Fantasy Records

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Fantasy Records

Fantasy Records is a United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
based record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label can be a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of recorded sound and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the Record producer, manufacturing, distribution , marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protec...
, which was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

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Fantasy Records

Parent company	Concord Music Group Concord Music Group Concord Music Group is a record company formed in 2004 in music by the merger of Concord Records and Fantasy Records. In 2005, the company acquired the classics and jazz label Telarc International....
Founded	1949
Founder(s)	Max Weiss, Sol Weiss
Distributing label	Concord Records Concord Records Concord Records is a United States record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 in music as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his Lincoln Mercury dealers... (In the US United States The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U... ), Universal Music Group Universal Music Group Universal Music Group is the largest business group and family of record labels in the Record industry. With a 25.5% market share, it is one of the Music industry....
Genre(s)	Various
Country	US United States The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
Web address

Fantasy Records is a United States

United States

Record label

San Francisco, California

The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States, with a 2007 estimated population of 799,183....
. They had previously operated a record pressing plant called Circle Record Company (unrelated to the Circle Records

Circle Records

Circle Records is a United States based record label specializing in jazz.Circle Records was founded in January of 1946 in music by Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis....
label) before forming the Fantasy label. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck

David Warren Brubeck , better known as Dave Brubeck, is an United States Jazz piano. Regarded as a jazz icon, he has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke"....
, Cal Tjader

Cal Tjader

Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his death....
, Vince Guaraldi

Vince Guaraldi

Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an United States jazz musician and pianist best known for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip....
and other jazz music artists. The label was the first to record "in person" performances by Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce , born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was an United States stand-up comedian, writer, Cultural critic and satire of the 1950s and 1960s....
.

Fantasy's first subsidiary label, formed in 1951, was Galaxy Records

Galaxy Records

Galaxy Records was a subsidiary of Fantasy Records. It was established in 1951 in music and has been reactived several times. Its first incarnation was as a 1950s jazz record label....
. The labels were named in honor of fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
and science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
magazines. In the mid-1950s, Saul Zaentz

Saul Zaentz

Saul Zaentz is an American film producer and former record company executive. He has won the Academy Award for Best Picture three times and in 1996 won the Irving G....
joined the company and eventually instigated the company's major expansion. In 1965, another subsidiary label was formed which was short lived, Scorpio Records, in an attempt to capitalize on the British invasion

British Invasion

File:The Beatles in America.JPGThe British Invasion was the term applied by the news media?and subsequently by consumers?to the influx of rock and roll, beat music and pop music performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States, Canada and Australia....
sound. In 1967 Zaentz led a consortium which bought out the Weiss brothers. The following year, Fantasy's most successful act emerged when the local group Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival was an United States rock and roll band who gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various Studio album....
, which he managed, released their first hit record "Susie Q" in 1968 (the group had been signed in 1964 as the Blue Velvets, but the label renamed them The Golliwogs

The Golliwogs

The Golliwogs were an American rock band which eventually became Creedence Clearwater Revival.The band started out, in 1959, as an instrumental trio called The Blue Velvets....
so they would "fit in" with the then new incoming crop of British Invasion bands, and after a series of failed releases under that name on the Fantasy and Scorpio labels, the group changed its name to Creedence Clearwater Revival). Creedence Clearwater Revival was the most popular band that they produced.

Zaentz, advised by the journalist Ralph J. Gleason

Ralph J. Gleason

Ralph J. Gleason was an influential American jazz and popular music critic. He contributed for many years to the San Francisco Chronicle, was a founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine, and cofounder of the Monterey Jazz Festival....
and benefitting from profits from the sales of Creedence Clearwater Revival records, pursued a policy of acquisition concentrating on independent Jazz labels. Zaentz had picked up Debut Records

Debut Records

Debut Records was a United States jazz record label, which was founded in 1952 in music by bassist Charles Mingus, his then-wife Celia and drummer Max Roach....
as a wedding present from bassist Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus was an United States jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist. He was also known for his activism against racism....
to which were added Good Time Records

Good Time Records

Good Time Jazz was an American jazz record label.The label was founded in 1949 by Lester Koenig in Los Angeles; its first releases were from the Firehouse Five Plus Two....
, Prestige Records

Prestige Records

Prestige Records was founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock . The record label name was initially New Jazz, but changed to Prestige Records the next year....
(in 1971), Riverside Records

Riverside Records

Riverside Records, a United States record label specializing in jazz, was the raison d'etre for Bill Grauer Productions, a company founded by Bill Grauer and Orrin Keepnews in 1953 in music in New York City....
and Milestone Records

Milestone Records

Milestone Records is a United States based jazz record label, founded in 1966 in music by Orrin Keepnews and Dick Katz in New York City. The company was incorporated into Fantasy Records in 1972, since then it has been used as a reissue as well as for new recordings....
(both 1972), Stax Records

Stax Records

Stax Records is an USA record label founded in 1957, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing Gospel music, funk, jazz, and blues recordings....
(1977), Contemporary Records

