Patriot Records
| Liberty Records | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Parent company |
|
| Founded | 1955 |
| Founder | Simon Waronker |
| Status | Defunct |
| Distributor(s) | EMI (in the UK) |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | US, UK (re-establishment) |
| Official website | www |
Liberty Records was a United States-based record label. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.
Liberty's early releases focused on film and orchestral music. Its first single was Lionel Newman's "The Girl Upstairs." Its first big hit, in 1955, was by Julie London singing her version of the torch song, "Cry Me a River", which climbed to No. 9 in the Billboard Hot 100. It helped Liberty sell her first album, Julie Is Her Name. She was to record 32 albums in her career.
In 1956 Liberty signed the little-known Henry Mancini. They released two singles and several albums for him, but he left in 1959 when he gained in popularity. Billy Rose and Lee David's song, "Tonight You Belong to Me", scored a number 4 (US) and number 28 (UK) as performed by teen sisters Patience and Prudence (McIntyre), selling over a million copies. (It was first recorded in 1927, revived by Frankie Laine in 1952.)
Their biggest early rock and roll artist was Eddie Cochran, who had just starred in his second film, Untamed Youth. His first hit for the label was John D. Loudermilk's "Sittin' in the Balcony" in 1957, then came "Summertime Blues" and "C'mon Everybody".
The label was also home to R&B veterans Billy Ward and His Dominoes after Jackie Wilson quit, replacing him with ex-Lark Eugene Mumford. They hit with Hoagy Carmichael's 1927 song, "Stardust" – already recorded by many artists – which rode the pop chart for 24 weeks and got to number 13 in the Hot 100. The track also reached number 13 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1957. It was to be their only million seller.
...
Wikipedia