Re: [ARSCLIST] One more discography question

[Roger and Allison Kulp <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>]

>From WackyPackia:

In the 1970's Pickwick changed its direction and began re-issuing LPs that had been deleted from catalogs of the major record labels, in particular the RCA Records subsidiary RCA Camden, from which it leased the reissue rights for a number of Elvis Presley reissues and compilation albums that had been previously put out by RCA Camden between 1968 and 1975. Besides reissuing the RCA Camden catalog under the Pickwick branding, the company also put out an edited reissue of the Presley soundtrack album, Frankie and Johnny, and a two-LP set of mostly movie songs entitled Double Dynamite. After Presley's death in August 1977, however, the main RCA label took back the rights as it began reissuing Presley's canon under the main label again and Pickwick's Presley series ended.
 In addition to its own Pickwick label, the company started their own subsidiary labels , P.I.P & De-Lite, to distribute original material, one of those labels, De-Lite, hit it big in 1974 and 1975 with million selling 45s & LPs by funk band Kool & The Gang. P.I.P had a big dance club hit with "5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)" by The Gary Toms Empire in 1975.
 Around 1978, Pickwick and its operations, including its record labels, were purchased by PolyGram Records. PolyGram maintained only the De-Lite Records label for the releases of Kool and the Gang (who had been hitless for a few years until the addition of new lead singer J.T. Taylor, and began a long streak of hits that began with 1979's "Ladies Night" ) until the mid 80s, when Polygram did away with the De-lite imprint and later releases by Kool & The Gang were issued by PolyGram's Mercury label. What's left of the Pickwick, P.I.P. and De-lite labels (including the entire De-lite/Mercury catalog of Kool & The Gang) are now owned by Universal Music, who merged with PolyGram in 1998.

This pretty much correlates an article I once read in ''Goldmine''.

                                          Roger

David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Actually, if you can substantiate that, it's of interest to a certain 
consultant who is trying to trace current ownership of some labels on 
Universal's behalf (no, they really don't know what they own). However, I 
seriously doubt that Universal took over Pickwick's assets in 1978 since 
Pickwick was operating well into the late 80s and was owned by Intersound in 
Minneapolis. I produced reissues for them for years and in early 1990, their 
president Don Johnson told me they'd recently sold off the old Pickwick labels 
(Design et al) and were concentrating on Quintessence and ProArte.

dl

Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:
> Same goes for Pickwick.Universal/MCA absorbed them,in 1978.Every label but De Lite was done away with,
> 
>                                              Roger
> 
> David Lennick  wrote: The answer re Majestic may be a bit more detailed than this one I'm providing, 
> but its assets were divided between Mercury and Eli Oberstein..or Mercury had 
> first refusal, taking artists like Eddy Howard, Alfred Newman (who eventually 
> owned all his masters) and some spoken word and kiddie records. Obie may have 
> owned the material he put out on Majestic (via Hit, via Varsity and Royale 
> before that) to begin with, and it began to appear immediately on the 
> resuscitated Varsity label.
> 
> As to who owns it now..who owns the various Obie labels, which eventually 
> became part of Pickwick? What went to Mercury should now belong to Universal.
> 
> dl
>  
> 
>        
> ---------------------------------
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