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Warner Bros. Records
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Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is also affectionately known as "Warners" and 'the Bunny', based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons released by Warner Bros. Pictures.
er Bros. Records opened for business on March 19, 1958, above the film studio's machine shop at 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California. Prompting the labels creation was when Warner Bros.
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Encyclopedia
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is also affectionately known as "Warners" and 'the Bunny', based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons released by Warner Bros. Pictures.
History
Warner Bros. Records opened for business on March 19, 1958, above the film studio's machine shop at 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California. Prompting the labels creation was when Warner Bros. Pictures contract actor Tab Hunter scored a #1 hit in 1957 with "Young Love" for Dot Records. To Warners' chagrin, reporters were primarily asking about the hit record, instead of Hunter's latest Warner movie. The company quickly signed Hunter to the newly formed record division, and while his subsequent recordings for the label failed to duplicate the success that he had had with Dot, the fledgling Warner Bros. Records thrived.
In 1960, the company signed the Everly Brothers (who were previously on Cadence Records) with the first ever million-dollar contract in history. The same year, they also released two albums by Bob Newhart, which both won Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year. In 1963, Warner Bros. Records purchased Frank Sinatra's label, Reprise Records—the acquisition proved very lucrative, as Reprise remains in the WBR fold to this day, and has become its strongest imprint.
In 1964, the label negotiated with Disques Vogue for the right to distribute Petula Clark's recordings in the US, beginning with "Downtown." Eight years later, in 1972, Dionne Warwick was brought to the label after leaving Scepter Records in a deal that was the biggest contract at the time for a female artist. Warwick's five years at Warners would greatly pale in comparison to her tenure at Scepter, both personally and professionally.
In 1967, Warner Bros. (including WBR) was sold for $85 million to Seven Arts Productions and renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Two years later, the company was sold to Kinney National Company (later renamed Warner Communications) and the label become Warner Bros. Records again, reviving the WB shield as its logo. In 1971, Warner Communications established WEA; the pooling together of Warner Bros. Records, Elektra, and Atlantic, to form a larger umbrella for its music entities under which they could operate. In 1990, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner. In 1991, WEA was renamed Warner Music. In 2000, Time Warner merged with AOL creating AOL Time Warner. Finally, in March 2004, a group of private investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought the Warner Music Group from Time Warner. Today Warner Bros. Records remains one of Warner Music Group's most dominant labels, having exactly 121 artists on the label. WMG enjoys a royalty-free license from Time Warner as to the use of Warner Bros. trademarks; this could be revoked if WMG becomes under control of a major motion picture studio.
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