Founded 1981 | ||
Applause Records was a short-lived record label featuring popular standards performers, nearly all of them vocalists. It was founded in Beverly Hills, California, in 1981 by record company executive and music publisher Arthur Mogull. The label released albums by Shirley Bassey, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Sammy Davis Jr., Robert Goulet, Vic Damone, Jack Jones, Tony Martin, The Lettermen and Peter Nero, among others.
In December 1981 Peggy Lee said she was considering joining the label, although she never did.
A 1988 newspaper story gave Steve Lawrence credit for founding Applause Records, saying he did so "out of acute frustration."
In 1990 the Lewis Horowitz Company, which provided funding for the label, foreclosed on it and was assigned the catalog. Horowitz subsequently sold the catalog to William Brown Associates in 1997; that company was subsequently acquired by Reach Entertainment in 1999, with Reach itself acquired by Margate Entertainment in 2005.