By this time though, Sinatra had already become a fixture in Las Vegas.  He first arrived to sing in 1951, years before the Internet Casinos and, aside from the brief sojourn in Reno, never really left.  Las Vegas with it’s glitz, casinos and emerging glamour, sucked Sinatra in and in return he provided the city with a focus, an image which lifted this desert town out of the sand and into national and then international prominence.

Desert Inn, Las Vegas

The Desert Inn was the scene of Frank Sinatra’s first gig but it’s worth remembering that by this time he was 35 years old.  There was a possibility that his best years were already behind him as his original fan base drifted away.  Las Vegas, the city of sand and the Online casino, provided Sinatra with a second (or possibly third) chance and for his part, he became a fixture, not just known for his singing ability but for his lifestyle.  It was this lifestyle which showed what Las Vegas had become and what was possible out thee in the middle of nowhere.

Frank Sinatra was a drinker, a gambler and a womaniser and he and his Rat Pack friends such as Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. enjoyed the delights of Vegas as no other has ever managed.  The party followed them around from casino to casino as they employed Kasino Strategy and gambled at roulette, poker and blackjack at the gaming tables.  Not until the sun came up did the partying end.

From the beginning though, Sinatra was something of a tearaway child who was quite possibly spoilt by his mother.  He attended school irregularly but became interested in music from a early age.  Sinatra never learned to read music but this didn’t stop him from persuading a local group (with his mother’s help) called The Three Flashes from adding him to their line up.  Their local success allowed them to appear on a radio show called Major Bowes Amateur Hour.  This resulted in a six month contract to tour in various location across the United States.

That was Sinatra’s first big break and his success never really wavered from that point on, aside from a period in the late 1940s when his medical exclusion from active duty in the Second World War led to serious resentment from those who had gone to fight.

An early photo of the Cal Neva Lodge

Frank Sinatra’s connection with the Nevada RoxyPalace Casino industry dates from a few years after the Second World War.  He became a part owner of the Cal Neva Lodge in Reno, Nevada in 1960 and retained his interest until 1963.  His interest would possibly have lasted longer but for the fact that a known mobster, Sam Giancana, was spotted on the premises and Sinatra’s license was suspended.

The list of visitors to the Cal Neva Lodge during the period in which Sinatra was involved reads like a who’s who of famous names from that era.  John F. Kennedy, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joe DiMaggio all passed through the doors and Marilyn Monroe stayed there for one weekend just prior to her death from a drugs overdose in August 1962.  The Cal Neva was a favourite gaming location of the period – the slots, blackjack, Roulette and poker were all popular pastimes for those gamblers who visited Reno.

It was really Mercer’s project with the other two providing financial support and advice.  Mercer was of the opinion that the current crop of record labels did not treat their artists with the respect they deserved and he wanted to provide something different.  He is claimed to have said “….I don’t like the way artists are treated……Bing Crosby isn’t the only one who can make records.”

Buddy DeSilva made the initial $15,000 investment and they were off – the original name was Liberty Records but this was soon changed to Capitol.  On April 6th, 1942, Martha Tilton was the first artist to record for the label and ‘Moon Dreams’ was the song.  A month later Booby Sherwood was in the studio, preceding by a few weeks the rent of an office near Sunset Boulevard.  Wallichs used his knowledge of the local music industry to promote the new label and was the first ‘promoter’ to hand out free copies of recordings to DJs.

All Capitol’s first nine records were released on the same day – July 1st, 1942 and three weeks later, Cow Cow Boogie by Ella Mae Morse and the Freddy Slack Orchestra reached Number 1 on the Billboard charts.

Capitol Records was not just a produced of ‘popular’ music in the early days – it also branched out into the classical sphere using a range of domestic and international artists and in 1949, Capitol started up a branch north of the border in Canada.

Part Two follows…

Led Zeppelin were the contemporary superstars though and made vast amounts of money for Atlantic until 1973 when their contract ended and they started their own label,  Swan Song Records, although Atlantic still organised their distribution.  Yes were the third big money maker of the early 1970s and stayed with Atlantic even after Led Zeppelin had left.  In fact Yes continued their success well into the 1980s and still tour and record today.

A fire in one of Atlantic Records’ warehouses in New Jersey in 1978 destroyed a huge amount of early recordings, dating from 1948 and 1969.  Up to 6000 tape reels were destroyed, including some of Atlantic’s original stereo recordings, a technology which they pioneered.  Ultimately many originals were located at various locations around the country, for example those that had been ‘borrowed’ and not returned and the archives were restocked to a a certain level.

The 1980s continued in the same successful vein as previously and featured the likes of Genesis, Foreigner, AC DC and Mike and the Mechanics.  It also preceded Warner Communications merger with Time Inc. in 1990 to become Time Warner.  Atlantic Records remained a largely independent entity although it was forced to sell off its share of the gangsta rap label Interscope Records in 1995.

