MCA Music Entertainment Group
| MCA Records | |
|---|---|
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MCA logo from 1997
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| Parent company |
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| Founded | 1934 |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Distributor(s) | Self-distributed |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | United States |
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group (now Universal Music Group), of which MCA Records was still part. MCA's country division, MCA Nashville, is a still active imprint of Universal Music Group Nashville.
MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 with the purchase of the New York-based US Decca Records (established in 1934), including Coral Records and Brunswick Records. MCA was forced to exit the talent agency business in order to complete the merger. As American Decca owned Universal Pictures, MCA assumed full ownership of Universal and made it into the top film studio in town, producing hit after hit. In 1966, MCA formed Uni Records and in 1967 purchased Kapp Records which was placed under Uni Records management.
In 1937, the owner of Decca, E. R. Lewis, chose to split off the U.K. Decca company from the U.S. company (keeping his U.S. Decca holdings), fearing the financial damage that would arise for U.K. Companies if the emerging hostilities of Nazi Germany should lead to war – correctly foreseeing World War II. Lewis sold the remainder of his U.S. Decca holdings when war did break out. MCA's U.S.-based Decca Records kept the rights to the Decca name in North and South America and parts of Asia including Japan. U.K. Decca owned the rights to the Decca name in the rest of the world. After the war, British Decca formed a new U.S. subsidiary, London Records.
During this time U.S. Decca issued records outside North America on the Brunswick and Coral labels. In 1967, Brunswick and Coral were replaced by the MCA label to release U.S. Decca and Kapp label material outside North America. Initial activity as MCA Records was based in London and MCA Records UK was formally launched on February 16, 1968. Among the early artists on the MCA label, around 1971, were groups Wishbone Ash, Osibisa, Stackridge and Budgie, and solo artists Tony Christie, Mick Greenwood and Roy Young. Early MCA releases were distributed by U.K. Decca but it moved to EMI in 1974. In 1979, distribution moved to CBS, while the last releases in the 1980s were self-distributed. As the U.S. division of MCA Records was not established until 1972, the earliest U.K. MCA Records material was released in the U.S. on either Kapp or Decca.
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