The Independent and Liberty Records Years
Upon its formation in 1947, Imperial focused on the release of rhythm & blues/R&B, country, and Mexican music including recordings by such R&B artists as Fats Domino, Frankie Ford, and Ricky Nelson as well as those by yodeling country singer, Slim Whitman. In the United Kingdom, Imperial was distributed by London Records.
Imperial expanded its operations by purchasing Aladdin Records in 1960 and Minit Records in 1963 (having distributed Minit since 1960). Throughout the 1950s, Imperial was one of the primary labels issuing a vast quantity of R&B from New Orleans, though their involvement with producer, writer Dave Bartholomew, and later in the 1960s with their distribution and of the independent Minit Records (and purchase, a few years later).
Later in 1963 after Imperial lost Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson to rival labels, Chudd sold the label to Liberty Records. Under Liberty's management, the label enjoyed success from such artists as holdover Irma Thomas as well as Johnny Rivers, Jackie DeShannon, Classics IV and Cher.
During the British Invasion years, Liberty (whose recordings were distributed by EMI in the UK) licensed artists including The Hollies, Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas and The Swinging Blue Jeans from EMI for release on the Imperial label. Recordings by Liberty UK act The Bonzo Dog Band and Kim Fowley were issued in the USA on the Imperial label.
By 1970 the label became part of Liberty's merger with United Artists, but was phased out shortly thereafter with its artists being transferred to United Artists. EMI now owns the Imperial Records catalogue.
This is not the same Imperial currently in Japan or that was a division of EMI's Dutch arm.
Read more about this topic: Imperial Records
Famous quotes containing the words independent, liberty, records and/or years:
“For myself I found that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborers day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit, independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the other.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“A President Roosevelt comes only once in a century. I believe God knew and does know of the need of the world at this moment. I dont believe President Roosevelt is an accident in time, or that it is an accident that he is President for a third time. I believe that Franklin D. Roosevelt truly is the voice of liberty in the world.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (19081973)
“What a wonderful faculty is memory!the most mysterious and inexplicable in the great riddle of life; that plastic tablet on which the Almighty registers with unerring fidelity the records of being, making it the depository of all our words, thoughts and deedsthis faithful witness against us for good or evil.”
—Susanna Moodie (18031885)
“Now, at the end of three years struggle the nations condition is not what either party, or any man devised, or expected. God alone can claim it.”
—Abraham Lincoln (18091865)