Atco Records

• 1. Introduction

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  ATCO Records, an American label founded in 1955, once released a Beatles single that climbed to No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1964. John Lennon sang the lead vocal on it. Today the label belongs to Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. Yet for long stretches its name disappeared from the market altogether. Why was a label created at all, when its parent already had a busy catalogue? How did one small imprint come to carry artists as different as the Who and AC/DC? And why did it need to be relaunched, not once, but twice?

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• 2. An Outlet for Abramson

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  Herb Abramson, one of the founders of Atlantic Records, returned to the company after military service with productions of his own. ATCO was devised as the outlet for them. The label had a second job as well. Atlantic's main brand was releasing blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and soul, so ATCO was meant to house acts that did not fit that format.

  The planned name was Atlas. Then it was discovered that an Atlas Records already existed, and the name had to change. The replacement, ATCO, is an abbreviation of ATlantic COrporation.

  Betty Carter and Helen Merrill show that the earliest catalogue leaned toward jazz, even though pop and rock defined most of the label's history. Other jazz albums came from Harry Arnold, King Curtis, Herb Geller and Roland Hanna. The rock era began soon after, with Bobby Darin and The Coasters.

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• 3. Imports and Rock

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  In the early 1960s, Atlantic began to license material from international sources, and ATCO carried some of the results. Instrumental hit singles arrived from Jorgen Ingmann, Acker Bilk and Bent Fabric.

  Starting in the mid-1960s, ATCO moved into rock and roll. Sonny and Cher, Buffalo Springfield, Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly all joined the roster. Cream was on the list too, but its records came under license from the British label Polydor.

  Licensing could produce odd results. One of the stranger cases involved a recording made in Hamburg, long before it reached American shops.

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• 4. The Hamburg Tapes

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  Tony Sheridan was the lead singer on the flip side of that Beatles single, a song called Nobody's Child. The single itself had been recorded in Hamburg in 1961. Its A-side, Ain't She Sweet, carried the lead vocals of John Lennon.

  For the American release, a session drummer named Bernard Purdie overdubbed new drums on the track. The recording that reached listeners was therefore not quite the one made in Germany.

  ATCO also issued an album entitled Ain't She Sweet. It held the other two tracks that Sheridan and The Beatles had made at the Hamburg session. Eight more songs, covered by The Swallows, filled out the rest of the record.

  Two years later, ATCO issued another British single, and this one arrived wrapped in a legal dispute.

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• 5. A Substitute Lyric

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  The Who were caught in a tangle in 1966. They were fighting with their producer, Shel Talmy, and they were bound by contract to US Decca Records and UK Brunswick Records. ATCO could release "Substitute" only through an arrangement with UK Polydor Records.

  The American version differs from the British one in two ways. The structure is edited differently, with the break coming after the first verse instead of the second. One lyric is also changed. The ATCO release sings "I try walking forward but my feet walk back" in place of "I look all white but my dad was black".

  This would be the only Who recording to appear on ATCO. Still, the band's members drifted back to the family of labels. Pete Townshend and John Entwistle eventually signed to ATCO as solo artists. Roger Daltrey later signed a US solo deal with Atlantic.

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• 6. Turning Down the Volume

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  During the 1970s, Atlantic Records began to broaden the range of its own roster. ATCO was deemphasized as many of its acts eventually had their material released under the main Atlantic brand. In the middle of the decade, the label was increasingly used for hard rock acts and some British and European bands. It issued early albums from AC/DC. Starting in 1978, however, AC/DC releases came out on Atlantic, and they stayed there until the contract ended in the 1990s.

  Pete Townshend's album Empty Glass raised the label's visibility in 1980, and so did Gary Numan's song "Cars". As the decade wore on, success continued with Sweet Sensation, JJ Fad and Michel'le. The last two were signed in conjunction with Ruthless Records. Overall, though, the label grew steadily less active.

  The last number one hit on ATCO was "If Wishes Came True" by Sweet Sensation, in 1990. The following year, Sylvia Rhone, a senior vice president at Atlantic, orchestrated a merger of ATCO with EastWest Records America, a fledgling Atlantic label. For a short time the pair ran as Atco/EastWest Records. By 1994 the ATCO name was dropped, and the label reverted to the EastWest Records America branding.

  EastWest then moved its operations to Elektra Records, a sister label of Atlantic. When Elektra took over EastWest, ATCO's back catalog and retained artists came under its control. Over the next decade the ATCO name and logo appeared only occasionally, on reissues of past material, while the imprint itself stayed dormant. Its catalog sat in Elektra's hands, waiting for a film about Bobby Darin.

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• 7. Roster and Partners

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  Dream Theater, Pantera, Yes and Manowar share the ATCO roster with Otis Redding and Donny Hathaway. The list also holds Cher, Chuck Berry, Dr. John and Andy Williams. It is a record of range more than of any single sound.

  Several names carry a partner label beside them. Otis Redding appears as Stax/Atco, Natalie Cole as Modern/Atco, and the Allman Brothers Band as Capricorn/Atco. Southside Johnny and the Jukes are listed as Mirage/Atco, and The D.O.C. as Ruthless/Atco.

  ATCO also provided distribution for other labels, including RSO, Volt, Island, Modern, Ruthless, Hansa and Rolling Stones.

  Many entries carry a territory note. AC/DC is listed outside Australia, while Genesis and Peter Gabriel are listed for the US and Canada. One entry, Rebel Heels, is marked Atco Aus.

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• 8. Two Relaunches

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  Beyond the Sea, a biopic about Bobby Darin starring Kevin Spacey, gave ATCO its first stir in 2005. The label, in a joint venture with Rhino Records, released the soundtrack, which featured Spacey's renditions of Darin's songs. The imprint had spent more than a decade in hibernation. The release led Warner Music Group to reactivate the label in 2006, again in conjunction with Rhino.

  Scarlett Johansson, Keith Sweat and Art Garfunkel were among the first artists signed. Garfunkel issued Some Enchanted Evening on the 30th of January 2007. Johansson issued Anywhere I Lay My Head on the 20th of May 2008. Queensrÿche released its album American Soldier on the 31st of March 2009. The New York Dolls followed with Cause I Sez So on the 5th of May 2009. Shortly afterward, ATCO went dormant again.

  In early 2020, ATCO returned to the aegis of Atlantic Records and was relaunched. On the 14th of February, Billboard announced that Pete Ganbarg, Atlantic's President of A&R, had been appointed president of the newly relaunched label. Its first signing under him was Zero 9:36, a Philadelphia-based alternative act.

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