Warner Bros. Records

One of THE DISCO labels...

8467 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles California 90048 USA		75 East 55th Street New York New York 10022 USA

Warner Bros. Records was formed in 1958 and was branched out of the Warner Bros. famous movie company. Over the years, hundreds of acts have been recording for the label, not to mention the uncountable number of acts who have recorded for any of the sub-labels. The label remains as one of the majors! This is Warner Bros. Records...

Warner Bros. Records was formed on March 19, 1958 by Jack Warner and the original label was set up at 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California - right above the film studio's machine shop. The Warner Record label was created due to the #1 hit song "Young Love", which was a huge success in 1957 for Dot Records and was sung by the Warner Bros. Pictures actor Tab Hunter. When all reporters wanted to talk about the actor's top record instead of Mr. Hunter's latest movie, the company formed the label and, of course, signed Tab Hunter as first act to the new born Warner Bros. Records. But Tab didn't manage to follow up his previous hit and the first years of the label weren't very successful. But the Warner Bros. history started way earlier than 1958... Warner Bros. was founded in 1918 by the four Wanskolaser brothers, who were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Wanskolaser wasn't a very easy name and the family took on the name Warner instead. The brothers, Harry (born Hirsz), Albert (born Aaron), Sam (Szmul) and Jack (born Itzhak), started out by showing films around Pennsylvania and Ohio. In 1903 they opened up their first movie theater - the Cascade - in New Castle, Pennsylvania and in 1904 they formed their film distribution company Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company in Pittsburg. The company grew to distribute all across the four-state area and by the time of World War I they were also producing film. Then in 1918 they formed Warner Brothers Studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and that's when the Warner Bros name first was founded, a name that would be associated with lots of famous movies, artists, cartoons, music and more over the years. Since the mid 20's the Warner's had also ventured into radio stations, owning stations like KFWB in LA. The company also pushed the movie business out of the silent movie era when they started producing movies with sound in the middle of the 1920's. After the company's 1928 success Lights of New York, which was the first all-talking movie, the movie industry converted into sound pictures "overnight". Then in 1929 the Warner's shocked the business again by releasing the first all-color and sound movie, Noah's Ark. The same year they also formed their music publishing company - Warner Bros. Music. During the early 1930's Warner started releasing cartoons and over the years characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester and Porky Pig became extremely popular and Bugs Bunny remains the official mascot of Warner Bros. In the late 1930's they hired an actor named Ronald Reagan, who would later become the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989). During World War II the company made several box office successes, where Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, is probably the most classic one and is today among the top movies in the list of the greatest films of all times. The company continued to release movies with various success in the post-war times and into the 50's. But harder times came and in February 1956 the company sold off all the company's pre-1950 films to Associated Artists Productions and in May the same year the brothers put the company on the market, but Jack Warner actually tricked his brothers and had a syndicate buy 90% of the stock and then he bought back his share again - leaving his brothers out of the company and himself as president. Then in 1958 Warner Bros. Records was founded... Even prior to forming Warner Bros. Records, the brothers had owned extensive music-publishing holdings. Those were now incorporated into the new Recording company. But in 1960 the success started for the label as the company signed the first million dollar contract in the music history when the Everly Brothers was offered a deal to come over to Warner Bros. The company had also signed Bob Newhart who released no less than two Grammy Award winning albums in 1960. One of them also won the 'Album of the Year' award. In 1963 Warner Bros. Records merged with Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. Mr. Sinatra now owned part of the Warner Bros. Records and his former label became a sub-label under the Warner umbrella, which it still remains. The merged label wasn't very successful for the first couple of years and it was mainly focusing on soundtracks that accompanied the Warner movie releases, but in the midst of the decade the label became profitable. But in 1966 Jack Warner sold the Warner Bros. studio and music business to Seven Arts Productions and the company was renamed Warner Bros. - Seven Arts. In 1967 Warner Brothers - Seven Arts bought Atlantic Records for $17,000,000 in Warner stocks and besides they offered Atlantic owners Ahmet Ertegun, Nesuhi Ertegun and Jerry Wexler high paid jobs at Warner. Warner let Atlantic and its sub-labels continue to run as separate companies with continued success. But in 1969 Warner Seven Arts was bought by the Kinney National Company and they combined the resources of Warner Bros. Records and Atlantic Records, they also made Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun part of a committee handling the Kinney Company's record labels. First thing the committee advised in the new decade, was to buy Elektra Records. Now the group of Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, usually called just WEA, had its own distribution all over the US and had now grown to be a major like Columbia Records or RCA. The WEA name was also used as a label outside North America. The labels all kept competing and were still released material under each of their brands. In 1972, David Geffen's Asylum Records merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records. Asylum had been started in 1971 when Geffen, who was an artist agent at the time, had failed to get a recording contract for Jackson Browne and that's when he decided to create his own label. Still in 1972 Kinney National had a financial scandal within its parking operations and decided to change its name to Warner Communications. In the mid 70's things started to happened to the music scene, both the Vietnam War and the Oil crisis were over and people became optimistic and started to get out dancing more. Discotheques started to emerge everywhere and in these clubs 'the Hustle' became the popular dance, with it came the four-to-the-floor beat. This steadily bass beat driven music would become known as Disco...
