Jet Records
Encyclopedia
Jet Records was a small British record label
set up by Don Arden
with artists like Electric Light Orchestra
(ELO), Roy Wood
, Gary Moore
, Ozzy Osbourne
, Riot
and Magnum
. The first release on the "Jet Records" label was "No Honestly", a UK top 10 for its singer and writer Lynsey De Paul
in November 1974 and the Lynsey De Paul album "Taste Me... Don't Waste Me" was the first album release. De Paul produced a second hit single "My Man and Me" and the recently re-released album "Love Bomb" before leaving the label in 1976 after an acrimonious split with Arden.
ELO were managed by Arden since the band's inception in 1970. They were initially signed to Harvest Records
(a division of EMI
) in the UK and United Artists Records
in the USA. Roy Wood left ELO in 1972 and formed a new band Wizzard
. During 1973 and 1974, ELO and Wizzard moved from the Harvest label to Warner Bros. Records
in the UK. In 1975, the two bands and Wood's solo releases moved again in the UK to Jet, with their recent Warner Bros. material becoming part of Jet's catalogue.
In the UK, Jet Records were distributed first by Island Records
in 1974-75, then by Polydor Records
from 1975 to 1976, then by United Artists from 1976 to 1978. In the US, a small Jet logo started appearing on the UA label in 1975 for releases by ELO and Wood. The Jet label was first used in the USA for ELO leader Jeff Lynne
's solo single "Doin' That Crazy Thing
" in the summer of 1977 and subsequently for the ELO album Out of the Blue
.
Wood left Jet Records and disbanded Wizzard in 1976 after Jet refused to release Wizzard's third album Wizzo because it was not commercial enough.
After Jet's UK distribution moved to United Artists in 1976, UA were distributing Jet Records in most countries of the world. This changed after American copies of Out of the Blue that were deemed defective began appearing at discounted prices in record shops in the US and Canada shortly after Out of the Blues release, affecting the album's sales. Jet sued UA and abruptly switched their distribution to CBS Records
worldwide early in 1978.
By this time ELO had become one of the most popular bands in the world, and Jet reissued ELO's back catalogue albums and some new singles in many different colours of vinyl. Many members of ELO also released solo albums or singles on Jet in the late 1970s. In 1980, ELO contributed half the music to the motion picture Xanadu
, with the other half of the music being provided by the film's star Olivia Newton-John
. Newton-John was signed to MCA Records
whose sister company Universal
was producing the movie. The Xanadu
soundtrack and all its singles by both ELO and Newton-John were released on MCA Records in the USA and Canada, and on Jet Records elsewhere in the world.
Black Sabbath
were also managed by Don Arden, but they were never signed to Jet Records. But when their singer Ozzy Osbourne
left the band, he was signed to Jet. Two studio albums and one live album by Osbourne were released on Jet. Arden's daughter Sharon
, who was working for her father, started dating Osbourne and eventually married him. Sharon took over managing Osbourne from her father, and Osbourne left Jet to go to the Epic
label of Jet's distributor CBS.
Osbourne's defection along with ELO becoming less popular in the early 1980s contributed to Jet experiencing financial difficulties. Legal problems encountered by Don Arden and his son David
further strained Jet's resources. ELO's recording contract and back catalogue were sold by Jet to CBS in 1985. Initial copies of ELO's 1986
album Balance of Power were pressed on the Jet label in some European countries, but this mistake was corrected by CBS and the album was then issued throughout Europe on its Epic label. American reissues by CBS of ELO's 1972 to 1983 albums continued to show the Jet logo until 1990.
Jet carried on in a diminished capacity in the late 1980s. Roy Wood returned to the label in 1987 to release the single 1-2-3. Just before closure, the label released Live at Fairfield Halls
by Bucks Fizz
, a group the label had previously had no connection with. A subsidiary record label Arena Records was set up about this time signing an up and coming band from North East England called Darkness and Jive.This band had an album recorded and was pending release when Jet stepped in and remastered the recording, but eventually shelved the project, once again stating that the material was not commercial enough.
In 1991, Bagdasarian Productions
acquired the production company offices and holdings from Arden, and reopened the label under the new name Chipmunk Records. There is a reference to the company in the 2007 film
Alvin and the Chipmunks
, and the 2009 film
sequel Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
, in which the Chipmunk's record label is "Jett Records".
In 1996, Jet released The Fall's album The Light User Syndrome
.
Some of Jet's back catalogue has appeared in reissues or compilations in the 1990s and 2000s on labels such as Edsel Records
and Sanctuary Records
, including the previously unreleased third Wizzard album, retitled Main Street.