Contemporary Records

Contemporary Records was a jazz record label founded by Lester Koenig in 1951 in music in Los Angeles. Contemporary concentrated on the West Coast jazz, recording such artists as Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, the Curtis Counce Group , Ben Webster, Art Pepper, Shelly Manne, Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel and Leroy Vinnegar....
(1984), Specialty Records

Specialty Records

Specialty Records was an United States record label based in Los Angeles. It was originally launched as Juke Box Records in 1946 in music, but later renamed by its owner Art Rupe when he parted company with a couple of his original partners....
(1991), Pablo Records

Pablo Records

Pablo Records was a record label founded by Norman Granz in 1973 in music, some ten years after he had sold his jazz labels to MGM Records.Pablo initially featured recordings by acts that he managed: Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass....
(1987), Takoma Records

Takoma Records

Takoma Records was a small but influential record label founded by John Fahey in the late 1950s. It was named after Fahey's hometown, the Washington, D.C....
and Kicking Mule Records

Kicking Mule Records

Kicking Mule Records was a record label founded in 1972 in music by Stefan Grossman and ED Denson, who had previously been a co-founder of Takoma Records....
(both 1995).

Fantasy also built its landmark headquarters building at the corner of Tenth and Parker in Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland, California and Emeryville, California....
in 1971 which was nicknamed "the house that Creedence built". Expanded in 1980 to house Zaentz's film operations, the Zaentz Media Center was sold in 2007 to Wareham Development.

In 2004, Fantasy was sold to a consortium led by Norman Lear

Norman Lear

Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and Television producer who produced such popular sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude ....
and merged with Concord Records

Concord Records

Concord Records is a United States record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 in music as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his Lincoln Mercury dealers...
to create a new company called Concord Music Group. While some operations are still located in Berkeley, the record label is now headquartered at the Concord Music Group location in Beverly Hills, California

Beverly Hills, California

Beverly Hills is a city in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, California, United States. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood, California are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, California....
. Fantasy Studios, now owned by Wareham Development, is still operating in the Zaentz Media Center and continues its legacy in recording and mixing. Through the reshuffling, many top acts and engineers alike work out of the original building, which has now incorporated a multitude of mixed media projects. Fantasy Studios is a Bay Area landmark, as well as an award-winning studio whose repertoire includes Creedence Clearwater Revival, Green Day

Green Day

Green Day is an American Rock music trio formed in 1987. The band has consisted of Billie Joe Armstrong , Mike Dirnt , and Tr? Cool for the majority of its existence....
and Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana

Carlos Augusto Santana Alves is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American Rock music musician and guitarist. He became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana , which created a highly successful blend of rock music, salsa music, and jazz fusion....
to NPR's "Hearing Voices" series. Top sound engineers Steven Hart, Jesse Nichols and James Willets all worked at Fantasy.

Shortly after Fantasy was purchased by Concord, John Fogerty

John Fogerty

John Cameron Fogerty is an United States Rock music singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival....
, the lead singer and songwriter in Creedence Clearwater Revival, re-signed with the label after leaving it in the mid-1970s after a falling out with former owner Zaentz.

Recording artists

David Axelrod
David Axelrod (musician)

David Axelrod is an American composer, arranger and producer, across a wide range of musical genres....
The Blackbyrds
The Blackbyrds

The Blackbyrds is a former rhythm and blues and jazz-funk fusion group, formed in Washington, D.C. in 1973.The group was led by trumpeter Donald Byrd and featured some of his Howard University students: Kevin Toney , Keith Killgo , Joe Hall , Allan Barnes , and Barney Perry ....
Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck

David Warren Brubeck , better known as Dave Brubeck, is an United States Jazz piano. Regarded as a jazz icon, he has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke"....
Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce , born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was an United States stand-up comedian, writer, Cultural critic and satire of the 1950s and 1960s....
Gabe Dixon
Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader

Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his death....
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival was an United States rock and roll band who gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various Studio album....
Cybotron
Cybotron

Cybotron was an early electro music group formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard Davis in Detroit, Michigan. Guitarist John "Jon 5" Housley joined soon afterward....
Tom Fogerty
Tom Fogerty

Tom Fogerty was a musician best known as the lead guitar in Creedence Clearwater Revival and the elder brother of John Fogerty, the lead singer and guitar player in that band....
John Fogerty
John Fogerty

John Cameron Fogerty is an United States Rock music singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival....
Vince Guaraldi
Vince Guaraldi

Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an United States jazz musician and pianist best known for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip....
Albert King
Albert King

Albert King was an United States blues guitarist and singer....
Tift Merritt
Tift Merritt

Tift Merritt is an United States singer-songwriter. Born in Houston, Texas, Merritt moved to North Carolina at a young age. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000....
Sylvester
Sylvester James

Sylvester James , better known as Sylvester, was an United States disco and soul music singer, and a gay drag queen performer. He is considered to be one of the first Hi-NRG artists....
Side Effect
Side effect

Side effect can mean:* Adverse reaction, an unintended consequence specifically arising from drug therapy* Therapeutic effect, an unintended but desirable consequence of any kind of medical treatment...
Bill Evans
Bill Evans

William John Evans was one of the most famous and influential American jazz pianists of the 20th century. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists, including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Denny...

Fantasy Records

Recording artists

External links

See also