| Rhino Entertainment Company | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent company | Warner Music Group |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Founder | Harold Bronson Richard Foos |
| Distributor(s) |
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| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | 777 S. Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Official website | www |
Rhino Entertainment Company (formerly Rhino Records Inc.) is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus. [1]
Founded in 1978, [2] Rhino was originally a novelty and reissue label during the 1970s and 1980s. It released compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes from the 1950s through the 1980s, as well as novelty-song LPs (compiled in-house or by Dr. Demento) and retrospectives of famous comedy performers, including Richard Pryor, Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, and Spike Jones.
Rhino started as a record shop on Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, in 1973, run by Richard Foos, and became a record distributor five years later [3] thanks to the effort of then-store manager Harold Bronson. Their early releases were mostly novelty records (such as their first single, in 1975, Wild Man Fischer's "Go to Rhino Records"). The difficulties involved in getting airplay and distribution for such material eventually caused Foos and Bronson to take the label in other directions. One of Rhino's early artists was The Twisters, whose Los Angeles popularity far exceeded their album sales.[ citation needed ] Rhino's mail-order catalogs and early LP labels featured the company's mascot character Rocky—a cartoon greaser rhinoceros wearing a black leather jacket, designed by bootleg cover artist William Stout, and later cartoonist Scott Shaw!.
Some of the label's earliest successes with re-issues were achieved by acquiring the rights to the White Whale Records catalog[ citation needed ] that included the Turtles. By the mid-1980s, most of Rhino's releases were re-issues of previously released recordings licensed from other companies. For superior sound quality, audio mastering of the original tapes (where possible) was done under the direction of Bill Inglot, and the label's creative packaging made Rhino one of the most respected re-issue record labels, receiving rave reviews from music collectors, fans, and historians;[ citation needed ] and later, Grammy nominations and awards.[ citation needed ] Rhino was quick to get into the compact disc market, releasing dozens of oldies CDs at the dawn of the CD age in 1984. [4] Their retrospective compact disc releases, such as those in the Billboard Top Hits series (Billboard Top Dance Hits), are often remastered to restore or improve upon the releases' original analog audio quality.
In the late 1980s, Rhino transitioned into a complete entertainment company specializing in home video (initially VHS, then DVD and Blu-ray) reissues of television programs such as The Monkees , The Lone Ranger , The Transformers , Mystery Science Theater 3000 , and Ed Sullivan's Rock 'n' Roll Classics collection, as well as compact disc releases of select artists and movie soundtracks.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, the company's head of A&R, Gary Stewart, signed artists who recorded new music, including Cindy Lee Berryhill, Steve Wynn, Rank and File, Gene Clark and Carla Olson, The Textones, and NRBQ. These albums were released on the main Rhino label and on subsidiary labels such as RNA (Rhino New Artists) and Forward. However, the company's artists tended to generate more critical acclaim than public interest; for the most part, sales totals in the low five figures or less were routine for Rhino-produced albums,[ citation needed ] and the less costly, less risky re-issue business remained the company's primary revenue stream. One exception was the success of "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters, a 1981 song that went to the top of the U.S. Billboard charts in late 1986 after being featured in an episode of the hit NBC TV series Family Ties . In 1986, Rhino Records had signed a deal with New World Pictures to set up a feature film company called Rhino Films. The first project planned by Rhino Films was to be a film about the rock band Big Daddy, which was a Rhino group that was returned to the US after several years of absence. [5]
In 1985, [6] Rhino signed a six-year distribution agreement with Capitol Records. During 1989 Rhino and Capitol's parent EMI made a deal to jointly acquire Roulette Records; Rhino received the U.S. rights to Roulette's catalog, excluding jazz. When the distribution deal with Capitol ended in 1992, Rhino signed a new distribution deal with Atlantic Records, and in turn Time Warner bought a 50 percent stake in the record company. In 1993, Rhino's home video unit ended its deal with Uni and moved its deal to A*Vision Entertainment. [7] In 1998, Time Warner bought the other half of Rhino, making the company a wholly owned unit of Time Warner. [8] The Rhino Records retail store, which was part of the 50% sale in 1992 but which reverted to Foos after Time Warner bought out the remainder, [9] closed in 2005. [10] [11] [12]
