Founded 1969 Parent organization General Recorded Tape | Ceased operations 1979 | |
GRT Records was a record label created by General Recorded Tape. Concurrently with the 1979 demise of General Recorded Tape, the record label ceased to exist.
History
GRT Records was established by parent company General Recorded Tape in 1969, and existed until 1979, when General Recorded Tape went bankrupt. Artists who released material on GRT Records in the United States included The Mojo Men, Sam Taylor, Lighthouse, Bobby Jameson, Edwards Hand, Terry Bush, Ronnie Hawkins, Colosseum, Mainline, Minnie Riperton, Flower Travellin' Band, Rastus, String Driven Thing, Lotti Golden, Van der Graaf Generator and Steve Hackett. Contrary to original expectations, the label was not a major component of the operations of parent General Recorded Tape. Instead of its record releases being referenced to the GRT label, as originally announced, General Recorded Tape referred to its Chess/Janus record operations. In contrast, the Canadian subsidiary of General Recorded Tape, also known as GRT Records, became a major source of original releases by Canadian artists.
In 1976, GRT Records established a subsidiary, Sunnyvale Records, which concentrated on releases of interest to an older audience, including releases of Dixieland, organ, harmonica and accordion music.
With the 1979 bankruptcy filing of parent General Recorded Tape, GRT Records ceased operations.