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Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label focuses on dance and electronic music under the direction of Brett Alperowitz.
Neil Bogart (originally Bogatz until adopting the name of his favorite actor Humphrey Bogart) founded Casablanca Records after departing Buddah Records due to clashes with its owners. In 1973 Bogart enticed Warner Bros. Records into financing Casablanca. Due to Warner's ownership of all rights to the film Casablanca, Bogart's adoption of the movie's name and title look for its records label logo went without legal objection. The label's first signing was Kiss but its first single release was Bill Amesbury's "Virginia (Touch Me Like You Do)", a minor hit on the US Hot 100. "Butter Boy" by Fanny and The Hudson Brothers' "So You Are a Star" proved to be Casablanca's first Billboard Top 40 hits.
Warner Bros. developed doubts about Casablanca's viability, in particular with the signing of Kiss. Bogart's brashness also did not help relations or gain much support for his acts and releases which had only modest success. Warner head Mo Ostin ceded Bogart full ownership of the label.
The now-independent Casablanca Records was suddenly put in a tenuous financial situation as it still had yet to score a major hit album and no longer had the backing of Warner Bros. Casablanca was banking on the success of an upcoming album it was planning: a two-record set of audio highlights from television's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The album was entitled Here's Johnny: Magic Moments from The Tonight Show and was released in November 1974. Although the album was certified gold by the RIAA for shipments to stores of over 500,000 copies, the album did not sell well, and returns from retailers of unsold copies were high. Even the promotional copies were returned, initiating the joke that it shipped gold and went back to the label platinum. Casablanca had realized that even though The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was immensely popular, the show did not carry over well to recordings.
By mid-1975, Casablanca was almost bankrupt, and desperately needed a commercial breakthrough if they were to survive. That breakthrough came in an unlikely form: a double live album, Alive! (1975). It became both Casablanca's and Kiss's first top ten album.
Casablanca eventually became one of the most successful American labels of the 1970s, signing and releasing records by such acts as Kiss, Donna Summer, Village People, Cher, Lipps Inc. (with lead vocalist Cynthia Johnson), and George Clinton's Parliament. In 1976, the label merged with indie-film company Filmworks, Inc., headed by founder Peter Guber, to form Casablanca Record and FilmWorks, Inc., which had hits with the movies The Deep and Midnight Express.
In 1977, PolyGram acquired a 50% stake in Casablanca for $15 million, followed by purchasing the other half in 1980. Also that year, one of the label's biggest acts, Donna Summer, departed to Geffen Records as she and Casablanca failed to agree on her musical direction for the future. That same year, PolyGram pushed Bogart out of Casablanca due to what it viewed as the label's overspending and accounting irregularities. The film division was separated from the label and renamed PolyGram Pictures. In the early 1980s, with Bogart no longer heading the label, Casablanca had hits with acts Lipps Inc., Stephanie Mills, Cameo (on sister label Chocolate City Records), The Four Tops, Mac Davis and Irene Cara but it did not achieve the same level of success it had enjoyed in the 1970s. The label was eventually shut down by PolyGram with some of the artist roster and catalog absorbed into sister label, Mercury Records.
In 1999, PolyGram (including its subsidiaries) was purchased by Seagram and then merged with Seagram's MCA Music Entertainment Group to form the Universal Music Group. In 2000, the Casablanca Records name was revived for a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Tommy Mottola. In a Billboard article, Mottola said that he chose the name as a homage to the original label but that there was no connection between the old and new labels. Casablanca is currently a dance and electronic label under Republic Records headed by GM, Brett Alperowitz, who on April 13, 2021, was also named EVP of A&R by Republic Records' president of West Coast creative, Wendy Goldstein.
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Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label focuses on dance and electronic music under the direction of Brett Alperowitz.
Neil Bogart (originally Bogatz until adopting the name of his favorite actor Humphrey Bogart) founded Casablanca Records after departing Buddah Records due to clashes with its owners. In 1973 Bogart enticed Warner Bros. Records into financing Casablanca. Due to Warner's ownership of all rights to the film Casablanca, Bogart's adoption of the movie's name and title look for its records label logo went without legal objection. The label's first signing was Kiss but its first single release was Bill Amesbury's "Virginia (Touch Me Like You Do)", a minor hit on the US Hot 100. "Butter Boy" by Fanny and The Hudson Brothers' "So You Are a Star" proved to be Casablanca's first Billboard Top 40 hits.
Warner Bros. developed doubts about Casablanca's viability, in particular with the signing of Kiss. Bogart's brashness also did not help relations or gain much support for his acts and releases which had only modest success. Warner head Mo Ostin ceded Bogart full ownership of the label.
The now-independent Casablanca Records was suddenly put in a tenuous financial situation as it still had yet to score a major hit album and no longer had the backing of Warner Bros. Casablanca was banking on the success of an upcoming album it was planning: a two-record set of audio highlights from television's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The album was entitled Here's Johnny: Magic Moments from The Tonight Show and was released in November 1974. Although the album was certified gold by the RIAA for shipments to stores of over 500,000 copies, the album did not sell well, and returns from retailers of unsold copies were high. Even the promotional copies were returned, initiating the joke that it shipped gold and went back to the label platinum. Casablanca had realized that even though The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was immensely popular, the show did not carry over well to recordings.
By mid-1975, Casablanca was almost bankrupt, and desperately needed a commercial breakthrough if they were to survive. That breakthrough came in an unlikely form: a double live album, Alive! (1975). It became both Casablanca's and Kiss's first top ten album.
Casablanca eventually became one of the most successful American labels of the 1970s, signing and releasing records by such acts as Kiss, Donna Summer, Village People, Cher, Lipps Inc. (with lead vocalist Cynthia Johnson), and George Clinton's Parliament. In 1976, the label merged with indie-film company Filmworks, Inc., headed by founder Peter Guber, to form Casablanca Record and FilmWorks, Inc., which had hits with the movies The Deep and Midnight Express.
In 1977, PolyGram acquired a 50% stake in Casablanca for $15 million, followed by purchasing the other half in 1980. Also that year, one of the label's biggest acts, Donna Summer, departed to Geffen Records as she and Casablanca failed to agree on her musical direction for the future. That same year, PolyGram pushed Bogart out of Casablanca due to what it viewed as the label's overspending and accounting irregularities. The film division was separated from the label and renamed PolyGram Pictures. In the early 1980s, with Bogart no longer heading the label, Casablanca had hits with acts Lipps Inc., Stephanie Mills, Cameo (on sister label Chocolate City Records), The Four Tops, Mac Davis and Irene Cara but it did not achieve the same level of success it had enjoyed in the 1970s. The label was eventually shut down by PolyGram with some of the artist roster and catalog absorbed into sister label, Mercury Records.
In 1999, PolyGram (including its subsidiaries) was purchased by Seagram and then merged with Seagram's MCA Music Entertainment Group to form the Universal Music Group. In 2000, the Casablanca Records name was revived for a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Tommy Mottola. In a Billboard article, Mottola said that he chose the name as a homage to the original label but that there was no connection between the old and new labels. Casablanca is currently a dance and electronic label under Republic Records headed by GM, Brett Alperowitz, who on April 13, 2021, was also named EVP of A&R by Republic Records' president of West Coast creative, Wendy Goldstein.