RECORDS
Independent label: American Label, out of Burbank, California; the record arm of Warner Brothers film studio. The Warner Brothers label first saw the light of day in 1958; its president was James B. Conklin. It made a slow start, for a company with such rich backing to draw upon, but it made a major - and costly - signing in 1960, when it added the Everly Brothers to its roster. Peter, Paul and Mary provided a boost to the label's chart fortunes when they joined it in 1962; the company's hit potential increased when, in 1963, it purchased Frank Sinatra's 'Reprise' label. Warner Brothers Records was sold to Seven Arts four years later; the new company, Warner-Seven Arts, then bought Atlantic Records. Another deal followed in 1969, when the Kinney Corporation acquired Warner / Reprise / Atlantic from Seven Arts and added Elektra to them; in 1972 Kinney was renamed Warner Communications. The '70s saw Warner growing to be one of the world's major record labels, a position it holds to this day. Warner Brothers records in Britain boasted a variety of label designs. The first one, which was red in colour, came on the scene in 1960, at which point the singles were manufactured and distributed by Decca and the promos had white tops and bottoms. Catalogue numbers of Warner Brothers singles started at WB-1 in the Decca years and got to at least the 160s by 1965. A change of M&D to Pye, in 1965, was accompanied by a change to a new, orange, label, which lasted until 1970. Pye-era demos were logo-free and white at first, then yellow with a logo. The switch to Pye saw a change of numbering to the WB-5600s, which had grown to 5870 by 1967; at about the time of the company's acquisition by Seven Arts (1967) the numbers jumped to the 7000s. There appears to have been another jump, from the 7400s to 8000, in 1970. For some reason there were exceptions: there was a WB-2000 series in the early and mid '60s, while 1969-70 saw some singles appearing in the WB-6000s; both of these series ran parallel to the main WB-5000 / 7000 / 8000 one. When the Kinney Corporation adopted a K prefix and five-digit numbers for all their products (in 1971) Warner Brothers singles were numbered in the K-16000s. This numerical series lasted for the rest of the decade. I assume that it was at this point that manufacture of the Warner Brothers and Reprise labels switched from Pye to CBS, which happened in July 1971. Shortly before the changeover the orange label was replaced by a rather plain green design. For a time promos retained a Pye-style look. In late 1972 or early 1973 the green label was replaced by one showing an avenue of trees, A succession of different designs followed during the remainder of the '70s and into the '80s and beyond. In early 1976 WEA started its own distribution network, which handled Warner Brothers, Elektra, Asylum, Atlantic and a collection of lesser labels. 1978 singles on these various labels began to be housed in an all-purpose multicoloured company sleeve. About a year later the all-purpose sleeve turned brown and changed design. A 'Warner Giants' series from 1974 had its own particular sleeve). Thanks to Robert Lyons for the info. Distributed By Pye and CBS Records.
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF WARNER BROTHERS K 16000 SERIES 1970-1977 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF WARNER BROTHERS K 17000 SERIES 1977-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF WARNER BROTHERS SAM PROMO SERIES 1972-1992 CAN BE FOUND HERE
