Barnaby Records was an American

record company "Big Three" music labels 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 t ...

founded by singer

Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...

in 1963 with his purchase of soon-to-be-liquidated

Cadence Records Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City whose labels had a picture of a metronome. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952. Cadence also ...

. It held the rights to work by a number of popular music performers including Williams' work before he was with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. Williams got control of the Cadence master tapes in the 1960s but limited releases to that of himself and another former Cadence artist, Lenny Welch. This material was released on Williams's label at the time, Columbia Records. In 1970, Williams created the Barnaby label (named after his beloved dog Mr. Barnaby) to release the rest of the long unreleased Cadence archive, principally that of

The Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close-harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly and Phillip "Phil" Everly, the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, ...

, which had been long out of print but in continued great demand. In 1971 Williams became the sole owner of the label when he bought out partner Alan Bernard. Barnaby also released new material by artists such as

Ray Stevens Harold Ray Ragsdale (born January 24, 1939), known professionally as Ray Stevens, is an American country music, country and pop singer-songwriter and comedian. He is best known for his Grammy-winning recordings "Everything Is Beautiful" and "M ...

, who scored Top Ten hits with his singles "

Everything Is Beautiful "Everything Is Beautiful" is a song written, composed and performed by Ray Stevens. It has appeared on many of Stevens's albums, including one named after the song, and has become a pop standard and common in religious performances. The childre ...

" and " The Streak", some early LPs by

Jimmy Buffett James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 – September 1, 2023) was an American singer-songwriter, author, and businessman. He was known for his tropical rock sound and persona, which often portrayed a lifestyle described as "island escapis ...

as well as a few LPs by

Claudine Longet Claudine Longet (born January 29, 1942) is a Franco-American singer, actress, dancer, and recording artist popular during the 1960s and 1970s. Born in Paris, France, Longet was married to American singer and television entertainer Andy Williams ...

, who was Williams's wife at the time. Barnaby had several distributors including

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, then

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

, and finally GRT in 1974. Once Barnaby ceased operating as a working record company at the end of the 1970s, Williams licensed the old Cadence and Barnaby material to various other labels such as

Varèse Sarabande Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and cast recording, original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as ...

and

Rhino A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

, and

Time-Life Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and Direct marketing, direct ...

after 1980, and he also leased some of the same material to Hip-O beginning in 1996.

Performers

Performers signed to Barnaby include: *

Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter and actor. His songs include " Diana", “ You Are My Destiny", “Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also wr ...

Ken Berry Kenneth Ronald Berry (November 3, 1933 – December 1, 2018) was an American actor, comedian, dancer, and singer. Berry starred on the television series '' F Troop'' (1965–1967), '' Mayberry R.F.D.'' (1968–1971) and ''Mama's Family'' ( ...

*The Chordettes *The

Crickets Crickets are orthopteran insects which are related to bush crickets and more distantly, to grasshoppers. In older literature, such as Imms,Imms AD, rev. Richards OW & Davies RG (1970) ''A General Textbook of Entomology'' 9th Ed. Methuen 886 ...

*The Hager Twins * Doyle Holly *

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

* The Osmond Brothers *

Don Shirley Donald Walbridge Shirley (January 29, 1927 – April 6, 2013) was an American classical and jazz pianist and composer. He recorded many albums for Cadence Records during the 1950s and 1960s, experimenting with jazz with a classical influen ...

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in comple ...

* The Toshiko - Mariano Quartet * Lenny Welch *

Link Wray Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. His 1958 Instrumental rock, instrumental single "Rumble (instrumental), Rumble", reached the ...

References

External links

The Barnaby Label Album Discography
American record labels Record labels established in 1964 Pop record labels {{US-record-label-stub

Performers

References

See also

External links