Like most of the majors, Warner did not see the power and potential of this new music genre. Instead it was small independent labels like Scepter/Wand, Philadelphia International, SalSoul, Red Greg and several others, supporting and nursing the Disco scene. But Warner never became all Disco, most of their music spanned from Rock and Pop to Disco with a Funky twist. Like all major labels, Warner had numerous of wholly or partly owned and/or distributed sub-labels, all with their own musical profile, so I won't even try to list them all. But some of the most known Warner Bros. associated labels during the 'Disco era' were; Bearsville Records. The label was founded in 1970 by Albert Grossman and its artist roster included more Rock/Pop oriented acts like Todd Rundgren and Foghat. But more interesting for Disco lovers are the Funky Soul/Disco work of Tony Wilson and the solo releases by former Chic vocalist Norma Jean Wright, who recorded for Bearsville as just 'Norma Jean'. Actually Chic's Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards wrote and produced Norma's two 1978 hit songs; "Saturday" and "Sorcerer" as well as 1979's "High Society". The label was folded in 1984. Children's Television Workshop - CTW was founded in March 1968 by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett and is a non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs like Sesame Street that have run on public broadcasting all around the world. In 2000 the company name was changed to Sesame Workshop. The CTW label is particularly interesting to Disco lovers for its only 12" single release, "C Is For Cookie" by Cookie Monster & the Girls in 1978. Why it's so special to Disco people is because it was the famous DJ and Remixer Larry Levan's first released remix. Larry made the 'Funky Version' and the equally famous DJ Roy Thode made the 'Sweet Version'. The 12" single was promoting the labels 'Sesame Street Fever' album, which also included vocals by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. Curb Records was started by Mike Curb as Sidewalk Records back in 1963. The label was merged with MGM Records throughout 1969 to 1973, then Curb became independent again when MGM Records was sold to PolyGram in 1972. Some famous Curb acts over the years are; Sammy Davis Jr., the Osmond Family, Lou Rawls, Exile, the Righteous Brothers, Roy Orbison, the Sylvers, Gloria Gaynor and the Four Seasons. When the Four Seasons had their comeback in 1975, their song "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" was the first single to spend more than a year on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The label is still active and has many successful Country and Gospel acts like LeAnn Rimes and four-time Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards Female Vocalist of the Year winner Natalie Grant along with the five-time GMA winning group Selah. It seems though that Curb have had more of a production role where a credit like 'Produced by XX for Mike Curb Productions' seems to have been enough for Mike Curb, not sure if there are any '70's releases with only the Curb logo on the label. Instead it seems that a small Curb logo was placed on the label along with the WB logo as on Hemlock's classic "Disco Break". Curtom Records was a Soul and Disco label started in 1968 by Curtis Mayfield and Eddie Thomas. The label was named after combining its two founder's names; CURtis and ThOMas. Curtis & Eddie actually started using the Curtom name already in 1963, but the label wasn't founded until five years later. Curtis ran his label from the Chicago studio he had acquired from RCA. Through his label he released acts like the Impressions, Leroy Hutson and Staple Singers, but notable to a Disco audience is his own releases like; "Move On Up" and "Super Fly", along with Linda Clifford classics like; "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and "Runaway Love". Curtis folded the label in 1980. Geffen Records was started by David Geffen in 1980. David had earlier started Asylum Records in the 70's, as mentioned above. His first signings to his new label were John Lennon & Yoko Ono and Disco's biggest Diva - Donna Summer. The label's first album release was Donna's Gold selling LP, the Wanderer, followed by Lennon's million-selling Double Fantasy LP. John Lennon was actually murdered just two days after the album hit the charts and never got a chance to enjoy the success of his album and single, or see "(Just Like) Starting Over", reach number ONE in the charts and giving Geffen Records its first #1 listing. Geffen continued to sign big acts like Cher, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Peter Gabriel, Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith. In 