Warner Brothers Records
From Free net encyclopedia
| Warner Bros. Records | |||
| Image:Warner bros records.png | |||
| Parent company | Warner Music Group | ||
| Founded | 1958 | ||
| Founder(s) | — | ||
| Distributing label | Warner Bros. (US) WEA (Outside of the US) | ||
| Genre(s) | Various | ||
| Country | US | ||
| Web address | http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com/ | ||
Warner Brothers Records is a record label which was launched on March 19, 1958 by Warner Bros. The label is now a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. Its sub-labels are Maverick Records, Nonesuch Records, Reprise Records, Sire Records, WB Jazz, WBR Nashville, Word Records and Heiress Records.
The reason the record company was formed was because contract actor Tab Hunter had a #1 hit in 1957 with "Young Love" and to Warners' chagrin, reporters only wanted to ask about the hit record instead of Hunter's latest Warner movie.
In 1960, they signed the Everly Brothers (who were previously on Cadence Records) with the first ever million dollar contract in history. That was also the year that they released two albums by Bob Newhart which both won Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year. In 1963 they purchased Frank Sinatra's label, Reprise Records. In 1967, Warner Bros. Records 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 and reverted to the Warner Bros. name. In 1990, Warner Communications, which morphed out of Kinney National, merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner.
In 2003, a group lead by Edgar Bronfman bought Warner Music Group from Time Warner.