It was through this merger that the label reissued material from such artists as the Monkees, Eric Burdon, Fanny, Dannii Minogue, the Ramones, the Grateful Dead, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the Beach Boys, Yes, the Doobie Brothers, the Cars, Chicago, Tom Paxton, Third Eye Blind, the Doors, War, Spirit of the West and, most recently, the Bee Gees; as well as soundtracks spanning the Turner-owned pre-1986 MGM and pre-1950 [13] Warner Bros. periods, in addition to WB's own post-1949 period. [lower-alpha 1] Rhino's soundtrack releases include Gone with the Wind , The Wizard of Oz , Easter Parade , North by Northwest , Casablanca , King Kong , Doctor Zhivago , Superman , and Finian's Rainbow . The Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. film soundtrack libraries are currently managed by Warner Bros.' in-house label subsidiary, WaterTower Music. [14]
In 1999, Rhino started the 'Rhino Handmade' division of limited-edition releases available primarily from their website. All Handmade deluxe editions were limited to about 3,000 copies or fewer, and once sold out were not re-pressed. In 2003, co-founders and longtime executives Richard Foos and Harold Bronson left Rhino, reportedly due to frustration with the challenges of an increasingly competitive market. In fact, Time Warner's final vesting of its 100 percent ownership of the label, and its subsequent 'reorganization' of label staff, which did not stop at the former owners, were the major factors in their exits.[ citation needed ] Soon after, Foos inaugurated a new label, Shout! Factory, which began releasing dozens of CDs and videos mirroring the original early-1990s Rhino philosophy.
In 2004, Time Warner spun off its music divisions and today Rhino is part of the newly organized Warner Music Group.
In addition to dealing with archive material, the label also manages the U.S. distribution or worldwide production of compilations for more recent Warner acts, including still-active artists such as Enya, New Order, and Chicago.
In June 2006, Warner Strategic Marketing in the U.K. was dissolved and Rhino Records U.K. was formed. [15] The division has two main factions: TV-advertised compilations (for example Pure Garage Rewind Back to the Old School ) and catalog material from the Warner vaults. Led Zeppelin's 2007 release Mothership and the soundtrack to the film Juno are among the label's successes.
In 2013, WMG acquired certain EMI assets divested by Universal Music Group including Parlophone and worldwide rights to Roulette Records. Those assets are now managed by Rhino.
Street Jams is a series of compilation albums issued by Rhino Entertainment between 1992 and 1994. The albums catalogue a number of influential old school hip hop and electro 12" singles that were released in the early to mid-1980s.
While a few of the singles are early releases from Hip-Hop artists who would go on to greater success later on in the decade such as Run-DMC and Slick Rick, the majority of the tracks in the series are considered one-hit wonders by acts who have fallen into relative obscurity but that had a profound impact upon the Hip-Hop/electro scene of the 1980s and influenced some of the more well known artists of that time.
American Recordings is an American record label headed by producer Rick Rubin. The label has featured artists such as Slayer, the Black Crowes, ZZ Top, Danzig, Trouble, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, The Mother Hips, and System of a Down.
MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the 1970s. The company also released soundtrack albums of the music for some of their non-musical films as well, and on rare occasions, cast albums of off-Broadway musicals such as The Fantasticks and the 1954 revival of The Threepenny Opera. In one instance, MGM Records released the highly successful soundtrack album of a film made by another studio, Columbia Pictures's Born Free (1966).
Asylum Records is an American record label, founded in 1971 by David Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. It was taken over by Warner Communications in 1972, and later merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records.
Roulette Records was an American record company and label founded in 1957 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Kahl, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed director.
Hip-O Records is a record label that specializes in reissues and compilations. It is part of Universal Music Group. Established in 1996, the label has distributed releases from 'out of style' genres such as disco and early hip-hop music as well as publishing film soundtracks. The label's name is a pun on the name 'hippo'.
Tommy Boy Records is an American independent record label and multimedia brand founded in 1981 by Tom Silverman. The label is credited with helping and launching the music careers of Queen Latifah, Amber, Afrika Bambaataa, Stetsasonic, Digital Underground, Coolio, De La Soul, House of Pain, Naughty By Nature, and Force MDs. Tommy Boy is also credited with introducing genres such as EDM, Latin freestyle, and Latin hip hop to mainstream audiences in America.
Def Jam Recordings is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop.