1991 David Geffen sold his label to MCA Records. In the merger between MCA and PolyGram in 1999 the merged company came out as Universal Music Group and in 2003 Universal decided to retire the MCA name and its entire catalog was transferred to Geffen Records, which is still active. But from a Disco point of view it's the Donna Summer releases that counts; "the Wanderer", "Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)" and "State Of Independence" along with the leftfield Disco classic "Walking On Thin Ice" by Yoko Ono. Island Records was formed in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall already back in 1959. In 1962 Blackwell moved the label to the UK and released mostly Rock and Reggae music. In 1974 Blackwell started Island Records in the US with a manufacturing and distribution partnership with Warner Bros. Records, which lasted until 1982 when distribution was moved to Atlantic. In 1989 Chris Blackwell sold the label to PolyGram but stayed as chairman for the company until 1997. Since 1999 the Island brand has been part of the Island Def Jam Music Group. Opposed to Curb (see above), Blackwell made sure that Island was marketed as the primary label even if another company handled the distribution, manufacturing and marketing. Besides being the label of famous rockers U2 and Pop artist Robert Palmer and many others, the label released reggae classics from for example Bob Marley & the Wailers and Thirld World. Island also released some great Disco music, sometimes through their Mango sub-label, by artists like Grace Jones, Gibson Brothers, Buggles and Invisible Man's Band. Qwest Records was started by Quincy Jones in 1980 as joint venture with Warner Bros. The first Qwest release is said to be George Benson's Give Me The Night album. It's released on a WB label, but it has a small Qwest Records logo as well on the label, apparently because George was still under a Warner contract. Besides for Quincy releasing a few records by himself and one with Frank Sinatra, his big acts were his Goddaughter Patti Austin, James Ingram and the US licensing for the UK acts New Order and Joy Division along with the Gospel group the Winans. The label was folded in 2000 when Warner bought out Quincy and shut Qwest down. Most 'Disco' of the labels material is (if we can count in the George Benson release) George's "Give Me The Night", James Ingram's "It's Your Night" and "Ya Mo B There" (duet with Michael McDonald), along with Patti's "Rhythm Of The Street" and "It's Gonna Be Special" (both came in a Jellybean remix) and also New Order's "Blue Monday". Paisley Park Records was created by Prince in 1985 in association with and partly funded by Warner. Might be a little off the 'Disco era', but due to the impact Prince had in the music industry at this time it's listed for reference. The label was formed after Prince's successful album and movie - Purple Rain. The label shares its name with the name of Prince's recording studio and a song off his 1985 Around The World In A Day album. Except for his own releases, Prince also released acts like Sheila E, the Time, Mavis Staples, George Clinton and Carmen Electra. After a feud with Warner in 1994, WB ended its distribution of the Paisley Park label and Prince decided to fold the label and opened up NPG Records. RFC Records was a label formed in December 1978 when Ray Caviano became the executive director of Warner's Disco division. RFC in the label name is formed by his initials - Raymond Francis Caviano. RFC is the most Disco oriented of all Warner Bros. sub-labels with exciting acts like Boris Midney's act Caress, Venus Dodson, Gino Soccio and Change. In 1981 Ray changed his distribution to Atlantic and also got a deal with Quality Records in Canada and RFC continued to release wonderful Disco music until 1983 when the label was folded. Sire Records was started as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gotteher in 1966. The production company didn't become a record label until 1968. During the 1970's the label focused on underground music, from progressive Rock, to Punk, Synth and New Wave. The independent label had various distributers over the years, but in 1976 a distribution deal was signed with Warner and Warner later bough Sire in 1978. Sire left Warner in 1995 and was operated under the Elektra umbrella until 1998 when they broke lose to run by themselves, but still as part of the Warner Music Group. In 2000 Sire was merged with the US division of London Records and became London-Sire Records. In April 2003 that partnership dissolved and the label became Sire Records again, but still under Warner Bros. Records protection. Over the years Sire have released material from acts like the Ramones, the Cure, Talking Heads