Musicor Records was a New York City-based

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The label was founded by songwriter

Aaron Schroeder Aaron Harold Schroeder (September 7, 1926 – December 2, 2009) was an American songwriter and music publisher. Early years Born in Brooklyn, Schroeder graduated from the school now known as the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art a ...

and distributed by

United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1958 ...

. In 1965, UA employee and A&R man Arthur Talmadge (a co-founder of

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

years earlier) started his own Talmadge Productions company and, along with fellow UA employee/A&R man Harold "Pappy" Daily, bought the Musicor label from UA. The Musicor catalog is today owned by Gusto Records.

Subsidiary and reissue labels

After Art Talmadge bought the Musicor label, he formed two budget subsidiary labels (MusicVoice and Music Disc/MusicO) as well as two short-lived commercial subsidiaries, Ariel and Dynamo. Reissued singles were released under the Musicor Startime Series label.

Best-selling artists

Musicor's best-selling artists ran the gamut of genres. The label's most successful artist was pop star

Gene Pitney Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 h ...

, who gave Musicor its biggest hits with " It Hurts to Be in Love" and " Only Love Can Break a Heart". Bert Berns produced Jimmy Radcliffe's recording of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song "Long After Tonight Is All Over" in 1964 that proved to be one of

Northern Soul Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the Midlands in the early 1970s. It developed from the British Mod (subculture), mod scene, based on a particular style of African American music, Black American ...

music's most enduring anthems. After a few years with no hits, popular R&B vocal group the Platters made a comeback on Musicor with the Northern Soul classics "I Love You 1000 Times" and "With This Ring". Other artists rounding out the Musicor stable included Johnny Hartman, Kenny Dino, Harmon Bethea, Steve Rossi (of the comic duo Allen & Rossi), Puerto Rican sensation Tito Rodriguez, Former RCA Victor orchestra leader and arranger Hugo Winterhalter, Girl Group Soul vocal trio the Toys, rock group Street People which featured Rupert Holmes.

Country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer

George Jones George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American Country music, country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice an ...

recorded prolifically for Musicor from 1964 to 1972, including two albums of duets with labelmate Melba Montgomery. Musicor also produced some of the earliest recordings featuring the

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer ( ) is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer ...

. The

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

Hot Butter scored a Top 10 hit for the label in 1972 with the song "

Popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns, or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated. The term also refers to the snack food produced by the expansion. It is one of the oldest snacks, with evidence of p ...

" (which was also Musicor's last big hit). The Electric Moog Orchestra was also on the Musicor roster, specializing in synthesized versions of music from the film

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

References

External links

The Musicor Records Story

{{Authority control Defunct record labels of the United States Electronic music record labels Pop record labels

Subsidiary and reissue labels

Best-selling artists

See also

References

External links