Paramount Records was a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the pr ...

started in 1969 by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

(then a unit of

Gulf+Western Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. (stylized as Gulf+Western) was an American conglomerate. Originally, the company focused on manufacturing and resource extraction. Beginning in 1966, and continuing throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the company ...

) after acquiring the rights to the name from George H. Buck. A previous

Paramount Records Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Early years Paramount Records was formed in 1 ...

, active between 1917 and 1932, had been unconnected to Paramount Pictures. The new Paramount label reissued pop releases by sister label

Dot Records Dot Records was an American record label founded by Randy Wood (record producer), Randy Wood and Gene Nobles that was active between 1950 and 1978. The original headquarters of Dot Records were in Gallatin, Tennessee. In 1956, the company moved ...

, which had recently become a country label and, in the process, had its entire pop back catalog deleted completely. It also released new albums from other pop musicians and soundtracks to Paramount films such as '' Paint Your Wagon'', among others. Cast members of the

Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...

series ''

The Brady Bunch ''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family with six children. The show aired for five seasons and, afte ...

'' were signed, and the label issued several tie-in albums and singles. After Gulf+Western sold its record label holdings to ABC (which happened to have aired the ''Brady Bunch'' TV series) in 1974, the Paramount label was discontinued in favor of

ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...

, which itself was sold to

MCA MCA may refer to: Astronomy * Mars-crossing asteroid, an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars Aviation * Minimum crossing altitude, a minimum obstacle crossing altitude for fixes on published airways * Medium Combat Aircraft, a 5th gen ...

Records in 1979. The Paramount catalog is now owned by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

and managed by

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

(whose founder,

David Geffen David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American business magnate, producer and film studio executive. He co-created Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and DreamWorks SKG in ...

, later became a co-founder of DreamWorks, which was a sister studio to Paramount from 2006 to 2008, and whose own record catalog is now owned by Universal). On a side note, MCA continued to release soundtracks to some later Paramount films into the 1990s. '' Sliding Doors'' (1998) was the last Paramount release to have its soundtrack issued by MCA. In 2015, Paramount Pictures revived the label as Paramount Music - a record label specializing in soundtracks from Paramount movies, with distribution by TuneCore.

External links

Paramount Records info at BSN Publications
Defunct record labels of the United States Pop record labels Reissue record labels Paramount Pictures Record labels established in 1969 Record labels disestablished in 1974 Gulf and Western Industries {{US-record-label-stub

See also

External links