Uni Records (short for the label's legal name Universal City Records and rendered as UNI) was a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

owned by

MCA Inc. MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film ind ...

The brand, which long featured a distinctive UNi logo, was established in 1966 by MCA executive

Ned Tanen Ned Stone Tanen (c. September 20, 1931 – January 5, 2009) was an American film studio executive. The films he produced were some of the most popular films of the 1970s and 1980s, including the 2 key Brat Pack films '' The Breakfast Club'' and ...

and developed by music industry veteran Russ Regan. Notable artists on Uni included

Strawberry Alarm Clock Strawberry Alarm Clock is a psychedelic rock band formed in 1967 with origins in Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 20 ...

the Foundations The Foundations were a British soul band (m. 1967–1970). The group's background was: West Indian, White British, and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single " Baby Now That I've Found You" reached number one in the UK and Canada, and number e ...

Hugh Masekela Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for ...

Brian Hyland Brian Hyland (born November 12, 1943) is an American pop singer and instrumentalist who was particularly successful during the early 1960s. He continued recording into the 1970s. AllMusic journalist Jason Ankeny says "Hyland's puppy-love pop v ...

Desmond Dekker Desmond Dekker (16 July 1941 – 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earlie ...

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...

, Elton John, Neil Diamond,

Dave and Ansil Collins Dave and Ansell Collins are a Jamaican vocal/instrumental duo (sometimes billed as Dave and Ansil Collins or Dave and Ansel Collins). History Dave Barker (born David John Crooks, 10 October 1947, Kingston, Jamaica) is a session vocalist, and ...

, Fever Tree,

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

Betty Everett Betty Jean Everett (November 23, 1939 – August 19, 2001) was an American soul singer and pianist, best known for her biggest hit single, the million-selling " Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)", and her duet " Let It Be Me" with Jerry Butle ...

, and the Factory (Lowell George, Dallas Taylor, et al.). In 1967, Uni took over management of MCA's newly acquired

Kapp Records Kapp Records was an independent record label started in 1954 by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp (who set up American Decca Records in 1934). David Kapp founded his own label after stints with Decca and RCA Victor. Kapp licensed its records to L ...

. Uni also operated

Revue Records Revue Records was an American subsidiary record label of MCA Incorporation. Revue was operated by the same management team that ran Universal City (UNI) Records. Revue was created in 1967 to exclusively cater to the R&B market. The label primar ...

, a soul music subsidiary, from about 1967 to 1970. In 1971 Uni was merged with Kapp and the co-owned American Decca Records, to form

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 w ...

. The Decca, Kapp, and Uni labels continued to be used for new releases for a short time, but in late 1972, new releases by their former artists began appearing on the MCA Records label; before long, their back catalogs were transferred to MCA as well. That year, Regan left MCA to revive 20th Century Records for

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. In 1988, Uni was briefly revived by MCA Records as a niche hipster label, à la

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehre ...

, with a roster that included

Transvision Vamp Transvision Vamp were an English pop rock band. Formed in 1986 by Nick Christian Sayer and Wendy James, the band enjoyed chart success in the late 1980s, particularly in 1989. James, the lead singer and focal-point of the group, attracted medi ...

Big Bam Boo Big Bam Boo were a British male pop duo, comprising Simon Tedd and Shark. The band released their debut LP, ''Fun Faith & Fairplay'' on MCA/Uni in 1989. Tedd later changed his name to Simon Scardanelli. The single "Shooting From My Heart", ent ...

, Eric B. & Rakim,

Swans Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Someti ...

, Steve Earle, Lord Tracy and a distribution deal with the Bronx-based hip hop label Strong City Records. By the end of

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

, however, Swans was dropped, the deal with Strong City was terminated, and the others were absorbed by the MCA label. In

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, MCA revamped the Uni moniker once more when it changed the name of its music distribution network from MCA Music Distribution Corp to Uni Distribution Corp. In 1996, in the wake of

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the ...

's purchase of MCA and the merger of the MCA and PolyGram families of labels, it was renamed Universal Music & Video Distribution Inc. In June 2001, it was renamed Universal Music & Video Distribution Corp., and it was changed again in 2006, after the sale of

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, to Universal Music Distribution.

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

manages the Uni catalog today after absorbing the MCA label in 2003.

Label variations

*1967–1973: Mustard yellow label with lime green, blue, and magenta swirls, followed by lime green colored Uni logo in yellow swirl and another lime green swirl. Many albums during this run were also pressed with custom labels. *1988–1989: Blue label with Uni logo in black at top.

References

Bibliography

* Hall, Claude: "MCA Drops Vocalion, Decca, Kapp and Uni", ''Billboard'', February 10, 1973

External links

The Uni Records Story
{{Authority control American record labels Record labels established in 1966 Record labels disestablished in 1973 Record labels established in 1988 Record labels disestablished in 1989 Record labels established in 1991 Record labels disestablished in 1996 Re-established companies Universal Music Group Labels distributed by Universal Music Group MCA Records 1966 establishments in the United States

Label variations

See also

References

Bibliography

External links