Casablanca Records

Casablanca Records was an American record label started by Neil Bogart, who partnered with Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris, and Buck Reingold in 1973, and based in Los Angeles. The label was formed after all of them had left Buddah Records and secured financing by Warner Bros. Records to start the venture. Casablanca had become one of the most successful labels of the 1970s, signing and releasing albums by such acts as Kiss, Donna Summer, Village People, Cher, and Parliament featuring George Clinton. The label's film division, Casablanca Filmworks, had hits with the movies The Deep and Midnight Express.

In 1977, PolyGram Records acquired a 50 percent stake of Casablanca for $15 million, and then in 1980 it purchased the other 50 percent. Also in 1980, one of the label's biggest acts, Donna Summer, left for another record company as she and Casablanca could not come to terms on her musical direction in the new decade. That same year, PolyGram pushed Bogart out of Casablanca due to what it viewed as the label's overspending and accounting irregularities. In the early '80s, with Bogart no longer heading the label, Casablanca had hits with acts Lipps Inc and Irene Cara, but it did not have the same level of success it had in the '70s. The label was eventually shut down by PolyGram with some of the artist roster and catalogue absorbed into sister label Mercury Records.

In 1999, PolyGram (and all its subsidiaries) were purchased by Seagram, and then merged with Seagram's MCA Inc. to form the Universal Music Group. In 2000, the Casablanca Records 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 a homage to the original label, but that there was no actual connection between the old and new labels. Casablanca is now a part of Universal Republic Records.