Capitol Records

7 Pages 1633 Words

Capitol Records


Record labels are a crucial part of the commercial music industry today and always have been since music started being recorded. Record labels allow an artist to have his or her music recorded onto a tape, compact disc (CD), or any other form of recording, which they may choose. This includes many digital recordings, which have become popular in today’s musical society. There have been many different record labels over the years, including BMG Records, Atlantic Records, Pearl Records, Warner Bros. Records and Capitol Records, just to name a few. In the following paragraphs I am going to describe how Capitol Records came about, and what kind of impact it has had on the commercial music industry. In addition, I will also give information on Capitol Records today.
Capitol Records is one of the major and most profitable music labels in the music industry today, and has been a leading records label since its creation in 1942. A songwriter named Johnny Mercer, along with a Hollywood music storeowner named Glenn Wallichs, and a movie producer by the name of Buddy DeSylva founded Capitol Records together in 1942. According to the book It Might As Well Be Spring, an autobiography written by Margaret Whiting, describes that Johnny Mercer, “was a man bursting with talent and always looking for a place to channel his energies. This idea of a record company seemed ideal.” Mercer introduced the record company idea to his best friend, Glenn Wallichs. Wallichs loved the idea and was excited about it from the start. Buddy DeSylva was contacted by Mercer, and was also interested and wrote the check for $25,000 to get Capitol Records started. Each individual was then assigned a responsibility as part of this new record company. Mercer was in charge of finding artists for the label and supervising their artistic output. Wallichs handled the business and financial responsibilities, while DeSylva made sure everyt...