Krush Groove is a 1985 American musical comedy-drama film distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures that was written by Ralph Farquhar and directed by Michael Schultz. This film is loosely based on the early days of Def Jam Recordings and up-and-coming record producer Russell Simmons, portrayed by Blair Underwood in his feature film debut. Simmons was the film's co-producer and story consultant; he also had a cameo in the film as a club owner named Crocket.
Colgems Records was a record label that existed from 1966 to 1971.
Romeo Must Die: The Album is the soundtrack to Andrzej Bartkowiak's 2000 action film Romeo Must Die, composed of hip hop and R&B music. It was released on March 14, 2000 through Blackground Records and Virgin Records in association with Warner Bros. Records. Recording sessions took time between May 1999 and January 2000.
Cold Chillin' Records was a record label that released music during the golden age of hip hop from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. A producer-and-crew label founded by manager Tyrone Williams and run by Len Fichtelberg, most of the label's releases were by members of the Juice Crew, a loosely knit group of artists centered on producer Marley Marl. In 1998, the label shut down, and the majority of its expansive catalog was bought by Massachusetts-based LandSpeed Records.
Down by Law is the debut album by East Coast hip hop artist MC Shan. Released at the height of the Bridge Wars, a feud that erupted between Boogie Down Productions and the Juice Crew, responding to the Queensbridge anthem "The Bridge", this album created a blueprint within Hip-Hop music that was never seen before. The album contains the diss track, "Kill That Noise" in response to South Bronx. The album is produced by Marley Marl, and was distributed by Cold Chillin' Records independently, until a distribution deal was struck with Warner Bros. Records (1988), then the album was reissued with slight sample edits. It was the only Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. album that was never initially released on CD by its distributor. The album was not released on that format until 1995, long after the 5-year distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records ended. By this time, Cold Chillin' distributed its material independently, mostly from its back catalog. This CD pressing would only be available for a limited time and went out of print for a few years. It was then re-released in 2001 as MC Shan: the Best of Cold Chillin', which featured all the tracks from Down by Law with a few additional non-album tracks. This version is now out of print as well. In 2007, it was re-released again by its new owner, Traffic Entertainment, in expanded form as a double-disc set with extended tracks, as well as bonus tracks.
Zapp is an American funk band that emerged from Dayton, Ohio, United States, in 1977. Particularly influential in the electro subgenre of funk, Zapp were known for their trademark use of the talk-box effect. The original line-up consisted of four Troutman brothers—frontman Roger, Larry, Lester and Terry—first cousin, Sherman Fleetwood—and non-Troutman family members Bobby Glover, Gregory Jackson, Jerome Derrickson, Eddie Barber, Jannetta Boyce and Shirley Murdock. Zapp also worked closely with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins of Parliament-Funkadelic during its early stages, their support being a factor in the group gaining a record deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1979.
This Boot Is Made for Fonk-N is the fourth album by the American funk band Bootsy's Rubber Band, released through Warner Bros. Records in 1979. Unlike previous albums by Bootsy's Rubber Band, the album did not generate any hit singles. The album was more experimental in nature than previous efforts. It would also mark the last time that the name "Bootsy's Rubber Band" would be used on a Bootsy Collins related project until the 1982 12" single release "Body Slam". This Boot Is Made for Fonk-N peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number 52 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
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Theory Entertainment LLC, doing business as 300 Entertainment, is an American record label founded by Lyor Cohen, Kevin Liles, Todd Moscowitz, and Roger Gold. The label's roster includes acts across multiple genres such as hip hop, rock, pop, electronic, alternative, and country. Current artists include Young Thug, Fetty Wap, Mary J. Blige, No Savage, Rejjie Snow, Cheat Codes, Tee Grizzley, Famous Dex, Shy Glizzy, Cobi, Meg Mac, Dae Dae, the Hunna, Maggie Lindemann, Bailey Bryan, OMB Peezy, Ice Prince, $not and Des Rocs. It is based in New York City. The label also acts as distributor for Young Thug's record label YSL Records, whose roster includes rappers Gunna and the late Lil Keed.
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Eesean Bolden is an American music executive and entrepreneur. He has been the senior Vice President of A&R at Warner Bros since 2016. Bolden also had Epic Records, the division of Sony Entertainment, Inc., and Capitol Records, a division of Universal Music Group. He signed artists such as rapper Silento and songwriter/singer Mary Lambert.
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