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Atco Records
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Atco Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, currently operating through WMG's Rhino Entertainment.
Records was founded by Herb Abramson in 1955 as a sub label of Atlantic Records; operating as an outlet for acts that did not fit the format of Atlantic, which until 1968 was strictly blues, jazz, and R&B/soul.
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Encyclopedia
Atco Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, currently operating through WMG's Rhino Entertainment.
Company History
Beginnings
Atco Records was founded by Herb Abramson in 1955 as a sub label of Atlantic Records; operating as an outlet for acts that did not fit the format of Atlantic, which until 1968 was strictly blues, jazz, and R&B/soul. It also housed almost all of the company's non-African American artists (the main exception being The Young Rascals, who were considered a blue-eyed soul group.) The Atco name is simply an abbreviation of ATlantic COrporation.
Atco began as more of a pop label division than Atlantic. Biggest artists during the early years were Bobby Darin and The Coasters.
In 1964 Atco released a single in the USA by The Beatles, "Ain't She Sweet" (flip side "Nobody's Child," with lead singer Tony Sheridan), which had been recorded in Hamburg in 1961. With lead vocal by John Lennon, "Ain't She Sweet" reached #19 on the Billboard chart in August 1964. Atco also released an album entitled Ain't She Sweet which featured the other two tracks by Sheridan and the Beatles from the Hamburg session and filled out by eight other songs (Beatles and other British Invasion numbers) covered by the Swallows.
In 1966 Atco released a single in the USA by The Who. "Substitute" b/w "Waltz For A Pig" was issued through an arrangement with UK Polydor Records, due to the dispute The Who was raging with their producer Shel Talmy and their contract with US Decca and UK Brunswick. This was the only single Atco issued by them (strangely it was issued as 45-6409 in 1966 and was reissued as 45-6509 in 1967).
Atco went on to distribute other labels, such as: Robert Stigwood's RSO Records, Volt Records, Island Records, Rolling Stones Records, and Ruthless Records in the late 1980s.
The twilight years
The last number one hit on Atco was "If Wishes Came True" by Sweet Sensation in 1990. In 1991, Atlantic merged Atco with its fledgling Eastwest Records label, and briefly operated the combination as "Atco/Eastwest Records." By 1993, the Atco name was dropped and the label continued operating as Eastwest Records. Since then, the Atco name and logo have been seen only on reissues of old material. As of mid-2005, its most recent release (in a joint venture with Rhino Records) was the soundtrack to the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea, starring Kevin Spacey and featuring Spacey's renditions of Darin classics.
Revival
In 2006, Warner Music Group reactivated Atco Records in conjunction with Rhino Entertainment. A Warner Music Group executive, Karen Ahmet, has recently been promoted to head of Atco. She is based in Los Angeles, California. Scarlett Johansson and Art Garfunkel were among the first artists signed to the label. Garfunkel issued Some Enchanted Evening on January 30, 2007. Johansson issued Anywhere I Lay My Head on May 20, 2008. Queensryche will release its American Soldier album through Atco on March 31, 2009.
Atco Records artists
See also
External links
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