White Whale Records

White Whale Records was an American independent record label, founded in 1965 by Ted Feigin and Lee Lasseff in Los Angeles, California, and probably best known as the record label of The Turtles and a handful of one-hit wonder bands.

White Whale, in addition to releasing almost all of The Turtles' discography, also released Nino Tempo & April Stevens's single "All Strung Out (On You)", a hit single by Rene y Rene titled "Lo Mucho Que Ti Quiero", an album by Liz Damon's Orient Express, and the only album by Texas band The Clique. Warren Zevon was a staff songwriter for the label, and they issued some of his earliest recordings (as part of the duo Lyme & Cybele). Dobie Gray also recorded for the label, recording the first chart version of "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden," which later became a much bigger hit for Lynn Anderson.

Three compilations of singles from the label have been released on CD: Happy Together: The Very Best of White Whale Records, and two volumes of the Phantom Jukebox series, on Rev-Ola records. [1]

The Turtles

When White Whale signed the Turtles, they were known as "The Crossfires"; a surf music band looking to change their style, as surf music was fading. The label encouraged a name change to "The Tyrtles", in the manner of The Beatles and The Byrds. The band accepted the new name, but not the variant spelling. Relations between the label and the band were not always smooth, with White Whale pressuring the band for "more hits", then for singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman to fire the rest of the group, and work instead with hired musicians, in order to save money. Kaylan wrote the song "Elenore" as a humorous take on "Happy Together" (the only #1 hit for both the group and the White Whale label), which ironically became a hit itself. He and Volman also democratized the group, insisting everyone share in the writing and vocal duties, despite what the label wanted, and recorded a concept album, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands (on which "Elenore" was featured).

When the Turtles disbanded in the early 1970s, White Whale lost their big moneymaker; in retaliation, and to prevent Kaylan and Volman from continuing their musical careers, White Whale insisted they held the rights to not only the Turtles' name and back catalog, but Kaylan and Volman's individual given names. Kaylan and Volman responded by moving into session work and continuing under a pseudonym, Flo and Eddie; White Whale Records, on the other hand, went out of business not long after. The label's final releases were the single "1900 Yesterday" by Liz Damon's Orient Express and a self-titled album by the same group; although both charted (the single reaching a respectable #33), it wasn't enough to keep the company going. White Whale's assets were sold at auction in 1974, at which point Kaylan and Volman won the rights to the Turtles' master recordings. Kaylan and Volman would not earn the rights to their own names (or the Turtles') again until 1983.

Anthem Records

Feigin and Lasseff folded White Whale Records in 1971 and created a new label called Anthem Records (not to be confused with the Canadian label of the same name), which was initially distributed by United Artists. Two White Whale acts were transferred to the new label's roster (Liz Damon's Orient Express and The Dillards), and they are the only artists to have albums issued on the label. The label also provided US distribution for a single by Freddie Mercury under the alias "Larry Lurex". One of Anthem's last signings was the duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, whose Buckingham Nicks LP was released via Polydor in 1973. (Polydor issued several albums with credits to "Anthem Record Productions" after the label lost distribution with United Artists the previous year.) Anthem Records was officially dissolved that same year.

Current ownership

While Flo & Eddie Inc (distributed by The Orchard) controls The Turtles' catalog, the rest of the White Whale catalog is currently controlled by Concord Music's Craft Recordings under Varese Sarabande.

Chart History

Billboard Top LPs Chart

Catalog #	Artist	Title	Peak Position	Peak Date
White Whale WWS-7111	Turtles, The	It Ain't Me Babe	98	10/23/1965
White Whale WWS-7114	Turtles, The	Happy Together	25	4/29/1967
White Whale WWS-7115	Turtles, The	Golden Hits	7	11/18/1967
White Whale WWS-7118	Turtles, The	The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands	128	11/16/1968
White Whale WWS-7119	Rene and Rene	Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero	129	1/11/1969
White Whale WWS-7124	Turtles, The	Turtle Soup	117	11/1/1969
White Whale WWS-7126	Clique, The	Clique, The	177	1/17/1970
White Whale WWS-7127	Turtles, The	More Golden Hits	146	4/11/1970
White Whale/Makaha MS-5003	Liz Damon's Orient Express	Liz Damon's Orient Express	190	3/6/1971

Billboard Hot 100 & Bubbling Under Charts

Catalog #	Artist	Title	Peak Position	Peak Date
White Whale 222	Turtles, The	It Ain't Me Babe	8	9/18/1965
White Whale 224	Turtles, The	Let Me Be	29	11/27/1965
White Whale 227	Turtles, The	You Baby	20	3/26/1966
White Whale 228	Lyme and Cybelle	Follow Me	65	4/16/1966
White Whale 231	Turtles, The	Grim Reaper of Love	81	6/25/1966
White Whale 236	Nino Tempo and April Stevens	All Strung Out	26	10/22/1966
White Whale 238	Turtles, The	Can I Get To Know You Better	89	11/26/1966
White Whale 239	John's Children	Smashed! Blocked!	102	12/31/1966
White Whale 241	Tempo, Nino, & April Stevens	You'll Be Needing Me Baby	133	1/28/1967
White Whale 244	Turtles, The	Happy Together	1	3/25/1967
White Whale 246	Tempo, Nino, & April Stevens	My Old Flame	101	4/29/1967
White Whale 249	Turtles, The	She'd Rather Be with Me	3	6/17/1967
White Whale 252	Nino Tempo and April Stevens	I Can't Go On Livin' Baby Without You	86	7/29/1967
White Whale 254	Turtles, The	You Know What I Mean	12	9/30/1967
White Whale 257	Committee, The	California My Way	110	10/28/1967
White Whale 260	Turtles, The	She's My Girl	14	12/23/1967
White Whale 264	Turtles, The	Sound Asleep	57	3/30/1968
White Whale 268	Tempo, Nino, & April Stevens	Let It Be Me	127	5/25/1968
White Whale 273	Turtles, The	The Story Of Rock And Roll	48	7/13/1968
White Whale 275	Professor Morrison's Lollipop	You Got The Love	88	10/5/1968
White Whale 276	Turtles, The	Elenore	6	11/2/1968
White Whale 287	Rene & Rene	Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero (The More I Love You)	14	1/4/1969
White Whale 289	Malibu's, The	A Broken Man	121	2/8/1969
White Whale 292	Turtles, The	You Showed Me	6	3/1/1969
White Whale 298	Rene & Rene	Las Costas	128	3/22/1969
White Whale 300	Gray, Dobie	Rose Garden	119	5/31/1969
White Whale 308	Turtles, The	You Don't Have To Walk In The Rain	51	7/12/1969
White Whale 323	Clique, The	Sugar On Sunday	22	10/18/1969
White Whale 326	Turtles, The	Love In The City	91	10/18/1969
White Whale 333	Clique, The	I'll Hold Out My Hand	45	12/13/1969
White Whale 334	Turtles, The	Lady-O	78	12/20/1969
White Whale 338	Clique, The	Sparkle And Shine	100	2/28/1970
White Whale 353	Feather	Friends	79	6/20/1970
White Whale 355	Turtles, The	Eve of Destruction	100	6/27/1970
White Whale 360	Reivers, The	Revolution In My Soul	112	9/19/1970
White Whale 364	Turtles, The	Me About You	105	11/14/1970
White Whale 368	Liz Damon's Orient Express	1900 Yesterday	33	2/13/1971

See also

• List of record labels

External links

• White Whale Records
• White Whale singles
• White Whale USA singles discography