Atco Records
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Atco Records was a United States based subsidiary label of Atlantic Records. Started by Herb Abramson in 1955, it was initially used as an outlet for artists and groups who didn't fit with its parent label — until 1968 Atco was Atlantic's "pop/rock" label (Atlantic itself being strictly blues, jazz, and R&B/soul) as well as home to almost all of the company's non-African American artists (the main exception being The Young Rascals who were considered a blue-eyed soul group).
The name Atco is simply an abbreviation of ATlantic COrporation.
Image:Atcorecordslogo1.JPGAtco distributed artists on Robert Stigwood's RSO Records. Atco also distributed Stax Records' Volt Records and The Rolling Stones' Rolling Stones Records label.
Some of the best known Atco artists were Bobby Darin, The Coasters, Ben E. King, Acker Bilk, Nino Tempo and April Stevens, Sonny and Cher, The Bee Gees, Lulu, Blind Faith, Buffalo Springfield, Cream, Iron Butterfly, Vanilla Fudge, Pantera, AC/DC, Eric Clapton, INXS , Pete Townshend, Yes, Michel'le, Peter Gabriel and Genesis.
The last number one hit by Atco was Sweet Sensation in 1990. In 1991, Atlantic merged Atco with its fledgling label Eastwest Records, and briefly operated as Atco/Eastwest Records. The following year, the Atco name was dropped and the label continued operating as Eastwest Records. In the time since, Atco has stopped releasing new records and its name and logo were only on reissues of its old material. As of mid-2005, its most recent release (in a joint venture with Rhino Records) was the soundtrack to the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea, starring Kevin Spacey and featuring Spacey's renditions of Darin classics.