and Pretenders. The label's first big hit was "Couldn't Get It Right" by Climax Blues Band in 1977. From a more Disco and Club rotation view acts and songs like; Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" and "Tout Petite La Planete", Boney M's "Rasputin", "Pop Muzik" by M, "Kiss Me Again" by Dinosaur, "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell, Yazoo's (aka Yaz) "Don't Go" and "Situation", Laidback's "White Horse" along with "Wordy Rappinghood" and "Genius Of Love" by Tom Tom Club, Break Machine's "Street Dance", "Hot 'Paris Latino'" by Bandolero, some Kid Creole & The Coconuts releases and NV's "It's Alright" all made a stir on dance floors all over the world. Besides the above, Sire made us move to the US releases of the Depeche Mode material. BUT, Sire is most known for signing the young Madonna and releasing all her material until the early/mid 1990's. Tommy Boy Records was formed by Tom Silverman in 1981 and his label specialized in Hip Hop, Dance and Electronica. Tom had started out in the music business in September 1978 with his bi-weekly magazine called Disco News which later became Dance Music Report, a publication that would run for a total of 14 years. In 1985 Warner bought 50% of Tommy Boy and in 1990 they bought the remaining 50% and Tommy Boy became a fully owned sub-label of Warner Bros. Tom Silverman was appointed Vice President of Warner. In 1995 Silverman bought back 50% of the Tommy Boy label and in 1998 Tommy Boy Gospel, Tommy Boy Black Label (for underground Hip Hop) and Tommy Boy Silver Label (for Dance music) were founded. In 2001 Tom ventured into the film, TV and DVD business through Tommy Boy Films. In January 2002 Warner ended its venture with Tommy Boy as the label didn't reach the unit sales the mother company required. Silverman then bought back the remaining 50% of Tommy Boy Records and became independent again. The labels artists and master tapes became the property of Warner, with Silverman owning the trademark which he now license to Warner and Rhino/Atlantic for reissues. The record company he also renamed Tommy Boy Entertainment LLC at this time. The label have always been mostly associated with Rap/Hip Hop music and acts like Planet Patrol, the Jonzun Crew, G.L.O.B.E. & Whiz Kid and Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force who's "Planet Rock" is one of the most important Electro records ever. The most 'Disco' of the Tommy Boy releases is the B-side of one of the labels first 12" singles, the Kryptic Krew's version of "Jazzy Sensation" 'Manhattan Version' (Afrika Bambaataa & the Jazzy 5's 'Bronx Version' being the A-side) from 1982. The song is based on Kenton Nix' "Funky Sensation" which was a hit in 1981 for Gwen McCrae. Warner-Spector Records was formed on October 12, 1974 by Phil Spector. Most of the releases were reissues of tracks Phil had released in the 1960's on his Philles Records, which he had founded in 1962 and folded in 1967. The Warner-Spector label was short-lived and folded in 1977, but the only new material Phil released on the label was two 'Disco' songs by the group Calhoon - "(Do You Wanna) Dance Dance Dance" and "Soul Man". Whitfield Records was founded by Norman Whitfield in 1975 and was distributed by Warner Brothers Records. Norman was a former Motown producer and songwriter, when he left Motown, acts like Rose Royce, Willie Hutch and Undisputed Truth followed him to his new label. All the Whitfield acts had a very Funky sound which worked well with the audience and the dance floors. Norman had gathered material for the first Rose Royce album he was planning to release when he heard that MCA was looking for an artist/group for the soundtrack to the movie Car Wash. Mr. Whitfield managed to get the band hired for the job and they got three Billboard R&B Top Ten singles out of the soundtrack; "Car Wash", "I Wanna Get Next to You" and "I'm Going Down". "Car Wash" also reached number One in the US Hot 100 charts. In 1978 the group released the classics "Wishing On A Star" (which has been covered many time by acts like The Cover Girls, Beyoncé, Randy Crawford and En Vogue among others) and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" (as covered by Madonna, Jimmy Nail and several others), both with better chart success in the UK than in the US. In 1979 Rose Royce had a hit with "Is It Love You're After" which was sampled in by S'Express in their 1988 hit "Theme From S-Express" (one of the first songs using samples). Undisputed Truth had some success with their 1976 song "You + Me = Love", with lead vocals by Chaka Khan's younger sister - Taka Boom. The B-side featured the song "Let's Go Down To The Disco" which also worked on the dance floors and entered the R&B Charts. The