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Kapp Records

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Parent company
  
MCA Inc.

Status
  
Inactive

Genre
  
Various

Founded
  
1955

Founder
  
David Kapp

Distributor(s)
  
MCA Records

Country of origin
  
U.S.

Defunct
  
1973

Kapp Records wwwbsnpubscomdeccakappkapplogo4jpg

Artists
  
Cher, Jack Jones, Sonny & Cher, Silver Apples, Roger Williams

Albums
  
Foxy Lady, Contact, Parallelograms, Silver Apples, Cuddlebug

Kapp Records was an independent record label started in 1954 by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp (who had set up American Decca Records in 1934). David Kapp founded his own label after stints with Decca Records and RCA Victor Records. Kapp licensed its records to London Records for release in the UK.

Contents

In 1967, David Kapp sold his label to MCA Inc. and the label was placed under Uni Records management; Kapp was consolidated with MCA's other record labels in 1971 and, in 1973, MCA Records released the last Kapp record. Catalogue albums that continued to sell were renumbered and reissued on the MCA label.

Kapp's subsidiaries included Medallion Records (an audiophile label), Congress Records, Leader Records, and Four Corners Records with its "4 Corners of the World" log. Four Corners was formed to promote European artists, such as Françoise Hardy, Raymond Lefèvre, and the Barclay Singers.

History

  • 1954: Kapp Records was created by David Kapp.
  • 1960: Kapp Records released one of the first cover versions of songs from The Sound of Music, which was running on Broadway at that time. The Pete King Chorale was featured on the album.
  • 1964: Kapp Records released "Hello Dolly" sung by Louis Armstrong that became the number one song in America on Billboard Top 100, two months after The Beatles' arrived from England.
  • 1966: The record label released the original cast album of Man of La Mancha, perhaps their most successful cast album.
  • 1967: David Kapp sold his label to MCA Inc. and became a division of Uni Records.
  • 1973: MCA released the last Kapp record. The catalog and artist roster was absorbed by MCA Records.
  • 2003: MCA Records is absorbed into Geffen Records, which currently manages Kapp's pop/rock/R&B catalogs. The country, jazz, and musical theatre catalogs are now managed by MCA Nashville Records, GRP Records, and Decca Broadway, respectively. Decca Broadway released a remastered version of the Man of La Mancha original cast album in 2001.

    • Label variations

    Throughout Kapp's history, its logo was a stylized "K" incorporating a phonograph record design. Three versions of this logo appeared during the company's history. Until 1970, this logo also appeared on a drum major's cap in a wordplay of the label's name.

  • 1950s: Stylized "K/record" logo and KAPP at top of either red/white, silver/maroon or purplish red/white labels.
  • Early 1960s: Black label with white "K/record" logo and KAPP in red at top, a similar design had a red drum major cap and KAPP in yellow at top.
  • Mid to late 1960s: Black label with red drum major cap (showing "K/record" logo in yellow) and KAPP in black letters in white box at left for singles, at top for albums.
  • 1970-1972: Purple, red, orange and yellow label with new "K" logo, either in black or in white inside black box, at left. (A few 1970s releases were also pressed with the mid-to-late 1960s black label.)

    • References

    Kapp Records Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA