Yesterday and Today with Universal Music Group
By Tom Roland
© 2006 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.
Through its primary subsidiaries - MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville and the former DreamWorks Records Nashville - the Universal Music Group has a huge presence in the current makeup of Country Music. In a recent issue of Billboard, the company owned three of the top five titles on both the Country Singles and Country Albums charts.
Though the name Universal has existed in the music and movie industries for years, its presence as a distribution umbrella remains relatively new. Universal was established in 1998 when the Seagram Company merged with PolyGram.
That single move represented the consolidation of a huge mass of Country Music history. Decca Records, a once-significant imprint that accounts for a large chunk of Universal's back catalog, was the first major label to record Country artists in Nashville, holding Music City sessions for Red Foley and Ernest Tubb in August 1947.
Labels such as Decca, MCA, Mercury and MGM have boasted such Country Music Hall of Famers as Patsy Cline, Conway Twitty, Flatt & Scruggs and Hank Williams. And some of the most prominent executives in the Hall of Fame passed through the company's ranks.
Following is an introductory peek at the various entities that eventually melded into the Universal Music Group:
MCA/Decca
English stockbroker Edward Lewis established the Decca label in 1929 and brought it to the U.S. five years later by luring Brunswick executive Jack Kapp. Country-gospel artist Stuart Hamblen recorded the first sides for the label, which blossomed to include acts Foley, Tubb, The Sons Of The Pioneers, Milton Brown and others.
Future Hall of Famer Paul Cohen took over the label's Country reins in the late-'40s, signing Bill Monroe, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells and more. Around the same time, Decca gained control of Universal Pictures.
Cohen would move to a sister label, Coral, leaving Owen Bradley to head Decca's Country wing for nearly two decades. Bradley worked with legends including Cline and Loretta Lynn. The label remained active even after MCA bought it in 1962. The Decca name was put to rest in 1973 (though briefly revived in the '90s), in favor of MCA. Today, MCA's roster includes Gary Allan, Vince Gill, Hot Apple Pie, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Josh Turner, Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood, though it also brought more once-booming labels into its fold.
Among the once-independent companies that contributed to MCA's catalog are:
- Dot Records, founded in Gallatin, a Nashville suburb, by Randy Wood in 1950. Initially a pop label, the company shifted its operations to Los Angeles, where it was sold to Paramount Pictures. By the 1970s, it was run by Jim Foglesong, inducted in 2004 to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Among its successes were Roy Clark and Donna Fargo.
- ABC Records was established as ABC-Paramount in 1955, and has the distinction of being the label that launched the Ray Charles Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music albums. In 1974, Paramount merged it with Dot to become ABC/Dot, with continued successes by The Oak Ridge Boys, Barbara Mandrell and Don Williams. ABC/Dot folded into MCA in 1979.
- Kapp Records, founded in 1954 by Jack Kapp's brother, Dave. The label developed Carl Smith, Mel Tillis and Bob Wills sides before it was sold to MCA in 1967.
Mercury/PolyGram
Mercury got a foothold in Chicago in 1945, established by Irving Green, who owned a record pressing plant, and Berle Adams, the manager of R&B act Louis Jordan. The name gleaned from an advertisement for the Mercury automobile, the label established a Nashville presence in 1947.
The following year, Murray Nash became the head of the Country division, attracting Bill Carlisle, Flatt & Scruggs and others. But the label never quite picked up enough steam and merged briefly with a Texas label to become Mercury/Starday. That deal lasted less than two years, but it gave Mercury's catalog the early recordings of George Jones.
In 1961, Shelby Singleton began running Mercury just as the label expanded. Philips Electronics purchased it and added a sister imprint, Smash. Mercury picked up Roy Drusky, Faron Young and others, while Smash built Country hits with Jerry Lee Lewis and Roger Miller.
Jerry Kennedy would later take over the operations, which grew to include the music of Dave Dudley, Tom T. Hall, Johnny Rodriguez and The Statler Brothers. During Kennedy's time at the helm, Germany's PolyGram bought Mercury in 1971.
After a lull in the '80s, the label again became a leader under Harold Shedd in the '90s, with artists including Billy Ray Cyrus, Kathy Mattea and Shania Twain. Its roster today includes Terri Clark, Billy Currington, Tracy Lawrence, Gary Nichols, Julie Roberts, Sugarland and Twain.
Other PolyGram entities have included:
- MGM Records, established by the movie company in 1945, just in time to pick up an unknown Country talent named Hank Williams. MGM would also release early recordings by Conway Twitty, Roy Orbison and Hank Williams Jr. Among the record executives who would head the company in Los Angeles were Mike Curb and Jimmy Bowen. Polydor purchased the label in 1972.
- The A&M and Polydor labels were briefly instated in Nashville during the 1990s. Both of them ended up as homes for Toby Keith, who began on Mercury and found himself shuffled back to Mercury before it was all over.
DreamWorks
Los Angeles executives David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg founded the DreamWorks film studio in 1994, and - particularly with Geffen's background in the Geffen and Asylum labels - the company established a recording arm.
The pop division never really caught hold, but the Nashville wing, headed by producer James Stroud, performed well. Following its debut release by Randy Travis in 1997, it helped Toby Keith reach his zenith and established such talents as Darryl Worley and Jessica Andrews. It came into the Universal fold in 2003. Its current roster of artists folded into other labels within Universal Music Group in September, just as Keith announced his split with UMG and the opening his own separate label, Showdog Records.
Lost Highway
Named after a significant Hank Williams recording, Lost Highway is actually part of the Def Jam label segment of Universal's depth chart. The label was created specifically to target roots music projects, and its roster has featured Ryan Adams, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Mary Gauthier, The Jayhawks, Lyle Lovett, Tift Merritt, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Tim O'Reagan, Glen Phillips, The Sam Roberts Band, Lucinda Williams and the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.
Universal South
Founded in 2002 by industry veterans Tim DuBois and Tony Brown, Universal South Records, distributed by UMG, has achieved its biggest success with traditional Country act Joe Nichols. It's also showing more eclectic ideals with Bering Strait, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Matt Jenkins, Shooter Jennings, The Notorious Cherrybombs, Matthew West and Holly Williams. The roster also includes 10 City Run, George Canyon, Katrina Elam, The Elms, Erika Jo, The Louvin Brothers, Rockie Lynn, Lee Roy Parnell, Amanda Wilkinson plus the new Marty Stuart label, Superlatone and comedian Wix Wichmann.
On the Web: www.umgnashville.com
January 31, 2006
