Casablanca

Multinational label; also appears as Casablanca Records.
Label Code: LC 3272 / LC 03272
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[url=https://www.discogs.com/label/281339-Casablanca-Records-Inc]Casablanca Records, Inc.[/url] was formed in 1973 by former Buddah Records executives Neil Bogart (who named the label as a homage to the classic film Casablanca), Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris and Buck Reingold. The label was initially distributed by Warner Bros. Records until September 1974, but Bogart decided to distribute the label independently after being disillusioned with the lack of success under Warners.

Casablanca's first major signing was Sunkiss. Casablanca became most successful as a disco label, signing artists like Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, the Village People, Brooklyn Dreams, Patti Brooks and Lipps, Inc. (with lead vocalist Cynthia Johnson) as well as Four Tops, Peter Hecher, Irene Cara, Captain and Tennille, Dr. Hook, Mac Davis and Parliament's great The P-Funk Mob band Well Hung Parliament.

The company expanded into motion picture production in 1977 merging with Filmworks, Inc. (a small film production company headed by Peter Guber), renaming itself Casablanca Record And Filmworks, Inc.. Also the label's logo artwork was varied and denoted now Casablanca Record And Filmworks. With Guber in charge of the new film division, Casablanca co-produced the films The Deep, the Oscar-winning Midnight Express (Giorgio Moroder won an Academy Award for Best Original Score) and the now-cult classic disco movie they co-produced with Motown Thank God It's Friday with Columbia Pictures.

Neil Bogart sold his remaining interests in the label to Dutch-German multinational record company PolyGram (which had purchased 50% of the label three years earlier) in 1980 after financial difficulties and poor sales performance seriously drained the company. Bogart soon after launched a new independent label, Boardwalk Records, Inc., but soon became ill. He died of cancer on May 8, 1982. That same year, PolyGram bought 20th Century Fox Records and merged its catalog into Casablanca, moving Leon Haywood, Carl Carlton and Stephanie Mills onto the label. The label stopped releasing new material (apart from movie soundtrack albums and later Animotion releases) in 1984. In 1986 it was phased out completely, although the brand kept appearing on catalog reissues. As its replacement, Mercury Record Productions, Inc. revived Wing Records.

In 2000, the name was revived for a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Tommy Mottola. In a Billboard article, Mottola said that he chose the name as an homage to the original label, but that there was no direct connection between the old and new labels. The present-day Casablanca is a part of Universal Motown Records Group.

Dating:
– Earliest releases can be identified by label rimtext reading "Casablanca Records, Inc., Manufactured And distributed by Warner Bros. Records, Inc." Repressings of these releases, beginning in late 1974, read "Manufcatured and distributed by Casablanca Records, Inc."
– After merging with Filmworks in 1977, rimtext read "Manufactured and Distributed by Casablanca Record and Filmworks, Inc." through 1981.
– In 1982, rimtext was changed to read "Manufactured And Marketed By PolyGram Records, Inc."