RCA Records
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RCA Victor decided to demolish their Camden warehouse in the early 1960s. This warehouse held four floors' worth of catalog and vault masters (most of them pre-tape wax and metal discs), test pressings, lacquer discs, matrix ledgers, and rehearsal recordings. A few days before the demolition took place, some collectors from the USA and Europe were allowed to go through the warehouse and salvage whatever they could take with them for their personal collections. Soon after, collectors and RCA Records officials watched from a nearby bridge as the warehouse was demolished, with many studio masters still intact in the building. The remnants were bulldozed into the Delaware River and a pier was built on top of them. In 1973, when the company decided to release all of Rachmaninoff's recordings on LPs (to celebrate the centennial of the composer's birth), RCA was forced to go to record collectors for materials, as documented by Time.
In the 1970s the label let much of its catalog go out of print. This pattern affected its jazz catalog most greatly, followed by its classical music catalog.
In the compact disc era a small proportion of its jazz catalog has been reissued. (For example, Jelly Roll Morton albums were reissued; but they were removed from circulation in less than ten years.) Similarly, only a fraction of its vast classical catalog has remained available on compact disc.
In the 1970s the label pressed its popular, jazz and country records with a special 'Dynaflex' technology. These records were unusually thin & flexible. However, a high proportion of these thin pressings were warped when sold as new recordings.
Canadian rockers Triumph were practically all but ignored by the label. When the band wanted out of their deal with RCA, the label refused. Then MCA Records executive Irving Azoff demonstrated his faith in the trio by co-opting their debts and buiying the band out of their RCA contract and signed them for five albums.
After country singer Kenny Rogers left the label, RCA were accused of trying to ruin his career. Rogers signed to RCA in 1983 for an advance sum of $20 million (the largest deal ever in country music at that time) when Bob Summers was head of the label. Shortly after Rogers' first album for the label Summers was fired (for unrelated reasons) by RCA. Deciding it would make the label look bad for firing Summer if Rogers continued to be a major success -- his duet with Dolly Parton, "Islands in the Stream", had been one of the biggest hits of 1983 -- Rogers received very little support from the label during the next several years he was with them. Although Rogers and RCA parted ways many years ago the results of the conflict can still be seen today. RCA deleted all of Rogers' solo albums soon after he signed to Reprise in 1989 (taking the rights to those albums with him as RCA refused to keep them), with only Once Upon A Christmas (a 1984 album of seasonal duets with Parton) remaining in print.
The most recent controversy surrounded RCA Records and Kelly Clarkson. Reports said that many RCA workers including mogul Clive Davis were unhappy with her latest album "My December". Davis was even said to offer Clarkson 10 million to scrap 5 of her songs but she apparently refused. Months of controversy followed which included Clarkson's tour being scrapped and Clarkson firing her manager, Paul McAlarney.
Christina Aguilera has accused RCA of "being afraid of assertive women and labeling them as Divas".
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Labels
- RCA Records Label Group: In 2003, BMG was reorganized in the United States creating the RCA Records Group which combined RCA Records, Arista Records and J Records with Clive Davis heading the reorganised unit. In 2006, Sony BMG was re-organized, and RCA became one of two main label groups in the United Kingdom. Head of the department was Craig Logan, manager of P!nk and former band member of Bros.
- RCA Label Group Nashville: Based in Nashville, Tennessee, it consists of the country music operations of the RCA, Arista and BNA record labels. Its official web site is at www.rcalabelgroup.com
- RCA Victor label group: The RCA Victor label group consists of the RCA Victor, Windham Hill and Bluebird labels.
- RCA Red Seal Records: The prestigious RCA Red Seal classical music label is now part of Sony BMG Masterworks.
- Other RCA associated labels: Colgems, Calendar/Kirshner, Metromedia, Chelsea, Midland/Midsong International, Windstar, Wooden Nickel, and Millennium
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See also
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References
- ^ Jones. Andrew F. [2001] (2001). Yellow Music - CL: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822326949
- ^ The History of Living Stereo, RCA Victor liner notes
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External links
- Official RCA Label Group UK website
- RCA Victor Discography
- Internet Archive: Command Performance (1942) - How RCA records are made, narrated by Milton Cross.
- Camden Building History
- History of RCA Victor record label designs
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