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ABC Records

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For unofficial releases/counterfeit/bootlegs, please use [l188469]. Use [l267992] for the recording location. In 1955, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters, Inc. formed a subsidiary company called [b][l285802][/b] which began to release pop, jazz, rhythm and blues, children's and spoken word records under the label name [b][l=ABC-Paramount][/b]. The corporate name of Am-Par Record Corporation was changed to [l=ABC-Paramount Records, Inc.] in 1962. [l=ABC-Paramount] became one of the major players in the North American music industry in the 1950s and 1960s, signing many early rock & roll artists including [a=Paul Anka], [a=Lloyd Price] and the [a=Poni-Tails]; it also launched and would acquire many labels including [l=Impulse!], [l=Apt Records], [l=Bluesway], [l=Audition], [l=Command], [l=Grand Award], [l=Dunhill], [l=20th Century Fox Records], [l=Duke], [l=Peacock Records], and [l=Back Beat (2)] among others. In July 1965, the label began to move away from the "ABC-Paramount" branding by adopting the logo of parent company [l=American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.] In 1966, Paramount was formally dropped from the label's name and it was officially renamed to [b]ABC Records[/b] with the corporate name changing in 1967 again into [l=ABC Records, Inc.]. The Seventies saw ABC having success with rock bands such as The [a=James Gang], [a=Poco] and [a=Steely Dan], and the label also released some of the top soul recordings of the time from artists like [a=Isaac Hayes], The [a=Four Tops], [a=The Dramatics], [a=Denise LaSalle], [a=Lamont Dozier], [a=Lenny Williams] and [a104991]. It also entered the country music field in earnest after acquiring [l=Dot Records] in 1974 with [a=Freddy Fender], [a=Don Williams], [a=Billy "Crash" Craddock], [a=The Oak Ridge Boys] and [a=Barbara Mandrell] leading its charge on Music Row. In 1968, ABC created the [l=Probe] label, a progressive rock label managed by its Command division; three years later, it was shut down in the US but the label (with a slightly modified logo) was used for releasing its product outside North America via EMI. Beginning in 1974, the British label [l=Anchor Records] took over distribution of ABC recordings in the UK and ABC likewised handled American distribution for Anchor. Just before this, ABC recordings were released on [l=London Records] and [l=EMI]'s [l=His Master's Voice] and [l=Stateside] labels with the early Dunhill material released by [l=RCA] in the British market. By 1975 however, ABC ended the deal and opened its own UK branch with its own distribution. [b]Please note that many of the 1974 and later ABC releases in the UK are in fact reissues of albums previously issued on Stateside and/or Probe, but still show the original copyright dates on the labels. Further checks should be made to see if there are previous versions of the release.[/b] In Canada, ABC was handled by [l=Sparton Of Canada Ltd.] until [l=Polydor Records Canada Limited] (aka [l=Polydor Ltd. (2)]) took over in November 1968. In early 1971 ABC sued Polydor for breach of contract and moved distribution to [l=RCA Limited] who handled it until the licensing agreement expired on January 1, 1976. ABC was without a Canadian distributor until March 1976 when it reached an agreement with [l=GRT Of Canada Ltd.]. GRT handled ABC until 1979 when GRT went bankrupt and MCA bought the label, thereafter its catalogue was handled in Canada by [l=MCA Records (Canada)]. On January 31, 1979, ABC Records (which by then was suffering financial problems) was sold to [l=MCA Records] and briefly operated as an MCA imprint before it ceased to exist as a record label in March 1979; a number of popular ABC catalog titles were then reissued on MCA. The ABC Records catalog is today mostly divided among five [l=Universal Music Group] labels: [l=Geffen Records] (the ABC pop, rock and R&B catalogs excluding those of [a=Ray Charles], [a=Steve Lawrence] and [a=Eydie Gorme], whose ABC masters they took possession of after they left the label), [l=Verve Records] (the Impulse! label and catalog), [l=Deutsche Grammophon] (the [l=Westminster] classical catalog), [l=Mercury Nashville] (the ABC and Dot country material), and [l=Decca Broadway] (musical theater cast recordings that were released on ABC).