Paramount Records was a

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, ...

started in 1969 by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

(then a unit of Gulf+Western) after acquiring the rights to the name from George H. Buck. A previous

Paramount Records Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson (guitarist), Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Early years Paramoun ...

, active between 1917 and 1932, had been unconnected to Paramount Pictures. The new Paramount label reissued pop releases by sister label Dot Records, which had recently become a country label and, in the process, had its entire pop back catalog deleted completely. It also released new albums from other pop musicians and soundtracks of Paramount films such as '' Paint Your Wagon'', among others. Cast members of the

Paramount Television The first incarnation of Paramount Television was operated as the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006. History Desilu Pro ...

series ''

The Brady Bunch ''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired five seasons from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family of six children, with three boys and three gir ...

'' were signed, and the label issued several tie-in albums and singles. After Gulf+Western sold its record label holdings to ABC (which happened to have aired the ''Brady Bunch'' TV series) in 1974, the Paramount label was discontinued in favor of

ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...

, which itself was sold to MCA Records in 1979. MCA itself had previously purchased Paramount's pre-1950 sound film library in 1958, currently managed by

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a division of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#Universal Studio Group, Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, is ...

subsidiary

EMKA, Ltd. EMKA Limited is a company that is owned by the Universal Television division of NBCUniversal with the sole function of overseeing the list of Paramount Pictures films (1920–1929), 1929–List of Paramount Pictures films (1940–1949), 1949 Para ...

The Paramount catalog is now owned by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

and managed by

Geffen Records Geffen Records (formerly The David Geffen Company from 1980 to 1992 and Geffen Records Inc. from 1993 to 2004) is an American record label, founded in late 1980 by David Geffen. Originally a music subsidiary of the company known as Geffen Pi ...

(whose founder, David Geffen, later became a co-founder of DreamWorks, which was a sister studio of Paramount from 2006 to 2008, and whose own record catalog is now owned by Universal). On a side note, MCA continued to release soundtracks to some later Paramount films into the 1990s. '' Sliding Doors'' (1998) was the last Paramount release to have its soundtrack issued by MCA. In 2015, Paramount Pictures revived the label as Paramount Music - a record label specializing in soundtracks from Paramount movies, with distribution by TuneCore.

External links

Paramount Records info at BSN Publications
Defunct record labels of the United States Pop record labels Reissue record labels Paramount Pictures Record labels established in 1969 Record labels disestablished in 1974 Gulf and Western Industries {{US-record-label-stub

See also

External links