bands last release was the great and Funky "Show time" in 1979. In 1982 the Whitfield label was folded. Other Warner sub-labels you might see referenced in the Matrix listing of the Warner Bros. promotional 12" singles below, are labels not really related to Disco at all. For example; Capricorn Records, active between 1969 to 1979 and then reformed in 1991 to be finally folded in 2000. Chrysalis Records was a UK label founded in 1969. They had their early US distribution via Warner between 1972 and 1976, when they became independent. The label was folded in 2005. DiscReet, Frank Zappa's label between 1973 to 1979. The name of the label was a pun derived from 'Disc' and the discrete (also known as 'Compatible Discrete 4', 'CD-4' or 'Quadradisc') method of encoding 4-channel Quadraphonic sound into phonograph records. The plan was to record all the labels albums in Quadraphonic sound, but the idea was abandoned after only two releases as the process was expensive and the audience never caught on to this early 4-channels surround sound. ECM (Editions of Contemporary Music) was started in 1969 and is still active. It's a Jazz and Classical label known for their exceptional sound quality recordings. Reprise Records (as mentioned above) was Frank Sinatra's label which he formed in the late 50's. He brought on fellow 'rat pack' members Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Other acts that has been recording for the label are; Jimi Hendrix, Kinks and Neil Young. Today Warner has revived the label and new acts like Green Day, Michael Bublé and Oasis. Slash Records was a Los Angeles based label specializing in local Punk Rock bands. It was formed in 1978 and was the outcome of the Punk fanzine with the same name. They got a distribution deal with WB in 1982 and kept releasing Punk/Rock music distributed via Warner until 1996. It seems the label folded in the beginning of the new century. Another thing with the Matrix listing is the strange jump the numbers take around 1982-1983. From starting out in the 600 series in the mid 1970's, the numbers go steadily up to 1099 - then the matrix numbers all of a sudden jumps to 2000 and continues steadily from there. But it always makes you wonder what might have happened that motivated the jump...		Download the FREE basic RealPlayer... CLICK to hear some Warner Bros. (and related labels) songs... Don't cost you nothing Ashford & Simpson Found a cure Ashford & Simpson Could you be loved Bob Marley Street dance Break Machine Run to me Candi Staton Victim Candi Staton When you wake up tomorrow Candi Staton Young hearts run free Candi Staton I'm every woman Chaka Khan A Lovers Holiday Change Angel in my pocket Change Glow of love Change Chic mystic Chic'92 M.M.F.T.C.F Chic'92 Your love Chic'92 What a fool believes Doobie Brothers Get up and boogie Freddie James Give me the night George Benson Cuba Gibson Brothers Oooh, what a life Gibson Brothers Que sera mi vida Gibson Brothers Dancer Gino Soccio On your knees Grace Jones Funky sensation Gwen McCrae All night thing Invisible Man's Band Caught in the act Jocelyn Brown Ego maniac Jocelyn Brown Love's gonna get you Jocelyn Brown Thunder in my heart Leo Sayer Runaway love Linda Clifford Here comes that sound again Love De-Luxe Pop music M I keep forgettin' Michael McDonald Saturday Norma Jean Da ya think I'm sexy Rod Stewart Have a cigar Rosebud Money Rosebud Ain't nobody Rufus & Chaka Khan Wear it out Stargard Show time Undisputed Truth Night rider Venus Dodson Shining Venus Dodson CLICK to hear some related songs... Bourgie, Bourgie John Davis w. the Monster Orch. Going back to my roots Odyssey Click to buy from Dynamite! - Stacy Lattisaw Love injection - Trussel I shoulda loved ya - Narada Michael Walden Just a touch of love - Slave Keep the fire burning (UK club remix) - Gwen McCrae Do it Roger - Roger You can do it - Five Special If you really want me - Sister Sledge On my own - Debra Laws Baby I'm scared of you - Womack & Womack Lover undercover (UK club remix) - Fatback Band Let me show you - Larry Wu Dancin' in the key of life - Steve Arrington Click to buy from Try It Out - Gino Soccio Bad Habits (12” mix) - Jenny Burton Toda Menina Baiana - Gilberto Gil Eye To Eye - Chaka Khan Watching You - Slave I’m Sick And Tired (UK 12”Remix) - Larry Graham Intimate Connection - Kleeer Feels So Real - Patrice Rushen Mt. Airy Groove - Pieces Of A Dream Didn’t Know About Love (‘Til I Found You) - Lenny White The Way You Love Me (12” Hype Remix) - Karyn White My Magic Man (12” Magic Mix) - Rochelle Click to buy from Disc 1: Over and Over [12" Disco Mix] Have You Ever Tried It Everybody's Got to Give It Up One More Try [12" Disco Mix] Tried, Tested and Found True [12" Disco Mix] Send It Top of the Stairs