Atlantic has remained a relevant and successful label to this day, surviving the split between Time Inc and Warner in 2004. The label celebrated its 60th birthday in 2007 and currently has hundreds of successful artists on its roster.  It has also been forward looking enough (for a record label at least) to embrace digital technology; in 2007 50% of its sales were from downloads.

Rhythm and Blues was a term coined by Atlantic employee Jerry Wexler in the early 1950s and Atlantic Records was the main driver behind the success of this genre at this time.  At first it was only popular amongst the black population but by 1953/4 records were crossing over to all sections of the listening audience and becoming million+ sellers.  At the time, Atlantic Records had the best R & B artists and the highest quality recording equipment, marking it out as the leader in this field.

Atlantic Records expanded into the U.K. in 1955 to take advantage of that lucrative market and took on extra premises to be able to employ extra staff.  In the early 1960s it began to use it’s considerable trading network to distribute releases from smaller regional labels.  Notable artists active during this period include Ben E. King, The Coasters and Billy Storm.

Ray Charles had left the label in 1959 along with Bobby Darin and this threatened to be a enormous financial blow for Atlantic; fortunately an association with Stax Records, the small Memphis based independent label, provided both parties with 8 years worth of lucrative partnership.  Stax got access to Atlantic’s massive distribution and marketing machine and in return Atlantic got it’s hands on Stax’ list of quality artists including Booker T. and the MGs, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding.

The 1960s was also the decade when Soul became popular when Solomon Burke and Doris Troy signed for Atlantic.  It was also the years of the British invasion. Atlantic took advantage of this by ending their distribution deal with British label, Decca (who had their own U.S. subsidiary, London  Records) and arranging a new one with Polydor Records.  Cream were one of the licensing success stories and notable for their being the first rock band signed by Atlantic.

In 1967, the constantly shifting sands of the record industry led Jerry Wexler to recommend the sale of Atlantic to a bigger company.   The Ahmet brothers (Nesuhi had returned to Atlantic by this time) eventually agreed to the sale and in October of the same year accepted $17.5 million from Warner Bros, something of an undervaluation.  Jerry Wexler left shortly afterwards, unhappy with the direction he felt Atlantic was now headed (veering towards ‘white’ rock acts) but Ertegun was allowed to run the label unhindered by Warner.  This changed when Warner Bros. became Warner Communications in 1969 and an attempt was made to bring all Warner’s music companies under one umbrella.  Ertegun fought this and won, cementing Atlantic’s autonomy and his own power within the new structure.

Part Three follows….

Atlantic Records is one of those companies with slightly more interesting origins than some.  The Ertegun family were

Atlantic Records logo

Turkish residents in the United States and following the death of their ambassador father, Munir, the remaining members of the family were faced with the choice whether to stay or head back to Turkey.

Two brothers, Nesuhi and Ahmet, decided to stay while their mother and sister returned to Turkey.  During their stay in the United States, Nesuhi and Ahmet had become jazz and blues fans, accruing thousands of 78rpm records.  It was Ahmet who conceived the idea of a records label, persuading some wealthy friends to invest in his new venture and in October 1947 Atlantic Records came into existence.

The company was originally headquartered at The Ritz Hotel in Manhattan until the rent proved prohibitive and a cheaper venue was found.  It was no one-man business right from the beginning and Ertegun, Herb Abramson and Francine Wakschal all contributed to the stability of Atlantic Records in the early days.  Wakshcal in particular gained a reputation for ruthless treatment of artists when it came to advances and the like.  She would remain with the company for the next 49 years.

Ahmet Ertegun (right)

It wasn’t until 1948 that Atlantic released it’s first recordings, two of which were Joe Morris’ ‘The Spider’ and Tiny Grimes ‘That Old Black Magic’; jazz productions that would characterise the first of Atlantic.  Atlantic’s formation also coincided with the American Federation of Musicians announcing a ban on union members undertaking recording.  Atlantic Records responded by recording and stockpiling enough vinyl to last for a year.

A. Nugetre – songwriter

Atlantic Records fist big breakthrough came in 1949 with the re-release of Stick McGhee’s ‘ Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee’ after McGhee’s original label had gone under.  At the same time however, Ergetun began writing songs under the anagrammatic pseudonym A Nugetre.  He would record them in one of the public recording booths in Times Square before handing them over to the artist or arranger to perfect.

Atlantic Records signing of Ruth Brown was another market on their road to success; the story is an interesting one – on her way from Washington to New York to audition for Ertegun and Abramson, she was injured in a car crash from which she took nine months to recover.  Faith in her ability was so great however that Atlantic Records supported her financially during this period, eventually signing her when the time was right.  She repaid them by becoming arguable the most prolific recording artist on Atlantic’s books during the 1950s, earning the label the name ‘The House That Ruth Built’.  Releases such as ‘So Long’, ‘(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean’ and Teardrops From My Eyes’.  The latter was Atlantic’s first million selling release.

