Atlantic Recording Corporation is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of two decades, starting from the release of its first recordings in January 1948, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American labels, specializing in jazz, R&B, and soul by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ruth Brown and Otis Redding. Its position was greatly improved by its distribution deal with Stax. In 1967, Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music with releases by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Led Zeppelin, and Yes.
Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee on February 1, 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Prior to that, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues and wanted to bring it to a white audience.
Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the global music industry, after Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME). Formerly part of Time Warner, WMG was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 2005 until 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries. It later had its second IPO on Nasdaq in 2020, once again becoming a public company. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs more than 4,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world.
The Grammy Award for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album is presented to recording artists for quality albums in the new-age music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
Carl Terrell Mitchell, better known by his stage name Twista, is an American rapper. He is best known for his chopper style of rapping and for once holding the title of fastest English-speaking rapper in the world according to Guinness World Records in 1992, being able to pronounce 598 syllables in 55 seconds, but his fastest peak burst was on DJ Kay Slay's "Rolling 50 Deep", coming in at 14.07 syllables per second.
Pete Waterman Entertainment (PWE) is the production company one-time pop and dance record label owned by British pop mogul Pete Waterman. The label, originally PWL, is most famous for being the home of hit record producers Stock Aitken Waterman.
Roc-A-Fella Records was an American hip hop record label and music management company founded by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke in 1994. Carter issued his debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996) as the label's first release, in a joint venture with Priority Records. The label has signed and released albums for acts including Kanye West, Cam'ron, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Juelz Santana, Freeway, Jadakiss, Teairra Marí, State Property, and The Diplomats before its dissolution in 2013.
Hi Records is an American soul music and rockabilly label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1957 by singer Ray Harris, record store owner Joe Cuoghi, Bill Cantrell and Quinton Claunch, and three silent partners, including Cuoghi's lawyer, Nick Pesce.
Raymond Lynch is an American guitarist, lutenist, keyboardist, and composer. He began his musical career in 1967 by performing in The Renaissance Quartet in New York City before leaving in 1974 and giving up his musical career. During his hiatus, Lynch studied with his spiritual teacher, Adi Da, who would ultimately encourage him to return to music. Lynch released five albums during the 1980s and 1990s, including The Sky of Mind, Deep Breakfast, No Blue Thing, and Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening. Initially producing his music independently, Lynch eventually worked with Music West. After Lynch sued and left the company, Lynch joined Windham Hill in 1992 before retiring in 2000. Lynch has won three Billboard awards.
Malik Deshawn Cox, known by his stage name Memphis Bleek, is an American rapper. He is best known for his affiliation with fellow New York City-based rapper Jay-Z, with Cox often described as his hype man and protégé. Cox signed with his Roc-A-Fella Records label imprint in the late 1990s, through which he has released four major label studio albums: Coming of Age (1999), The Understanding (2000), M.A.D.E. (2003), and 534 (2005). He has since founded his own labels: Get Low Records in 1998, and Warehouse Music Group in 2016—through which he signed rapper Casanova.
William Everett Justis Jr. was an American pioneer rock and roll musician, composer, and musical arranger, best known for his 1957 Grammy Hall of Fame song, "Raunchy". As a songwriter, he was also often credited as Bill Everette.
Deep Breakfast is Ray Lynch's third studio album, released on December 12, 1984. Upon its initial release, the artist sold over 72,000 albums out of his small apartment in San Rafael, California. After signing with Music West Records, the album was released widely in March 1986. Upon its re-release, the album was universally praised for its mesh of electronic and classical sounds, with several calling it an evolution to the respective genres. Eventually, in 1989, the album peaked at #2 on Billboard's "Top New Age Albums" chart, behind David Lanz's album Cristofori's Dream. The album was eventually certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1994.
Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening is Ray Lynch’s fifth and final studio album. It reflects Lynch's classical background and features performances by members of the San Francisco Symphony. The album was released after Lynch signed with Windham Hill Records. It peaked at #1 on Billboard's "Top New Age Albums" chart.
Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalog consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 150,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries.
Øystein Sevåg is a Norwegian composer and keyboardist. His music touches on classical, New Age and jazz styles.
James William Chappell, professionally known as Jim Chappell, is an American New Age and jazz pianist. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chappell placed five albums in the Top Twenty of Billboard's Top New Age Albums chart, and placed another album in the Top Twenty of their Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.
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.
Edward Benton Reeves was an American songwriter, recording artist, music publisher, artist manager, record company executive, and author. He wrote several hit songs including "All I Ever Need Is You" co-written with Jimmy Holiday and recorded by many artists including Ray Charles, Sonny & Cher, Ray Sanders, Andre Hazes, Tom Jones, Sammi Smith, Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed and Kenny Rogers & Dottie West; "Rings", co-written with Alex Harvey and recorded by Cymarron, Lobo, Reuben Howell, Leo Kottke, Twiggy, Tompall and The Glaser Brothers, Lonnie Mack, and other artists; "Don't Change on Me" co-written with Jimmy Holiday and recorded by Ray Charles, B.B. King, Van Morrison, and by Alan Jackson; "If You Wouldn't Be My Lady", co-written with Jimmy Holiday and recorded by both Ray Charles and Charlie Rich; and "It’s a Hang Up Baby", recorded by both Jerry Lee Lewis and Z.Z. Hill. The song was also performed on November 6, 1969, by Tom Jones with musical backing by the Moody Blues on his national television show, This Is Tom Jones.
Jesse Vernon Frasure, also known as DJ Telemitry, is an American music publisher, record producer, songwriter, and DJ. He has written 22 number one songs and has cuts with various artists including Chris Stapleton, Marshmello, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Thomas Rhett, Leon Bridges, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, Blake Shelton, Cole Swindell, Meghan Trainor, Florida Georgia Line and more.
Philip Nicholas and Brenda Nicholas née Watson, known mononymously as the gospel duo Nicholas, are an African-American husband and wife gospel duo who hail from Philadelphia PA, and Penns Grove, NJ, respectively. Dubbed the sweethearts of gospel, the duo is credited with being the originators of Christian love songs which helped change church culture concerning marriage and relationships. Nicholas has won and been nominated for numerous awards including Grammy, Dove, and Stellar awards. In 1981, they began their gospel music career as a quartet with the release of Tell the World on Message Records. This album yielded their first radio hit "God's Woman". In 1983 Nicholas recorded Words Can't Express, also released on Message Records. This was the duo's last album with Message though Words Can't Express broke into the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart. The duo then launched their new label, Command Records. Their 1985 debut release for the label, Dedicated, reached the number-one spot on the Gospel Album chart and was Billboard's #1 Gospel album of the year 1986. Nicholas released nine more albums. Four of the albums—A Love Like This (1987), Live in Memphis (1989), More than Music (1990), and Back to Basics (1992)—all placed on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart. In 1994, the duo released Fired Up!.