Don't Cost You Nothing [12" Disco Mix] It Seems to Hang On [12" Disco Mix] Found a Cure [12" Disco Mix] Nobody Knows [12" Disco Mix] Love Don't Make It Right [12" Disco Mix] Stay Free Bourgie Bourgie Disc 2: Found a Cure [A Tom Moulton Mix] It Seems to Hang On [Tommy Musto Re-Touch] One More Try [Dimitri Re-Edit] Bourgie Bourgie [Joe Claussell's Classic Remix] Over and Over [Simphouse M&M Mix] Stay Free [Dim's the Missing Mix] Love Don't Make It Right [Joey Negro Mix] Tried, Tested and Found True [Simphouse/M&M Soulful Mix] Stay Free [Dim's Club Mix] Click to buy from Here I Am Again As Long As He Takes Care Of Home Six Nights And A Day He's Making Love To You Young Hearts Run Free One More Chance On Love A Dreamer Of A Dream Run To Me Honest I Do Love You When You Wake Up Tomorrow Victim I Ain't Got Nowhere To Go Halfway To Heaven Take My Hand, Precious Lord For more Warner related CD's... Click here!
So, what about Warner Bros. Records, did they have any 'Disco acts'? The answer is 'Yes, of course!' OK, WB was not a pure Disco label, but they got several acts who made (at least some) Disco or Funk songs. The most 'Disco' acts were Ashford & Simpson, Candi Staton, Madleen Kane, Chaka Khan and Deodato, while Funkadelic and Prince delivered Funk and George Benson, Lamont Dozier, Roxy Music and Michael McDonald stood for a more Soulful Disco-Funk sound. Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson started working together in 1964, after having met at Harlem's White Rock Baptist Church earlier that year. In 1966 they wrote their first hit song - "Let's Go Get Stoned" as recorded by Ray Charles. The same year they became in-house writers/producers at Motown working mostly with Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross. For Motown they wrote classics like "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". The couple left Motown in 1973. In 1974 they got married and also resumed their career as a duo, now with Warner Bros. for which they recorded hits like "Don't Cost You Nothin'" , "It Seems To Hang On", "Is It Still Good To Ya", "Found A Cure". Some other of the duo's more underground Disco hits from the duo's WB era are "Over And Over" and the instrumental classic "Bourgie Bourgie" out of their 1977 Send It album. The later was re-recorded with vocals first by John Davis with the Monster Orchestra in 1979 and then Glady's Knight & the Pips in 1980. They also wrote Chaka Khan's first solo hit "I'm Every Woman" from 1978. The duo left Warner in 1981. Candi Staton started her solo career in 1968 and soon got dubbed - First Lady of Southern Soul. She joined Warner in 1974 and scored hits like "Run To Me", "Victim", the Patrick Adams penned "When You Wake Up Tomorrow" where the 12" single was flipped by a Ashford & Simpson written song called "Rough Times". But her biggest hit and anthem is the classic "Young Hearts Run Free". Candi left Warner in 1980 to join Sugarhill Records. For the full story on Candi, check out the Discoguy interview! Madleen Kane is a Swedish fashion model who turned into a singer. She had a couple of hits during the late 70's through the mid 80's. Madleen recorded an album called Rough Diamond for CBS France in 1978, the US release of the album started a bidding war which Warner ended up winning. WB released the title track "Rough Diamond" as a 12" single in a Jim Burgess remix, with the (soon to become) morning music classic "Touch My Heart" as the B-side. The success was followed up with "Forbidden Fruit", another Jim Burgess remix, and the 12" was flipped by the ballad "You and I", which remain a wedding day classic in Canada even to this date. In 1980 Madleen left Warner for the Charlet label, for which she released her last top hits, with the Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte written and produced "You Can, being a number one dance hit. Carole Yvette Marie Stevens is the multiple Grammy Award winner who is more known under the African name she adopted while working on the Black Panthers' breakfast program - Chaka Khan. Her sister is the dance music artist Taka Boom and her brother is Mark Stevens of Aurra. Chaka grew up in Chicago and formed her first group at the age of 11. In 1973 she was lead singer of the Funk group Rufus, a band she enjoyed great success with until going solo with Warner in 1978. Her first release for the label was "I'm Every Woman", a song written especially for her by Ashford & Simpson (see above). She followed up with songs like; "Life Is A Dance", "Clouds", "Papillon (aka Hot Butterfly)", "What Cha' Gonna Do For Me", "This Is My Night", "(Krush Groove) Can't Stop The Street", "Love Of A Lifetime", "It's My Party", "Love You All My Lifetime"" and her biggest solo hit - "I Feel For You", which