Bang Records was created by Bert Berns in 1965 together with his partners from

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

Ahmet Ertegun Ahmet Ertegun ( ; , ; July 31, 1923 – December 14, 2006) was a Turkish-American businessman, songwriter, record executive and philanthropist. Ertegun was the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. He discovered and championed many lead ...

Nesuhi Ertegun Nesuhi Ertegun ( Turkish spelling: Nesuhi Ertegün; November 26, 1917 – July 15, 1989) was a Turkish-American record producer and executive of Atlantic Records and WEA International. Early life Born in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, Nesuhi ...

and

Jerry Wexler Gerald Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was a major influence on American popular music from the 1950s through the 1980s. He coined the term "rhythm and blues", and was integra ...

. The first letters of their names (Bert, Ahmet, Nesuhi, Gerald) formed the label's name.

Forming the company

Berns had been staff producer at Atlantic Records for several years when he and Atlantic chief executives set out to create a new independent label. In 1966, Berns took sole control of the company. At Bang he had an immediate string of hit records, including " I Want Candy" by the Strangeloves, " Hang On Sloopy" by

the McCoys The McCoys were a rock music, rock group formed in Fort Recovery, Ohio, United States, in 1962. They are best known for their 1965 hit single "Hang On Sloopy". Originally named Rick and the Raiders, they changed their name to "The McCoys" from ...

, " Brown Eyed Girl" by

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK ...

and " Solitary Man" and " Kentucky Woman" by

Neil Diamond Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling musicians of all time. He has written and ...

Death of Berns

When Berns died suddenly on December 30, 1967, as a result of a rheumatic heart condition, his wife Ilene Berns took over management. She believed that arguments with Van Morrison had been the cause of her husband's death, and made things difficult for the Irish artist until Warner Brothers managed to untangle him from his Bang contract, though with some awkward conditions, such as giving Bang three original recordings a month for a year. According to Van Morrison the tension arose because of the contract he signed with Bang Records without legal advice. Morrison states that he has never received any

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

for writing or recording " Brown Eyed Girl". Others in the industry blame arguments, artistic differences and the ultimate loss of Neil Diamond, who was Bang's biggest artist. Diamond has said his departure from Bang had been over his direction as an artist, and away from his early "teenybopper" type of recordings that Berns favored, which led to his refusal to release the more introspective " Shilo" as a single, even though Diamond felt it was part of his development as an artist. In 1968, shortly after what was said to be a "tense" confrontation with Berns, Diamond departed Bang for Uni/MCA Records. By 1970, a few years after Berns' death, Diamond had racked up a few hits on the Uni subsidiary of MCA. That year Bang finally released "Shilo" as a single, which promptly hit the Top 40 charts. Berns' young widow signed singer/songwriter Paul Davis, who had a number of hit records in the 1970s and 1980s, including " Ride 'Em Cowboy", "I Go Crazy", "Sweet Life" and "Do Right". Ilene Berns also signed and developed R&B acts

Brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

(" Dazz") and

Peabo Bryson Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson ( ; born April 13, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for singing soul ballads (often as a duet with female singers) including the hit singles " Tonight, I Celebrate My Love", "You're Looking Like ...

. Also in 1970 she hired promotion man Eddie Biscoe to help run Bang. They eventually married.

Development of the label

In 1971 Ilene moved Bang's base of operations from New York City to

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. In the early years Bang did its own distribution. In

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

Bang was sold to CBS Records, and kept its identity as part of the CBS Associated unit until it was absorbed in 1982 by CBS'

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

unit. Over the years two subsidiary labels were started: Shout Records and Bullet Records. While Sony Music owns the Bang Records catalog today, the Berns family still owns the music publishing operations. In

Columbia Records turned over control of Diamond's Bang master recordings to the artist himself, at the time one of the label's hottest stars, who has remixed and re-released them several times over the years and these masters are now owned by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

was the only artist who released an album with Bullet. His recordings with Bullet are now owned by

Revival attempt

Ilene Berns attempted to revive the Bang label as Bang II Records in the late 1990s under Sony Music Entertainment. Only two recordings were released: Monty Holmes' ''All I Ever Wanted'' and Sleepy's Theme's ''The Vinyl Room''.

Bang Records artists

* Paul Davis *

* The Lost Souls *

The McCoys The McCoys were a rock music, rock group formed in Fort Recovery, Ohio, United States, in 1962. They are best known for their 1965 hit single "Hang On Sloopy". Originally named Rick and the Raiders, they changed their name to "The McCoys" from ...

* Nigel Olsson * The Strangeloves *

* Derek

References

External links

The Bang Records Story from BSN Pubs
{{Authority control Defunct record labels of the United States Record labels established in 1965 Record labels disestablished in 1982