LeFrak-Moelis Records (or LMR for short) was a New York City-based record label founded by Samuel J. LeFrak of the LeFrak Organization and Herb Moelis, an executive who had worked for Columbia Pictures' music division, and later, Kirshner Entertainment. They had initial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Miami-based freestyle artist Stevie B. Other artists that LMR had in its roster included Maestro Fresh Wes, Daisy Dee and Jaya.
Its sister label, Saja Records, held the rights to Jim Croce's ABC-Dunhill releases (purchased by LeFrak in 1985) [1] and Stevie B's recordings before he signed with Empire Musicwerks during the mid-2000s. The LeFrak/LMR/Saja catalog was sold to R2M Music in 2008, [2] and R2M was later absorbed by BMG Rights Management in 2012. [3]
Originally an independent label, LMR was later distributed by RCA Records, and later by Atlantic Records.
Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was originally headquartered.
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.
Arista Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music Group, the North American division of German conglomerate Bertelsmann. Founded in November 1974 by Clive Davis and deactivated in 2011, Arista was re-established in 2018. Along with RCA Records, Columbia Records, and Epic Records, it is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels.
Jive Records was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, and dance acts in the 1980s and 1990s, along with teen pop and boy bands during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Rykodisc is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, operating as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.
Faith Renée Evans is an American R&B singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 in pursuit of a recording career. She first performed as a backing vocalist for R&B singers Al B. Sure! and Christopher Williams, and by the age of 20, signed with Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records as the label's first female artist in 1994. Following her uncredited appearance on labelmate the Notorious B.I.G.'s single "One More Chance", she released her debut studio album, Faith (1995) to critical acclaim and moderate commercial reception. Evans then guest performed alongside 112 on Puff Daddy's 1997 single "I'll Be Missing You," which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and became the first hip hop song to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100. Her second and third albums, Keep the Faith (1998) and Faithfully (2001) peaked at numbers six and 14 on the Billboard 200, respectively, and saw further critical praise.
ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels before ABC was sold to MCA Records in 1979. ABC produced music in a variety of genres: pop, rock, jazz, country, rhythm and blues, soundtrack, gospel, and polka. In addition to producing records, ABC licensed masters from independent record producers, and purchased regionally released records for national distribution.
United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B.
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is a Japanese multinational music company owned by Sony Entertainment and managed by the American umbrella division of multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of the Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing.
Cotillion Records was a subsidiary of Atlantic Records and was active from 1968 through 1985. The label was formed as an outlet for pop, R&B, and jazz. Its first single, Otis Clay's version of "She's About a Mover", reached the R&B charts. Cotillion's catalog quickly expanded to include progressive rock, folk-rock, gospel, jazz and comedy. In 1976, the label started focusing on disco and R&B. At that point, Cotillion's catalog albums outside those genres were reissued on Atlantic.
Saja Records was a LeFrak-Moelis Records subsidiary.
The Zomba Group of Companies was a music group and division owned by and operated under Sony Music Entertainment. The division was renamed to Jive Label Group in 2009 and was placed under the RCA/Jive Label Group umbrella. In 2011, the RCA/Jive Label Group was split in half. Multiple Jive Label Group artists were moved to Epic Records while others stayed with Jive as it moved under the RCA Music Group. In October 2011 Jive Records was shut down and their artists were moved to RCA Records.
Maria Luisa Ramsey Kagahastian, known professionally as Jaya, is a Filipino singer, actress, and television personality. Referred to as the country's "Queen of Soul", she is known for her distinctively deep voice and soulful singing style. She was a talent of GMA Network but later transferred to ABS-CBN, where she served as one of the head jury of the Tawag ng Tanghalan segment of the Philippine noontime variety show It's Showtime and performer on ASAP. Jaya is the second Filipino recording artist to chart in the United States, with her debut single "If You Leave Me Now" peaking at number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Nightcat is a fictional multimedia character created by comic book company Marvel Comics in partnership with record label LeFrak-Moelis Records (LMR). The character was a fictionalised version of LMR artist Jacqueline "Jackie" Tavares, who functioned as the model for the comic character.
Symphony in Effect is the debut album by Canadian rapper Maestro Fresh-Wes, released in 1989 on Attic/LMR Records. In Canada, the album was certified platinum and was the second-best selling Cancon album in Canada of 1990. It remains one of the best-selling Canadian hip hop albums of all time. The first single "Let Your Backbone Slide" became the first hit single in Canadian hip hop history, and appeared on Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart. A second single, "Drop the Needle", was released in 1990.
Love & Emotion is the third album by the dance music artist Stevie B. It was released in 1990 on LMR/RCA Records. It produced the smash hit "Because I Love You ", which became his only No. 1 hit on the pop charts.
BMG Rights Management GmbH is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label.
Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
An independent record label is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented by trade associations in their country or region, which in turn are represented by the international trade body, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).
Esmé Patterson is an American gold-selling recording artist in the US and Canada, originally from Denver, Colorado, and currently residing in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a founding former member of the indie folk band Paper Bird and has released four full-length studio albums as a solo artist, the latest of which was released under her multi-album major label contract with Sony/BMG Media Group.