History
In the beginning, Monument was the first of London Records distributed labels. Monument Records' first release in October 1958, was also the label's first hit. Billy Grammer's "Gotta Travel On", became a U.S. Top 5 Billboard record chart success which sold over 900,000 copies. It also spawned a nation-wide dance craze called "The Shag". The signing of the former Sun Records singer, Roy Orbison, brought more success to Monument Records, beginning with the 1960 release, "Only the Lonely". By 1961, London Records was distributing more than forty independent companies, prompting Foster to move Monument to the independent-distributor network. In 1971, Foster signed a world-wide distribution agreement with CBS Records.
In addition to Orbison, Monument became home to a number of others including: Robert Knight, Kris Kristofferson, Jeannie Seely, Boots Randolph, Dolly Parton, Ray Stevens, Cindy Walker, Tony Joe White, Charlie McCoy, Willie Nelson, Tommy Roe, The Velvets, Connie Smith, Larry Jon Wilson, Larry Gatlin and Robert Mitchum.
Foster started a soul and R&B label Sound Stage 7 in 1963. Artists on Sound Stage 7 included Joe Simon, The Dixie Belles, Arthur Alexander, and Ivory Joe Hunter. Another Monument sublabel was Rising Sons Records.
Foster invested heavily in a banking venture in the 1980s, and sustained disastrous financial losses as a result. It was this that led to the forced sale of Monument and its publishing counterpart, Combine Music Group, in 1990. CBS Records acquired the Monument catalog, and its successor company Sony Music reactivated the label in 1997 as a country label. Some successful artists signed to Monument during this era were Little Big Town and Dixie Chicks. Monument Records catalog is managed by Sony Music's Legacy Recordings unit.
Read more about this topic: Monument Records
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)