Paramount Records (1969)

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Paramount Records
Parent company Famous Music (1969–1974)
FoundedJuly 10, 1969
Founder Paramount Pictures
StatusDefunct, sold to ABC Records in 1974, catalog now owned by Universal Music Group
Distributor(s)Self-distributed
Genre Pop music
Movie soundtracks
Country of origin United States

Paramount Records was a record label started in 1969 by Paramount Pictures (then a unit of Gulf+Western) after acquiring the rights to the name from George H. Buck. A previous Paramount Records, active between 1917 and 1932, had been unconnected to Paramount Pictures. The new Paramount label reissued pop releases by sister label Dot Records, which had recently become a country label and, in the process, had its entire pop back catalog deleted completely. It also released new albums from other pop musicians and soundtracks of Paramount films such as Paint Your Wagon , among others. Cast members of the Paramount Television series The Brady Bunch were signed, and the label issued several tie-in albums and singles.

Contents

After Gulf+Western sold its record label holdings to ABC (which happened to have aired the Brady Bunch TV series) in 1974, the Paramount label was discontinued in favor of ABC Records, which itself was sold to MCA Records in 1979. MCA itself had previously purchased Paramount's pre-1950 sound film library in 1958, currently managed by Universal Television subsidiary EMKA, Ltd. The Paramount catalog is now owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records (whose founder, David Geffen, later became a co-founder of DreamWorks, which was a sister studio of Paramount from 2006 to 2008, and whose own record catalog is now owned by Universal).

On a side note, MCA continued to release soundtracks to some later Paramount films into the 1990s. Sliding Doors (1998) was the last Paramount release to have its soundtrack issued by MCA.

In 2015, Paramount Pictures revived the label as Paramount Music - a record label specializing in soundtracks from Paramount movies, with distribution by TuneCore.

Discography

ArtistAlbumDetails
Kay Starr and Count Basie How About This
  • Released: 1969
Lalo Schifrin Mannix (Themes from the Original Score of the Paramount Television Show)
  • Released: 1969
Lalo Schifrin More Mission: Impossible
  • Released: 1969
Bola Sete Workin' on a Groovy Thing
  • Released: 1970
The Brady Bunch Merry Christmas from the Brady Bunch
  • Released: November 2, 1970
Elton John "Friends" Original Soundtrack Recording
  • Released: March 5, 1971
Karen Dalton In My Own Time
  • Released: May, 1971
Ralph McTell You Well-Meaning Brought Me Here
  • Released: October, 1971
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Lost in the Ozone
  • Released: November, 1971
Nino Rota The Godfather
  • Released: November, 1971
The Brady Bunch Meet the Brady Bunch
  • Released: April 17, 1972
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers Favorites
  • Released: May 1972
The Brady Bunch The Kids from the Brady Bunch
  • Released: December 4, 1972
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Country Casanova
  • Released: May, 1973
The Brady Bunch The Brady Bunch Phonographic Album
  • Released: June 18, 1973
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas
  • Released: March 1974

See also