ABKCO Records
 | |
| Predecessor | Allen Klein & Co. |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1961[1] |
| Founder | Allen Klein |
| Headquarters | , USA |
Number of employees | 40[1] |
ABKCO Music & Records, Inc. is a New York headquartered independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company. It owns and or administers the rights to soundtracks of Indian Paintbrush and music by Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Herman's Hermits, Marianne Faithfull, The Kinks as well as the Cameo Parkway label, which includes recordings by such artists as Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, The Orlons, The Dovells, Question Mark & The Mysterians, The Tymes and Dee Dee Sharp. Until 2009, ABKCO administered Philles Records and its master recordings, including hits by The Righteous Brothers, The Ronettes, The Crystals and others (via a licensing deal with EMI Music Publishing, who owned the Philles catalog since the mid-1990s).
ABKCO Records is currently distributed by Universal Music Group, which also controls distribution of the Rolling Stones' post-ABKCO catalog.[2]
In addition to music, ABKCO controls the rights to Alejandro Jodorowsky's early films, including Fando y Lis, El Topo, and The Holy Mountain.
History
ABKCO is the successor company to a business that was founded in 1961 as Allen Klein & Co. Allen Klein was then a business manager specializing in music clients including Bobby Darin and Sam Cooke and, later, managed The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. ABKCO Industries was founded in 1968 as an umbrella company involved in management, music publishing, film, TV and theatrical production. (The acronym stood for "Allen & Betty Klein and COmpany," although Klein would often joke that it stood for "A Better Kind of COmpany.") Later that year, Cameo-Parkway Records was acquired by ABKCO, bringing the legendary Philadelphia label’s decade-long run of hits into the fold.
The label had been heavily criticized by many fans for keeping the Cameo-Parkway material unavailable until 2005. ABKCO's licensing policy prevented releasing the original version of songs for compilations.[3] ABKCO sat on the entire catalog of music from artists such as Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker. Some original artists had to re-record their hits for inclusion on bargain-basement oldies LP's.[4] Checker was forced to re-record his hits such as "The Twist".[5]
ABKCO is active in the release of compilations and reissues from its catalogs, often in poor quality, film and commercial placement of its master recordings and music publishing properties. Jody Klein, president of ABKCO,[6] has been credited in the liner notes of the recordings in not only getting the Cameo-Parkway recordings finally released, but also oversaw an extensive remastering of The Rolling Stones, the Animals, Herman's Hermits, and Sam Cooke's 1960s recordings. Allen Klein died in 2009.
Lawsuits
In January 1970, The Beatles signed a music publishing management contract with ABKCO Industries.[7] At some point after the contract was terminated, ABKCO sued the group, a suit resolved in 1977 when the Beatles paid ABKCO $4.2 million; other ABKCO Beatles-related lawsuits continued for at least a decade.[8]
ABKCO successfully sued The Verve over their song "Bitter Sweet Symphony", which samples an Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra recording of "The Last Time" by The Rolling Stones.[9]
In July 2008, ABKCO filed a lawsuit against Lil Wayne for copyright infringement and unfair competition, specifically referring to the track "Playing with Fire" on his album Tha Carter III.[10] In the lawsuit, ABKCO claims that the song was obviously derived from The Rolling Stones' "Play with Fire", song that ABKCO owns right to.[10][11] As a result, "Playing with Fire" was removed from the online music tracklists for Tha Carter III.
Pop culture references
"Beware of Darkness" is a song by George Harrison that featured on his first post-Beatles album All Things Must Pass. When he was demoing this song for Phil Spector during 1970 he jokingly changed one line of the lyrics to "Beware of ABKCO".[12] This later became the name of a bootleg LP containing the recordings from that session.
References
- ^ a b Abkco Music & Records Inc - New York, New York (NY) | Company Profile
- ^ SOUMYA SRIRAMAN APPOINTED VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AND OPERATIONS, UNIVERSAL MUSIC AND VIDEO DISTRIBUTION/VISUAL ENTERTAINMENT - mentions that ABKCO is one of the labels distributed by UMG
- ^ Charles Hill (January 15, 2000). "Mostly disinKleined - ABKCO Records - Epinions.com".
- ^ "StereOldie Shop - Cameo Parkway".
- ^ "K-Tel Greatest Hits - Chubby Checker".
{{cite web}}: Text "AllMusic" ignored (help) - ^ "The Rolling Stones You Can't Always Get What You Want Soulwax Remix by IORR".
- ^ The Beatles: The ABKCO Contract: Rockmine On-Line
- ^ http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/553209
- ^ samplinglaw.com>horror stories of sampling
- ^ a b "Lil Wayne sued for using Rolling Stones track". NME. Los Angeles. July 24, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
- ^ Kaufman, Gil (July 25, 2008). "Lil Wayne Sued By Rolling Stones Publisher Over 'Playing With Fire'". MTV. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
- ^ George Harrison (2001). All Things Must Pass (CD). EMI.
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