In 1951, Atlantic Records began to press 45 rpm records of which the first release was ‘Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere’ by Joe Morris, one of the labels earliest signings.  1952 brought Ray Charles to the label who provided Atlantic with a string of hits; he was followed by another notable artists such as The Drifters and The Clovers.

Part Two follows…..

Parlophone Logo

A few years later, in 1923, a U.K. branch was established  to take advantage of the sophisticated and developing market there.  A base in the U.K. also meant access to the British Empire’s vast Commonwealth populations.  The U.K. label added an ‘e’ to the name to make ‘Parlophone’ and the new venture concentrated on jazz, linking with the American Okeh Records to become a major force in the British jazz genre.  Oscar Preuss was the man tasked with establishing the new company and would remain in place until 1955.

In some early consolidation activity, the Columbia Gramophone Company bought a majority stake in the Carl Lindström Company then, following the merger of the Gramophone Company and Columbia in 1931 to create EMI, Parlophone became part of that company.  At this stage Parlophone remained a label dedicated to jazz, using EMI’s various subsidiaries to licence jazz music.

The status quo was largely maintained until the early 1950s when Oscar Preuss hired George Martin as his assistant.  Martin’s influence was obvious from the beginning and Parlophone became a more diverse label as the dawn of rock and roll broke.  Not that Parlophone enjoyed any rock and roll, their roster of artists was a strange one: Jim Dale, Bernard Cribbins, the Vipers Skiffle Group and the Temperance Seven were the type of acts signed up.  James Brown material was licensed from the U.S. label but Parlophone still struggled commercially against other EMI subsidiaries such as HMV and Columbia.  Another genre added to the label’s stable was country music in 1953 when Parlophone signed a ten year leasing agreement with King Records, adding artists such as Bonnie Lou, Boyd Bennett and Ruby Wright.  This was not hugely successful and the strategy appeared to be to try everything until something worked.

Not until the signing of Adam Faith in 1959 did Parlophone begin to experience any rock and roll success and it was still a struggle for the label until 1962 when George Martin signed The Beatles.  Other artists followed and these included such historic names as The Hollies and Billy J. Kramer.  The early 1960s were the beginning of Parlophone’s rise to commercial success in the United Kingdom and indeed globally and even when George Martin left to form his own company (Associated Independent Recording Studios) in 1965.

Martin’s departure was possibly the trigger for EMI to absorb the Parlophone label into it’s Gramophone Company, which became EMI Records in 1973.  The name remained however and Parlophone remains a force to this day, although it’s parent company EMI are struggling financially.

The music publishing side of EMI Ltd was remarkably successful from the 1960s onwards; artists such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra and Cliff Richard ensured continuing profitability for the company during this period.  EMI owned and ran a number of subsidiary labels which are themselves a roll call of famous name – Parlophone, HMV, Columbia and Capitol to name a few.  In 1967 HMV was made into an exclusively classical label and to accommodate progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd, a new label, Harvest Records, was created.

A period of amalgamation and renaming began to occur in the early 1970s, beginning in 1971 with the alteration of Electrical & Musical Industries to EMI Ltd.  In 1972, Columbia became EMI Records and in 1974 The Gramophone Company also took that name.  In 1979, United Artists Records and their subsidiaries, Liberty Records and Imperial Records, were scooped up by EMI Ltd. The really big merger came towards the end of 1979 when EMI Ltd joined with THORN Electrical Industries to become Thorn EMI.

Thorn EMI

Thorn EMI was an enormous company, big enough to have a presence on the FTSE 100 and listed on the London Stock

Thorn EMI Logo

Exchange.  The company’s various arms were prolific in several industries – television and video broadcasting, computer software, consumer electronics – but it’s main focus remained on the music industry and (from THORN) the defence industry, in which it was one of the biggest players.  Communications, radar and electronic warfare  were it’s specialities.

On the music front, the company continued to expand, adding Chrysalis Records in two stages between 1989 and 1991 and in 1992 it purchased Richard Branson’s Virgin Records for an estimated $1 billion – a huge purchase at the time.

In 1996, aware of the diversification of various parts of the business, the decision was made by Thorn EMI shareholders to demerge.  What resulted on the music and entertainment side was EMI Group PLC, still an extremely large music label which, with the acquisition of Virgin, had maintained it’s position at the pinnacle of the music industry.  It is now one of the ‘big four’ record labels, the others being Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, and Universal Music Group.

Robbie Williams

Like most record labels, EMI Group was a little slow recognising the importance of the online music revolution but in 2000 it signed a deal with Streamwaves, a relatively new digital streaming service, to licence it’s catalogue onto a digital format.  Not long after this, EMI Group also signed the biggest ever record deal in the U.K. with Robbie Williams and the second in the world after Michael Jackson’s record deal.  It was worth an incredible $160 million.

