Tabu Productions was an American record label founded by Clarence Avant in 1975. It focused on R&B and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

History

Avant founded the label after Sussex Records went out of business in June 1975. Tabu Record's

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

release, ''

Stormin' ''Stormin is the debut album by the Detroit, Michigan R&B group Brainstorm. It was released in 1977 on Tabu Records and produced by Jerry Peters. Track listing #"Lovin' Is Really My Game" (Belita Woods, Trenita Womack) - 4:59 #"Waiting for S ...

'' by Brainstorm, was released in 1977. Tabu Records had a short-lived distribution pact with RCA, which lasted a year before moving to CBS Records. The label focused on R&B and

but expanded into other genres such as jazz and disco. Its artists included the Argentine composer and pianist

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elemen ...

, who composed and scored theme songs for numerous television series, including '' Mission: Impossible'', and released two projects on Tabu ("No One Home", 1979) and

the S.O.S. Band The S.O.S. Band (sometimes written as S.O.S. Band; abbreviation for Sounds of Success) is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B and Boogie (genre), electro-funk musical ensemble, group who gained fame in the 1980s. They are best known for the songs ...

(" Take Your Time (Do It Right)," 1980) Jazz singer Sharon Ridley (Full Moon), pianist Manfredo Fest. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were hired to produce

's fourth studio album for Tabu, '' On the Rise'' (1983), which was certified gold on January 16, 1984. While recording in S.O.S.'s home stomping grounds in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 24, 1983, a freak snowstorm hit, grounding all flights from the city. The duo was scheduled to perform as a part of the Time in San Antonio at the Hemisfair Arena that night but couldn't make it. Subsequently, Prince, who owned and managed the Time, fired them on April 18, 1983. The duo stayed in Los Angeles and became songwriter-producers for artists like New Edition, Boyz II Men and most notably, Janet Jackson. Working with

Jam and Lewis James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III (born June 6, 1959) and Terry Steven Lewis (born November 24, 1956) are an American R&B/ pop songwriting and record production team. They have enjoyed great success since the 1980s with various artists, most ...

gave Tabu a much-needed shot in the arm. They brought Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal (the original Time

lead vocalist The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

) to the label and both did well; O'Neal released his self-titled studio album in 1985, and Cherrelle's '' Fragile'' hit the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

R&B charts in 1984. The SOS Band had more hits with "Just The Way You Like It" in 1984 and "Sands of Time" in 1986, the album of which was certified gold on April 6, 1987. So influential was the sound that

Robert Palmer Robert Allen Palmer (19 January 1949 – 26 September 2003) was an English singer and songwriter. He was known for his powerful, soulful voice and wikt:sartorial, sartorial elegance, and his stylistic explorations, combining Soul music, so ...

covered Cherrelle's "

I Didn't Mean to Turn You On "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" is the debut single written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and originally performed by Cherrelle in 1984. In 1986, "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" was covered by Robert Palmer. Palmer's cover fared better on the pop c ...

" in 1986, and Beats International covered the S.O.S. Band's "Just Be Good to Me" in 1990. In 1985, Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal

duet A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a solo ...

ed on " Saturday Love," which was a hit in the UK but caught on later with

radio. Other acts like Kid Fire and Demetrius Perry recorded on this label.

Sony era

Tabu Records, in its deal with CBS, became associated with Sony Music Entertainment in November 1987 when the Japanese group bought CBS Records. During this period, Tabu released ''

Diamonds in the Raw ''Diamonds in the Raw'' is the seventh studio album by the S.O.S. Band, released by Tabu Records in 1989. The album marked the absence of lead singer Mary Davis, who left in 1987 to pursue a solo career. Chandra Currelley-Young, Chandra Currelley ...

'' (1989) by the S.O.S. Band, which performed disappointingly. In 1991, Alexander O'Neal's '' All True Man'' was the last album Tabu Records released under the new Sony regime.

A&M era

In 1991, the label resurfaced under

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

's A&M Records, who distributed it from 1991 until 1993, releasing four albums and about 20 singles. Avant was hired to run

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

(another PolyGram label), and, in August 1993, he brought Tabu Records under its aegis. It released collections by the S.O.S. Band, Alexander O'Neal and Cherelle, while signing other artists such as Lucky Dube and Identity Crisis. However, this reappearance was short-lived as well. In 1999, Seagram bought

and merged it with the MCA family of labels, which became Universal Music Group. Shortly after, Tabu Records was absorbed into A&M Records.

Re-issues

In 2002, Avant brought Tabu Records to EMI's reissue label the Right Stuff, which began to re-release Tabu Record's catalogue. In 2012, Demon Music Group announced it acquired the licensing rights of the Tabu Records catalogue. The company announced the news on Facebook on Valentine's Day 2013 and released a trailer of the label's return on YouTube. The licensing agreements come with reissues of the entire catalog on compact disc as well as digital download and Vinyl. The Tabu catalogue of Alexander O'Neal and Cherrelle were made available on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

in Fall 2012. Greatest-hits albums by the S.O.S. Band, Cherelle, and Alexander O’Neal were released through Universal Music, as part of its Icon series, during 2012.

References

External links