Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American major record label best known for its numerous recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, jazz, and hip hop. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American musicians including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ruth Brown and Otis Redding, a position greatly enhanced by its distribution deal with Stax Records. Over the years, Atlantic Records has housed many artists of a wide variety of genres. (More from Wikipedia)
Goldie and the Gingerbreads was hired to provide the music for a party in 1964 in honor of Andy Warhol’s protegé Baby Jane Holzer; other guests included the Rolling Stones. Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records was also present and promptly signed the band.
(October 2013)
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Janis Ian is a singer-songwriter who was only 13 when she wrote and recorded her first single about an interracial romance (perhaps the first song about that topic ever), “Society’s Child (Baby, I’ve Been Thinking)”. The history of this song is bathed in controversy, and “Society’s Child” was released three different times between 1965 and 1967; ultimately, the song reached #14 on the charts in the summer of 1967 and eventually sold 600,000 copies. Years later, the President of Atlantic Records, Jerry Wexler publicly apologized to Janis Ian for refusing to release the single and returning the master recording to her; “Society’s Child” finally came out on Verve/Forecast Records.
(January 2014)
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Her first foray into music was to front a rock band called Y Kant Tori Read; their sole album release was also called Y Kant Tori Read (1987) and sold very few copies. (Remarkably, Tori Amos still didn’t lose her recording contract with Atlantic Records).
(February 2014)
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Poco became one of the earliest and most long-lived country-rock bands. Several record companies were interested in signing the new act, but they hit a road block: Richie Furay and Jim Messina were still signed to Atlantic Records as part of Buffalo Springfield. Meanwhile, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were having the same problem getting signed. David Geffen, then a young talent scout, arranged for the recording contracts for Stephen Stills and Neil Young to be swapped for those of Richie Furay and Jim Messina, so that CSNY could be signed to Atlantic Records, and Poco could be signed to Epic Records.
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The Derek and the Dominos album includes of course their massive hit “Layla”, but the album was not a big seller right away – in fact, Layla and Other Love Songs didn’t make the record charts in England until 2011 (for one week). However, “Layla” was included on an album called The History of Eric Clapton and was released by Atlantic Records as a single in 1972; the song then made the Top Ten in both the U.S. and the U.K..
(May 2014)
Besides providing background singing for the classic Archie Bell and the Drells song “I Can’t Stop Dancing”, Mikki Farrow co-wrote “Green Power” with Mervin Steals and Melvin Steals; the song was on their third and final album for Atlantic Records, There’s Gonna be a Showdown (1969).
(July 2014)
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Jewel (full name: Jewel Kilcher) is a contemporary folksinger who had a roughshod upbringing in Homer, Alaska. She was just 21 when her debut album Pieces of You was released, spawning three popular singles: “Who Will Save Your Soul”, “You Were Meant for Me”, and “Foolish Games”. While not an immediate success, Jewel toured constantly, and Atlantic Records pushed the album in all quarters; it eventually became one of the best-selling debut albums of all time, selling 12 million copies in the US alone.
(November 2014)
