Colgems Records

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Colgems Records
RCA Victor
Founded1966 (1966)
Defunct1971 (1971)
StatusDefunct
Distributor(s)RCA Victor
Country of originU.S.

Colgems Records was a record label that existed from 1966 to 1971.

History

Colgems was a joint venture between

RCA Victor to issue records by The Monkees
and other artists affiliated with Columbia/Screen Gems. The label would also issue soundtrack recordings for Screen Gems and Columbia Pictures productions. RCA acted as manufacturer and distributor for Colgems. Outside of the United States, Colgems productions appeared on the RCA Victor label.

An earlier label,

Rhino Records unit holding the rights in North America and its Parlophone
unit the rights in the rest of the world.

The non-Monkees Colgems roster included Sally Field, Jewel Akens, Sajid Khan, Paula Wayne, P.K. Limited, the Hung Jury, Fountain of Youth, The Lewis & Clarke Expedition (whose members included Michael Martin Murphey), Hoyt Axton, Alex Keenan and comedian Rich Little. Soundtracks to Oliver!, In Cold Blood, Head, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner were also released on Colgems. The soundtrack to Casino Royale in particular was lauded by audio specialists for its sound quality.

Decline and phaseout

Colgems Records slumped after the critical and commercial failure of the final Monkees album

master recordings and artists were folded into Bell Records, which, unlike Colgems, was wholly owned by Columbia Pictures. Bell itself was later disbanded and Columbia's music division was reorganized into Arista Records, headed by Clive Davis
.

In 1979, Columbia Pictures sold Arista (including the Colgems assets) to

Ariola Records. Six years later, Ariola's parent company, BMG, merged with RCA Records
.

Today, the assets of Colgems Records (except for the Monkees' output) are controlled by

Rhino Records, which licensed the group's original Colgems LPs from Arista and reissued them in the mid-1980s. Rhino acquired the entire Monkees audio catalog, The Monkees TV series, their 1968 feature film Head
, and the rights to The Monkees name and logo, in August 1994.

SME merged Arista into RCA Records in 2011 but revived it in 2018.

SGC Records

A label related to Colgems was SGC (Screen Gems-Columbia) Records. SGC issued albums by Nazz through Atlantic Records in a distribution deal similar to the one Screen Gems held with RCA.

See also

References

External links

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