Robbie Williams - massive EMI deal

Events since 2007 have hit EMI Group’s fortunes sharply and a drop in profits led to a £4 billion takeover by venture capitalists Terra Firma Capital Partners.  It was forced to cut back in various markets, particularly Asia, and various high profile artists began to leave the label.  Citigroup acquired EMI from Terra Firma early in 2011 and it has recently been reported that Warner Music Group are a possible buyer, a purchase which would reduce the ‘big four’ to the ‘big three’.

That’s a good place to start then and if you’ve read our Columbia Records history, you’ll know that the story of Columbia Records largely ends when that of EMI begins.  In March 1931, the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company merged, forming a company called Electrical and Musical Industries Ltd that contained Columbia’s knowledge of recording technology and roster of artists and the Gramophone Company’s experience with recording equipment.  This was an acquisition made in London and the headquarters of the new company was based there.

EMI & Music

The new company continued Columbia’s track record of innovative music creation and the British Empire’s vast territory provided an enormous market for the releases.  All the larger Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia and India were targeted and subsidiary record labels were established in these areas to promote EMI there.  The legendary Abbey Road Studios in London were opened by EMI in 1931, playing host to classical recording artists in the early years and in the 1940s recruiting George Martin, the future Beatles manager, to work there.

EMI enjoyed four decades of almost complete dominance in these markets and it wasn’t until the 1960s that local labels began to provide some competition.  From the 1930s to the 1950s, EMI featured some of the most famous names in the history of popular music on it’s various subsidiaries, as you would expect from a company with such market dominance.  A few example are Elvis Presley (HMV), Gene Vincent (Capitol), The Goons (Parlophone) and Frank Sinatra (Capitol).

The 1960s were no different although this was a period in which EMI was beginning to face competition from other labels;  The Beatles (Parlophone/EMI/Capitol/Apple), Gerry & The Pacemakers (Columbia Graphophone) and Pink Floyd (Tower/Harvest/EMI/Capitol/Columbia).  Post-1960s, the artists number in the many hundreds but suffice to say the roster still includes many of the world’s biggest recording artists; other music genres were not neglected and classical music in particular has always been championed by EMI.

EMI & Technology

The two companies which formed the original merger brought with them a wealth of technology which enabled them to remain in the forefront of recording and playback research.  Alan Blumlein, one of the pioneers of stereo recording, was unfortunately killed in the British war effort when working on experimental radar technology.  EMI continued to produce radar and guided missile technology until well after the end of the Second World War.

EMIDEC 1100 Computer

EMI’s laboratory in Hayes continued to branch of into interesting directions in the subsequent decades under the leadership of Godfrey Hounfield, developing a colour camera (EMI 2001) for the BBC and ITV, Britain’s first transistorised computer in 1958 (the EMIDEC 1100) and  the first CAT scanner for medical imaging.

Part Two follows….

This coincided with Western Electric’s patented electric recording process and Columbia purchased a license to use the system.

Viva-tonal label

The sound quality and clarity of the new ‘Viva-tonal’ 78 rpm records was unparalleled and it helped revive Columbia’s fortunes to the extent that it felt confident in acquiring Okeh Records in 1926.  This brought into Columbia’s stable, jazz and blues artists such as Louis Armstrong and Mamie Smith.

During the remainder of the 1920s, Columbia expanded into the early country music market (known as hillbilly at the time) and interestingly continued to produce non Viva-tonal records for what they regarded as the budget market.  These were still records using the prior acoustic method.  It had three subsidiary labels, Harmony, Velvet Tone and Diva for this purpose.  In 1929, Edison Records finally went bankrupt, meaning Columbia was now the oldest record label.

More acquisitions were in the pipeline as the world moved into the 1930s;  the British Graphophone Company merged with the Gramaphone Company and consequently became Electrical & Musical Industries Ltd, better known now as EMI.  By this time, the British Graphophone Company had bought its former parent company American Columbia in 1929.  American Columbia was split off once more as part of U.S. anti-trust law but was short lived as the company that acquired it, the Grigsby-Grunow Company, had themselves closed down within a couple of years.

Columbia’s relatively brief but eventful early history means that recordings from the era are now sought after items.  In particular, following the formation of EMI, the company’s Royal Blue Record – a laminated blue production – which was produced from 1932 – 1935 is a very desirable product.  

The record industry has been like the spin of a roulette wheel for many of the original companies. Where the ball ended up determined whether they failed, succeeded, were bought out by another company or became the buyers themselves. The casino metaphors could go on forever – in fact the negotiations between large companies resemble a game of poker in many ways. For many it was all a casino spielen.

Please see our EMI history for the continuation of the Columbia story.