Casablanca Records

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Casablanca Records

Parent company	Universal Music Group
Founded	1973
Founder(s)	Neil Bogart
Distributing label	Universal Records (in the US)
Genre(s)	Various
Country of origin	US
Official Website	http://www.casablanca-music.com

This article is about Casablanca, the record label. For other uses please see Casablanca (disambiguation).

Casablanca Records is a record label which was started by Neil Bogart in 1973 after leaving Buddah Records. The label released hits by Donna Summer, KISS, The Four Tops, Cher, Captain & Tennille, Angel, Stephanie Mills, The Sylvers, The Hudson Brothers, The Village People, 707, Sabrina Salerno and Parliament. PolyGram acquired a 50 percent stake in 1977 and later acquired the remaining half for $15 million in 1980. Afterwards the label had hits with Lipps Inc, Cameo, and Irene Cara. The label was shut down in 1984.

In 2004, 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. Casablanca is now a part of Universal Motown Records Group.

1 History
2 Rumors
3 Releases
4 Current Artists
5 Past Artists
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

Casablanca Records

In 1973 Neil Bogart formed Casablanca Records with money Warner Brothers put up. Originally the he wanted to call the label Emerald City after the city in The Wizard of Oz, but since Warner owned the rights to the movie Casablanca, it was easier to get the rights to use that name, and much better for promotions (especially since he shared a surname with Humphrey Bogart, a star of the movie). Neil's first big signing was the rock group KISS.

The label became very popular in the disco business. Warner Brothers and Neil would have a tempestuous relationship as Neil wanted more freedom to release records whenever he wanted and not according to a timetable, as was the case of the major labels. Neil and Warner came to an agreement that Neil on a monthly basis would pay back the money Warner had put into the company, which he did. After the split with Warner the Casablanca office were moved to Sunset Boulevard in the former Gold Star Studios where Herb Alpert recorded many of his early albums.

Mottola's re-launch was intended to be started with a girl-group, first known as iNK, but later changing its name to NSS(Not So Sweet)16. The group's original makeup was composed of Timna Perez (Latina) and Alicia Respicio (Asian) from Southern California, as well as Brittany King (African-American) and Karla Murphy (Caucasian) from Racine, Wisconsin. Soon, however, Timna left the group because of pregnancy, which prompted them to add Hannukkah Zertuche from Racine to fill in for the Latina component. A little while after that, Brittany left also because of pregnancy, which prompted them to put in Jasmine (last name unknown) from Southern California to fill in the African-American blank. Soon afterwards, they recorded their debut single, Oopdeewopdee, written by Greg Lawson and featuring David Banner. Later on, Hanukkah got pregnant, and had to withdraw. Not wanting to risk pregnancy so soon, Karla decided to leave as well, which led to the demise of the group. Ironically, the website is still active, at www.nss16.com.