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Around this time, WB started releasing its 'Loss Leaders', a popular set of label samplers with detailed liner notes (often by Barry ' Dr.

stable, and these two acts became the wave of Warners' future, attracting the new generation of Rock musicians with their combination of artistic credibility and high sales. The Grateful Dead were already part of the Warner Bros. A few years later, Reprise manager Mo Ostin helped bring both labels into the Psychedelic Rock era by signing Jimi Hendrix to Sinatra's imprint. In 1963, Warners bought Frank Sinatra's struggling indie label Reprise Records, just in time for Ol' Blue Eyes to begin a Career Resurrection. The next big signing was Folk Music trio Peter, Paul and Mary, whose numerous hits included ' Puff the Magic Dragon'. as the label for Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy for decades to come. WB's next major act was Bob Newhart, whose chart-topping debut album established Warner Bros. Warners wooed them away with an unprecedented million-dollar contract in 1960, and while the hits dried up after a while, the Everlys sold well enough to stay on the label for years afterward. Warner Bros.' salvation began with another group of siblings - The Everly Brothers, who had been consistent hitmakers for the independent Cadence label. And as with society in general, The '60s changed everything. Records was losing money, and the company was almost shut down - but fortunately, it was given one more chance to fail. Still, the successes were far outweighed by the failures.

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The few hits it managed were tied to the studio's popular TV series 77 Sunset Strip the soundtrack album sold well, and actor Edd Byrnes (who played the show's Breakout Character Kookie) had a fluke novelty hit with 'Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)'. Unsurprisingly, only a handful of WB's releases charted. Space Age Jazz and Easy Listening ruled, and Rock & Roll was almost non-existent. contract actors whether they could sing or not was beside the point. In addition, many of the early releases on the label were by Warner Bros. Besides the expected soundtrack LPs, there were stereo demonstration records, Concept Albums with titles like Terribly Sophisticated Songs (A Collection Of Unpopular Songs For Popular People), and musical excursions by actors like Dragnet creator/star Jack Webb, who released an album where he recited love songs in his Sgt. The label's formative years provided a lot of Early Installment Weirdness. After a failed attempt to buy the Imperial label, WB took the plunge on 19 March 1958, Warner Bros.

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( Universal reversed the pattern - they were owned by a record company, US Decca.) note (It's interesting to note that the movie studios' then-arch-enemies, the TV networks, were also involved, with RCA owning both NBC and RCA Victor, CBS owning Columbia Records, and ABC having recently started their ABC-Paramount label.) The final impetus was provided by Tab Hunter, a Warners contract player who moved into music and had several hit singles - for Dot. MGM Records had been successful for years Paramount had just bought Dot Records United Artists Records, 20th Century Fox Records, and Columbia Pictures' Colpix label (one of the corporate ancestors of Arista Records) were entering the fray even Disney had a small pop label, Buena Vista, and way-past-its-prime RKO Pictures had a short-lived attempt with the RKO Unique label. Meanwhile, the music industry was on an upswing, and movie studios were taking advantage of it. Warners stayed out of music, licensing film soundtrack albums (and Mel Blanc's Looney Tunes discs) to other labels, for the next 27 years.īy the late 1950s, the film industry was in decline thanks to TV and other factors. Like the rest of the record industry, Brunswick suffered due to both The Great Depression and the introduction of broadcast radio, so WB sold the label in 1931. Warners had dabbled in the record business as early as the late 1920s, when the company bought Brunswick Records and several music publishers. Like many of its artists, it was given 'the chance to fail' until it emerged not only as a successful label, but a major force in the music industry. Records, now known as Warner Records, began in 1958 as an offshoot of the film studio.

Warner records