Musicor Records

For the Canadian record label that also used the Musicor name, see Distribution Select.

Musicor Records was a New York City based record label, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The label was founded by songwriter Aaron Schroeder and distributed by United Artists Records. In 1965, UA employee and A&R man Art Talmadge (a co-founder of Mercury Records years earlier) started his own Talmadge Productions company and, along with fellow UA employee/A&R man Harold "Pappy" Daily, bought the Musicor label from UA.

The Musicor catalog is today owned by Gusto Records.

Subsidiary and reissue labels

After Art Talmadge bought the Musicor label, he formed two budget subsidiary labels (MusicVoice and Music Disc/MusicO) as well as two short-lived commercial subsidiaries, Ariel and Dynamo. Reissued singles were released under the Musicor Startime Series label.

Best-selling artists

Musicor's best-selling artists ran the gamut of genres. The label's most successful artist was pop star Gene Pitney, who gave Musicor its biggest hit with "Only Love Can Break A Heart". Bert Berns produced Jimmy Radcliffe's recording of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song "Long After Tonight Is All Over" in 1964 that proved to be one of Northern Soul music's most enduring anthems. After a few years with no hits, popular R&B vocal group The Platters made a comeback on Musicor with the Northern Soul classics "I Love You 1000 Times" and "With This Ring". Other artists rounding out the Musicor stable included Kenny Dino, Bethea Harmon, Steve Rossi (of the comic duo Allen & Rossi), Puerto Rican sensation Tito Rodriguez, middle-of-the-road orchestra leader Hugo Winterhalter, rock group Street People, and country music singers George Jones and Melba Montgomery.

Musicor also produced some of the earliest recordings featuring the Moog Synthesizer. The one-hit wonder, Hot Butter, scored a Top 10 hit for the label in 1972 with the song "Popcorn" (which was also Musicor's last big hit). The Electric Moog Orchestra was also on the Musicor roster, specializing in synthesized versions of John Williams music.

See also

• List of record labels

External links

• The Musicor Records Story
• Musicor Records Discography