Imago Records

Last updated

Imago Records (The Imago Recording Company) was an American independent record label, which was active during the early 1990s. It was started by Terry Ellis after he left his previous record label, Chrysalis Records.

In 1990 Ann Munday was hired as Vice President and General Manager in their New York office. [1]

Several influential artists released albums through Imago, including Rollins Band, Aimee Mann, Paula Cole and Love Spit Love [2] as well as alternative, gay hip-hop artist and rapper Sha-Key (aka Hanifah Walidah). [3] Despite building a slate of up and coming alternative rock artists, the company ran into serious financial difficulties when, in December 1994, the company's former financial backer Bertelsmann Music Group pulled funding. [4] This left many of their artists scrambling to find new labels. [5]

In 1996, Henry Rollins and his new label DreamWorks SKG sued Imago, alleging "fraud, deceit, undue influence and economic coercion" on the label's part. [6]

Artists

All of the following artists released albums on the Imago label: [2]

Related Research Articles

Geffen Records is an American record label, founded in 1980 by David Geffen. Originally a music subsidiary of the now-defunct Geffen Pictures, it is owned by the Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) faction of Universal Music Group (UMG).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rollins Band</span> American rock band

Rollins Band was an American rock band formed in Van Nuys, California. The band was active from 1987 to 2006 and was led by former Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins. They are best known for the songs "Low Self Opinion" and "Liar", which both earned heavy airplay on MTV in the early-mid 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aimee Mann</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1960)

Aimee Elizabeth Mann is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and with other musicians. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyrics about dark subjects. Mann's work with the producer Jon Brion in the 1990s was influential on American alternative rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nettwerk Music Group</span> Canadian record label

Nettwerk Music Group is an independent record label founded in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Penn</span> American musician (born 1958)

Michael Daniel Penn is an American musician, singer and composer. His 1989 single "No Myth" was a top 20 hit in the US and successful in several other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Cole</span> American singer (born 1968)

Paula Dorothy Cole is an American singer-songwriter and producer. After gaining attention for her performances as a vocalist on Peter Gabriel's 1993–1994 Secret World Tour, she released her first album, Harbinger, which suffered from a lack of promotion when the label, Imago Records, folded shortly after its release. Her second album, This Fire (1996), brought her worldwide acclaim, peaking at number 20 on the Billboard 200 album chart and producing two hit singles, the triple-Grammy nominated "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?", which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and "I Don't Want to Wait", which was used as the theme song of the television show Dawson's Creek. Cole was a featured performer in the 1996 prototype mini-tour for Lilith Fair, and also was a headliner for Lilith Fair in 1997 and 1998. She won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1998, and also became the first woman ever to be nominated for "Producer of the Year" in her own right in that same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DGC Records</span> American record label

DGC Records was an American record label that operated as a division of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, which is owned by Universal Music Group.

<i>Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo</i> 2000 studio album by Aimee Mann

Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo is the third album by the American singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, released on May 2, 2000. Some songs were previously released on the Magnolia soundtrack (1999), which Mann wrote in the same period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DreamWorks Records</span> American record label

DreamWorks Records was an American record label founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Mo Ostin, his son Michael Ostin and Lenny Waronker as a subsidiary of DreamWorks Pictures. The label operated until 2003 when it was sold to Universal Music Group. The label itself also featured a Nashville, Tennessee-based subsidiary, DreamWorks Nashville, which specialized in country music and was shut down in 2006 then moved to MCA Nashville. The company's logo was designed by Roy Lichtenstein and was his last commission before his death in 1997.

Terry Ellis, is an English record producer and manager who worked with the early Jethro Tull band, and as co-founder of music company Chrysalis Records in 1969.

<i>Come In and Burn</i> 1997 studio album by Rollins Band

Come In and Burn is the fifth full-length studio album by the Rollins Band. Released in 1997 on DreamWorks Records, it is their major label debut. It is also the last album before vocalist Henry Rollins dissolved the band's "classic" lineup of guitarist Chris Haskett, bassist Melvin Gibbs, drummer Sim Cain and sound technician Theo Van Rock. Rollins later formed a new version of Rollins Band with musicians from Mother Superior, who provided his backing band from 1998 until 2006, when the classic Rollins Band lineup briefly reunited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love Spit Love</span> American alternative rock band

Love Spit Love was an alternative rock band founded in 1992 by English singer Richard Butler during the 1990s hiatus of the Psychedelic Furs.

<i>Harbinger</i> (Paula Cole album) 1994 studio album by Paula Cole

Harbinger is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Paula Cole. It was released through Imago Records, but, just months after its release, the company folded, so promotion for Harbinger was almost non-existent. A video was shot for the first single, "I Am So Ordinary", and is available on iTunes. There are two different covers for the album, which was re-released by Warner Bros. Records, who picked up Cole's contract in 1995 after absorbing Imago when it folded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Don't Want to Wait</span> 1997 single by Paula Cole

"I Don't Want to Wait" is a song written, recorded, and produced by American singer-songwriter Paula Cole. Cole wrote the song in mid-1996 and released it as second single from her second studio album, This Fire (1996), on October 14, 1997. The single release was successful, reaching no. 11 in the United States and no. 5 in Canada. VH1 ranked "I Don't Want to Wait" as one of the 100 Greatest Songs of the '90s at no. 81. The song later served as the opening theme for the American teen drama television series Dawson's Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?</span> 1997 single by Paula Cole

"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" is a song by American singer Paula Cole. It was released on March 25, 1997, as the lead single from her second studio album, This Fire. The song is Cole's only top-ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, reaching number eight, and was her first top-ten hit in Canada, where it reached number seven. It was additionally a critical success, earning nominations for three Grammy awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aimee Mann discography</span>

Aimee Mann is an American singer-songwriter who has released several albums since the early 1980s. Originally, she worked in collaboration with The Young Snakes and 'Til Tuesday, before becoming a solo artist. In 2013, she and Ted Leo began performing as a duo called The Both.

Jay Bellerose is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session and live performance work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists.

Jules Shear is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His discography consists of 12 studio albums, 2 compilations, 2 EPs, and 8 singles. In addition to his work with Funky Kings, Jules and the Polar Bears, Reckless Sleepers, and Shear Shazar, his compositions have been recorded by many other artists.

Hanifah Walidah is an American poet, rapper, singer, actress, playwright, educator and LGBT activist. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with artists like The Vibe Khameleons, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Alexkid, Mike Ladd, St.Lo, and Antipop Consortium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">That's Just What You Are</span> 1994 song by Aimee Mann

"That's Just What You Are" is a song by American singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, which was released in 1994 as a single from the soundtrack of Melrose Place. It was also included on Mann's second studio album I'm with Stupid (1995). The song was written by Mann and Jon Brion, and produced by Mike Denneen.

References

  1. ↑ "Full text of "Cash Box"". Cash Box Pub. Co. 16 November 1991. Retrieved 2018-02-10.
  2. 1 2 "All Music - Imago Records". AllMusic . Archived from the original on August 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
  3. ↑ "Hanifah Walidah – The Oakland Artists Project" . Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  4. ↑ "Imago Records Sues DreamWorks". Los Angeles Times . 1996-06-12. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
  5. ↑ "All Music - Paula Cole" . Retrieved 2009-07-19..
  6. ↑ "Henry Rollins Sues Imago Records". MTV News. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2016.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.