was written by Prince and included rap by Grandmaster Melle Mel and harmonica playing by Stevie Wonder. Even though she was recording as a solo artist she also made some recordings with Rufus like "Any Love", "Do You Love What You Feel" and "I Know You, I Live You" for MCA and later "Ain't Nobody" in 1983 for WB. Eumir Deodato is a musician born by Italian and Portuguese parents in Brazil where he also grew up playing in the Rio bossa nova scene. During the Brazilian military dictatorship he fled to New York. He was working mostly with Jazz but his recordings included lots of Pop elements and later even R&B/Funk along with some Disco. He joined Warner Bros. Records in 1978 and scored a hit with his "Whistle Bump" followed by "Night Cruiser" and "Happy Hour". His biggest hit "SOS, Fire In The Sky" could be heard all over the world during winter 1984-85 and was followed by "Are You For Real", his last hit for Warner. He has made himself a name as producer and was working with Kool & the Gang between 1979-82 and has produced hit records for Björk among others. Funkadelic was formed by George Clinton in 1964. It was a collective of musicians and some of them did also play with Clinton's Parliament, an act signed to Casablanca Records. Funkadelic left Westbound in 1976 and signed with Warner, but the situation with the members being part of both Funkadelic and Parliament made it hard from a contractual point of view and the contract was dropped in 1981. But during their time at WB the group had scored hits with "One Nation Under A Groove" and "(Not Just) Knee Deep". Prince Rogers Nelson or Prince for short, is a multi-talented musician/artist who joined Warner in 1978. Already in his first album release Prince played all instruments himself and one could read the now legendary credits; 'Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince.' He was very productive and would score a long list of hits over his around 15 years with the label, including his Paisley Park Records releases. Hits like; "I Wanna Be Your Lover", "Uptown", "Controversy", "1999", "Little Red Corvette", "When Doves Cry", "Let's Go Crazy", "Purple Rain" (the last three tracks from the movie Purple Rain), "Raspberry Beret", "Pop Life", "Kiss", "Sign 'O' The Times", "Batdance" (from the Batman movie soundtrack) and "Gett Off" to name a few. Prince left Warner in 1994. George Benson started out as a Jazz guitarist in the mid 60's. Benson signed with Warner in 1976 and it was now he also really became a singer as well as an excellent guitar player. Things started out great for him at Warner, he won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year for his 1976 song "This Masquerade" and two years later he won another one for "On Broadway". Other hits include; "Breezin'", "Love X Love", "Turn Your Love Around" and "20/20". But he will always be most remembered for his wonderful Club hit - "Give Me the Night", a track produced by Quincy Jones for Qwest (see above). Benson stayed with Warner Bros. Records until the mid 1990's, he's still busy recording and performing but these days it's mainly Jazz. Lamont Dozier is an American songwriter and record producer born in Detroit, Michigan. Dozier was part of the extremely successful partnership known as Holland-Dozier-Holland, a writer and producer team responsible for most of the Motown hits and sound, as they wrote the top hits for artists such as Martha & the Vandellas, The Supremes, Four Tops and Isley Brothers. The team left Motown in 1967 to start their own Invictus and Hot Wax labels. Dozier left the team and labels to pursue a solo career at Warner between 1976-79. For the label he had hits with "Boogie Business" and the original version of "Going Back To My Roots", a track that later would become a huge hit for the UK group Odyssey. Roxy Music was an English group formed by Bryan Ferry in the early 1970's. They had earlier success before they joined WB in 1982 and released their successful album Avalon. The album included the hits "More Than This" and the title track "Avalon". The band followed up in 1983 with a mini album called The High Road (sometimes also referred to as Musique Roxy) which featured the classic "Jealous Guy". This was actually Roxy Music's last release as the members went on into own solo projects. Michael McDonald is an R&B/soul singer and songwriter. He is sometimes labeled as a 'blue-eyed soul' singer and was a member of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers prior to coming to the Warner roster as a solo artist in 1982. With the Doobie's he sung on their 1978 hit "What A Fool Believes". His first solo hit was the very soulful "I Keep Forgettin'", a song that became even more popular after being sampled by Warren G in