
2. Cohen, Jonathan (December 14, 2006). "Industry Icon Ahmet Ertegun Dies At 83". Billboard.
3. "Free 'Weird Al' Yankovic!". Retrieved 2006-08-24.

See also

• Atlantic Records artists
• List of record labels

External links

• Warner Music Group page about the Atlantic Records Group
• Atlantic Records label design at www.collectable-records.ru

• Record labels established in 1947
• Warner Music labels
• American record labels
• Jazz record labels
• Rock record labels