Two other bands to record on Jet Records was Widow Maker and Fast Buck.
Both having albums released and Fast Buck touring exclusively with E.L.O.
Fast Buck single release was Sometime Man
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
set up by Don Arden
Don Arden
Don Arden , born Harry Levy, was an English music manager, agent and businessman, best known for overseeing the careers of rock groups Small Faces, Electric Light Orchestra and Black Sabbath....
with artists like Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
(ELO), Roy Wood
Roy Wood
Roy Adrian Wood is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands.-Career:Wood...
, Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
, Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
, Riot
Riot (band)
Riot is an American heavy metal band founded in New York City in 1975 by guitarist Mark Reale. Reaching a peak in popularity in the early 80s, the band has continued a long-running successful career....
and Magnum
Magnum (band)
Magnum are a British progressive rock band from Birmingham, England. Formed as a four piece by Tony Clarkin , Bob Catley , Kex Gorin and Bob Doyle in order to appear as the resident band at The Rum Runner night club Birmingham...
. The first release on the "Jet Records" label was "No Honestly", a UK top 10 for its singer and writer Lynsey De Paul
Lynsey De Paul
Lynsey de Paul is an English singer-songwriter. Allmusic journalist, Craig Harris stated, "one of the first successful female singer-songwriters in England, de Paul has had an illustrious career".-Early life:De Paul was born to Meta and Herbert Rubin, a property developer...
in November 1974 and the Lynsey De Paul album "Taste Me... Don't Waste Me" was the first album release. De Paul produced a second hit single "My Man and Me" and the recently re-released album "Love Bomb" before leaving the label in 1976 after an acrimonious split with Arden.
ELO were managed by Arden since the band's inception in 1970. They were initially signed to Harvest Records
Harvest Records
-References:* Harvest Records collectors guide ISBN 978-5-9622-0021-7...
(a division of EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
) in the UK and United Artists Records
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 initially to distribute records of its movie soundtracks, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres.-History:...
in the USA. Roy Wood left ELO in 1972 and formed a new band Wizzard
Wizzard
Wizzard was a Birmingham-based band formed by Roy Wood, former member of The Move and co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra. The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits states, "Wizzard was Roy Wood just as much as Wings were Paul McCartney."-Biography:...
. During 1973 and 1974, ELO and Wizzard moved from the Harvest label to Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
in the UK. In 1975, the two bands and Wood's solo releases moved again in the UK to Jet, with their recent Warner Bros. material becoming part of Jet's catalogue.
In the UK, Jet Records were distributed first by Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
in 1974-75, then by Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
from 1975 to 1976, then by United Artists from 1976 to 1978. In the US, a small Jet logo started appearing on the UA label in 1975 for releases by ELO and Wood. The Jet label was first used in the USA for ELO leader Jeff Lynne
Jeff Lynne
Jeffrey "Jeff" Lynne is an English songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer who gained fame as the leader and sole constant member of Electric Light Orchestra and was a co-founder and member of The Traveling Wilburys together with George Harrison, Bob...
's solo single "Doin' That Crazy Thing
Doin' That Crazy Thing (Jeff Lynne song)
Doin 'That Crazy Thing is a song by Jeff Lynne.Created a new dance craze that was started in the mind of Jeff Lynne when he took a short break from being Electric Light Orchestra's frontman...
" in the summer of 1977 and subsequently for the ELO album Out of the Blue
Out of the Blue (Electric Light Orchestra album)
The 30th Anniversary Edition was released on February, 20th 2007 with three bonus tracks.-Personnel:ELO*Jeff Lynne – lead vocals, backing vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion*Bev Bevan – drums, percussion, backing vocals, fire extinguisher on "Mr...
.
Wood left Jet Records and disbanded Wizzard in 1976 after Jet refused to release Wizzard's third album Wizzo because it was not commercial enough.
After Jet's UK distribution moved to United Artists in 1976, UA were distributing Jet Records in most countries of the world. This changed after American copies of Out of the Blue that were deemed defective began appearing at discounted prices in record shops in the US and Canada shortly after Out of the Blues release, affecting the album's sales. Jet sued UA and abruptly switched their distribution to CBS Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
worldwide early in 1978.
By this time ELO had become one of the most popular bands in the world, and Jet reissued ELO's back catalogue albums and some new singles in many different colours of vinyl. Many members of ELO also released solo albums or singles on Jet in the late 1970s. In 1980, ELO contributed half the music to the motion picture Xanadu
Xanadu (film)
Xanadu is a 1980 romantic musical fantasy film written by Marc Reid Rubel and directed by Robert Greenwald. The title is a reference to the poem "Kubla Khan, or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is quoted in the film. Xanadu is the name of the Chinese province...