his Hip Hop tune "Regulate" in 1994. Michael was also featured in the MCA Records soundtrack for the movie Running Scared in which he sung "Sweet Freedom". His next LP was released on Warner though, and did include "Sweet Freedom". In 1983 he sung a duet with James Ingram in the hit "Yah Mo B There" and in 1986 he did a duet with Patti LaBelle called "On My Own" for her MCA label. Michael was moved to the Reprise label around 1990 and then left the Warner family in 1992. Other Disco releases from the label include songs like; Rosebud's Disco covers of Pink Floyd's "Have A Cigar" and "Money". In 1979 Freddie James wanted us to "Get Up And Boogie", Stargard told us to "Wear It Out" and Love De-Luxe claimed "Here Comes That Sound Again". Zapp Funked things up with "More Bounce To The Ounce" in 1980 and their 1983 hit "I Can Make You Dance". Prince brought in two sexy and hot female one hit wonder groups; Appolonia 6 with "Sex Shooter" and Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl". Post-Disco, another of the era's most heard voices, the lovely Jocelyn Brown, had a brief solo career with WB from 1985 to 1987 and scoring hits like "Love's Gonna Get You" (which was later sampled in Snap's "The Power"), "Ego Maniac" and "Caught In The Act". Another mega-Disco act - Chic - signed with Warner for their 1992 comeback album Chic-ism which spawn the hits "Chic Mystic" and "Your Love". There were also other Warner acts who were not Disco 'per se', but who still made some Disco attempts and/or got some dance floor rotation. For example Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" got a Jim Burgess remix and became a number One Disco hit, also Rod's song "Passion" got its amount of Club play in 1980. Pop act Leo Sayer went Disco in 1977 with his "Thunder In My Heart" and Pop/Rock band Fleetwood Mac got some rotation with their odd track "Tusk" in 1979. The Rock band Van Halen screamed "Jump" in 1984 and got people jumping onto the dance floor every time when played. Another act with another style was the New Wave group Devo whose song "Whip It" made people go crazy in 1980. But for a giant label with a roster like Warner's, the list of acts who (at some point in their career) has been connected to the label or its sub-labels is 'endless', but these are a few; A-ha, Atlantic Starr, The B-52's, Bee Gees, Bootsy's Rubber Band, Peter Cetera, Ray Charles, Cher, Chicago, Alice Cooper, Randy Crawford, Deep Purple, Dire Straits, George Duke, Earth, Wind & Fire, Erasure, Larry Graham, Gwen Guthrie, George Harrison, Herbie Hancock, Ice-T, Jungle Brothers, Kraftwerk, Bette Midler, Van Morrison, Sheila E., Sylvester, Thompson Twins, Ike & Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, The Who, Womack & Womack and ZZ Top. Let's continue the label's story after this escapade into the Disco era acts, labels and music. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Warner Communications branched out into other business when buying video game company Atari and later the Six Flags theme parks. In 1989 Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner. Time Inc. is a publishing company, most know for its magazines Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, People, Entertainment Weekly and many others. In 1991 Time Warner renamed WEA, and it became Warner Music. Time Warner started the new millennium with a merger with Internet provider AOL in 2000, creating AOL Time Warner. But in the backlash of the 'dot-com' collapse, the company choose to drop the previously so high-profile AOL part of the name to simply become Time Warner again in 2002. In March 2004, Edgar Bronfman Jr. and a group of private investors bought the Warner Music Group from Time Warner. Warner Bros. Records is still one of the world's biggest labels and the Warner Music Group holds a royalty-free license from Time Warner for the use of the Warner Bros. trademarks. Lately the Warner Music Group has made much of the YouTube community upset as they make sure videos of their artists are removed or in some cases the users who post Warner material are suspended or banned from YouTube. But in some cases it has been reported that the Warner Music Group has also taken down material that does not belong to them, which has infected the situation even more. It's no understatement to say that the four Wanskolaser brothers really made a name for themselves when creating the Warner Bros. company. It's fascinating to see that the name and brand is still as influential in both movies and music as it has been in the past. The legacy lives on even though it's not a Warner running the ship these days. Hopefully the name will live on for decades to come... Warner Bros.

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