Tabu Records
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Tabu Records was founded by Clarence Avant. Avant had founded this label after he folded Sussex when its distributor Buddha was picked up by Arista Records in 1976.
The label focused on R&B and Funk. Its flagship release 'Stormin' by Brainstorm hits the stores in 1977. Tabu had a short-lived distribution pact with RCA which lasted only a year before going over to CBS Records.
Disco music was the big thing then and Tabu really tried to venture out into different music styles. artists like Sharon Riley, Lalo Schifrin (of Mission Impossible fame). It hit paydirt with The SOS Band in 1980 with "Take Your Time (Do It Right)" and their subsequent album S.O.S.
In 1982, the label languished for a few months until 1983 when they struck paydirt again. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis of The Time were hired to produce The SOS Band's third album On The Rise. As they were recording in SOS's home stomping grounds in Atlanta, Georgia, a freak snowstorm hit grounding all flights from the city. They were supposed to perform in Houston that night but couldn't get away. Prince, who did own and manage The Time, fired them. The rest became history.
Working with Jam and Lewis gave Tabu a much-needed shot in the arm. They had brought Cherelle and Alexander O'Neal (the original Time lead vocalist) to the label and both had hit the ground running with Alexander O'Neal's self-titled and Cherrelle's "Fragile" began to smoke the American R&B charts. The SOS Band hit more lightning strikes with "The Way You Like It" in 1984 and "Sands of Time" in 1986. So influential was the sound that Robert Palmer covered Cherelle's "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" in 1986 and Beats International covered The SOS Band's "Just Be Good To Me" in 1990. In 1986, Cherelle and Alexander O'Neal sang the duet "Saturday Love" which was a bigger hit in the UK but catch on with American radio. Other acts like Kid Fire and Demetrius Perry recorded on this label.
But things began to take a weird turn for the label. Despite all of the good music released by the label, Epic Associated became Sony Music Entertainment in 1988 but didn't flex these muscles until 1990. Tabu released one knockoff by The SOS Band called "Diamonds in the Raw". It didn't do well at all. In 1991, the label reappeared through A&M Records, while in the same year, Alexander O'Neal's "All True Man" was the last album Tabu released under the new Sony regime.
A&M had a little problem about handling Tabu: trying to handle it. The label released four albums and then disappeared for nearly three years. PolyGram (A&M's distributor) intervened by doing a shake-up of the labels it owns. It tried to group labels together to make them stronger. Tabu was handed to Motown (another PolyGram label) in 1993 and Motown began to run with it. It had released collections by The SOS Band, Alexander O'Neal and Cherelle while breaking ground on other artists like Lucky Dube and Identity Crisis.
However, this was short-lived as well. In 1998, Universal bought out PolyGram thus forming the Universal Music and Video Distribution Group a few months later in 1999. Staffs at Motown, A&M and Geffen were slashed: Motown went to Universal while A&M and Geffen became part of the A&M/Imterscope/Geffen Group. Tabu disappeared once more.
In 2002, EMI Music's Rhino-like label called The Right Stuff bought Tabu's releases and began reissuing them subsequently.