, with the other half of the music being provided by the film's star Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
. Newton-John was signed to MCA Records
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
whose sister company Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
was producing the movie. The Xanadu
Xanadu (Soundtrack)
Xanadu is the soundtrack of the 1980 musical film of the same name, featuring the Australian singer Olivia Newton-John and the Britsh group Electric Light Orchestra....
soundtrack and all its singles by both ELO and Newton-John were released on MCA Records in the USA and Canada, and on Jet Records elsewhere in the world.
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
were also managed by Don Arden, but they were never signed to Jet Records. But when their singer Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
left the band, he was signed to Jet. Two studio albums and one live album by Osbourne were released on Jet. Arden's daughter Sharon
Sharon Osbourne
Sharon Rachel Osbourne is an English television host, author, music manager, businesswoman and promoter as well as the wife of heavy metal singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne....
, who was working for her father, started dating Osbourne and eventually married him. Sharon took over managing Osbourne from her father, and Osbourne left Jet to go to the Epic
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
label of Jet's distributor CBS.
Osbourne's defection along with ELO becoming less popular in the early 1980s contributed to Jet experiencing financial difficulties. Legal problems encountered by Don Arden and his son David
further strained Jet's resources. ELO's recording contract and back catalogue were sold by Jet to CBS in 1985. Initial copies of ELO's 1986
1986 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1986.-January-June:*January 23 – The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes place...
album Balance of Power were pressed on the Jet label in some European countries, but this mistake was corrected by CBS and the album was then issued throughout Europe on its Epic label. American reissues by CBS of ELO's 1972 to 1983 albums continued to show the Jet logo until 1990.
Jet carried on in a diminished capacity in the late 1980s. Roy Wood returned to the label in 1987 to release the single 1-2-3. Just before closure, the label released Live at Fairfield Halls
Live At Fairfield Halls
Live at Fairfield Halls is a live album released in 1991 by pop group Bucks Fizz. It was their first and only release with Jet Records.- Background :...
by Bucks Fizz
Bucks Fizz (band)
Bucks Fizz are an English pop group who achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up". The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comprised four vocalists: Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and...
, a group the label had previously had no connection with. A subsidiary record label Arena Records was set up about this time signing an up and coming band from North East England called Darkness and Jive.This band had an album recorded and was pending release when Jet stepped in and remastered the recording, but eventually shelved the project, once again stating that the material was not commercial enough.
In 1991, Bagdasarian Productions
Bagdasarian Productions
Bagdasarian Productions is an American production company which holds the rights to Alvin and the Chipmunks and related intellectual property assets. It is owned and operated by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and Janice Karman...
acquired the production company offices and holdings from Arden, and reopened the label under the new name Chipmunk Records. There is a reference to the company in the 2007 film
2007 in film
This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks (film)
Alvin and the Chipmunks is a 2007 comedy film directed by Tim Hill. Based on the animated series of the same name, the film stars Jason Lee, David Cross, and Cameron Richardson with the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Jesse McCartney. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox and...
, and the 2009 film
2009 in film
The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
sequel Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Betty Thomas. The film stars Zachary Levi, David Cross, Jason Lee, and the voices of Justin Long, Jesse McCartney, Matthew Gray Gubler, Christina Applegate, Amy Poehler, and Anna Faris...
, in which the Chipmunk's record label is "Jett Records".
In 1996, Jet released The Fall's album The Light User Syndrome
The Light User Syndrome
The Light User Syndrome is an album by The Fall, released in 1996 on Jet Records. It was preceded by 8 minute, 3-part single "The Chiselers" and was the group's first album to feature keyboard player and guitarist Julia Nagle, It was the last to feature Brix Smith and the group were without Craig...
.
Some of Jet's back catalogue has appeared in reissues or compilations in the 1990s and 2000s on labels such as Edsel Records
Demon Music Group
Demon Records is a United Kingdom record label founded in 1980 by former United Artists A&R executive Andrew Lauder and Jake Riviera who had previously started Stiff Records...
and Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...
, including the previously unreleased third Wizzard album, retitled Main Street.
See also
- List of record labels
Two other bands to record on Jet Records was Widow Maker and Fast Buck.
Both having albums released and Fast Buck touring exclusively with E.L.O.
Fast Buck single release was Sometime Man