Atlantic records By Ellie Morrison
1947 Atlantic Records was founded by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. It was a well established independent label that paid artists fairly. Artist felt okay signing long term contracts as they knew their royalties would be paid. At the beginning, it’s list of artists included: Stan Kenton, Tiny Grimes, Delta Rhythm Boys , The Clovers, Ruth Brown, Stick McGhee, Joe Turner, Erroll Garner, Mal Waldron, Howard McGhee, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Jackie and Roy, Sarah Vaughan, Leadbelly, Sonny Terry, Mabel Mercer, Sylvia Syms and Bobby Shor.
1949 “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” by Granville McGhee’s was a juke box chart and the first Atlantic blues song to become a big hit. They released their first album on the 33 ⅓ rpm LP.
1953 Herb Abramson was drafted into the Army but kept his salary running with Atlantic and his title as president. As Ahmet Ertegun and Herb’s wife Miriam were struggling to run the company by themselves they brought in Jerry Wexler to help. New trend of pop singers covering R&B records started to emerge.
1954 Big Joe Turner's song, “Shake, Rattle and Roll” was released. The lyrics were changed by Haley for the white market. This song also kicked of the Rock and Roll era.
1964 Atlantics publishing company Progressive Music was sold to Hill and Rage. They then bought a new own called Cotillion. The name Cotillion was used as the name of a subsidiary label later on.
Mid 60s Ertegun signed artists such as Cream, King Crimson, Yes and the Bee Gees during the British Invasion. He also signed Led Zeppelin who went on to become the biggest band in the world at one point.
1967 Atlantic records became a subsidiary of Warner Music Wexler signed Aretha Franklin after her contract ended with Columbia Records. She recorded “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” which showed her talents and made her famous.
Late 70s John Kalodner, A&R Manager signed many rock artists such as Foreigner, ACDC, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. Atlantic broke Genesis in the USA as a major act. In 1978 a fire wrecked around 5000-6000 tape archive in a warehouse in New Jersey that had no air conditioning. The master tapes in the back catalog where okay as they were kept in New York.
1988 There was a 40th Anniversary Concert on HBO which was nearly 13 hours long and had performances from artists such as Led Zeppelin.
Present Newer artists that are signed with Atlantic include alt-J, B.o.B, Birdy, Bruno Mars, Charli XCX, Charlie Puth, Clean Bandit, Coldplay, David Guetta, Ed Sheeran, James Blunt, Jess Glynne, Kaleo, Marina and the Diamonds, Melanie Martinez, Paolo Nutini, Paramore, Portugal. The Man, Sia, Vance Joy.
Bibliography http://www.atlanticrecords.com/ https://prezi.com/burg2o-o-gbk/atlantic-records-timeline/ http://www.bsnpubs.com/atlantic/atlanticstory.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Records
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