Record Labels Trivia

1. In 1963, this label, an imprint of ABC-Paramount, saw a cover of "Misty" by an artist dubbed Mr. Personality peak at number 21 for its only Top 40 appearance.

From Quiz One-Hit LABELS of the 60s (U.S.A. specific)

Answer: Double-L

The artist was Lloyd Price and the label's name echoed the twin consonants beginning his first name. It would be Price's and the label's final excursion into the pop Top 40, though Price would continue with moderate success on the R&B charts into the 1970s.

From Quiz MOTOWN

Answer: Pagliacci

He had heard the story of Pagliacci, the Italian clown from the opera written by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Pagliacci was cheered and applauded by the crowds he entertained, but when he returned to his dressing room after a show he would cry because he didn't have the love of his own wife, who was having an affair.The music was composed by Stevie Wonder and Hank Crosby. When Stevie recorded aof it, he had no lyrics to go with it, so he gave it to Smokey Robinson who had always wanted to write a song that was a version of Pagliacci's story. So this was his opportunity.

From Quiz Swan Song

Answer: Led Zeppelin

The Swan Song record label was set up in 1974 after Led Zeppelin's contract with Atlantic records came to an end in 1973. The label finished operations in 1983 and now only exists to reissue previously released material.

From Quiz The Labels: Atco

Answer: Sonny and Cher

"I Got You Babe" was written by Sonny Bono and released as a single in July 1965. The Sonny and Cher version of the song was very successful in the United States peaking at the number one spot on the Billboard Charts and finished the year off at number sixteen. Since its release, there have been various cover versions of the song that include the 1985 rendition by UB40 ft. Chrissy Hynde as well as the 1993 version with Cher ft. Beavis and Butthead. The UB40 version charted in the US Top 40.

From Quiz The Labels: Arista

Answer: Real McCoy

Formed in 1988, the band Real McCoy found minor success with a breakthrough track titled "Pump The Jam Rap", a cover of Technotronic's "Pump Up The Jam", peaking at number sixteen in Germany. Mainstream success for the band took place both in Europe and in North America in the mid 1990s beginning with their 1993 Billboard hit "Another Night" that peaked in at number three (and also number one on the US Dance Charts). Between 1994 and 1997, Real McCoy also had five other Top 20 hits on the US Dance Charts, specifically "Automatic Lover (Call for Love)", "Run Away", and "Come and Get Your Love" all charting in the top three.

From Quiz Recording Studios

Answer: Steve Vai

"Stucco Blue" was a large, converted two-room shed behind the house that Vai bought in Sylmar, California. At first an 8-track studio, he later had it upgraded to 24 track capabilities.

From Quiz Stories Behind Record Labels

Answer: Decca

After performing 15 songs for producer Tony Meehan of Decca Records, the decision was made not to offer the group a record contract. The decision was based on the fact that the company felt guitar based music was going nowhere and the group didn't have a future in show business. Obviously, that was a huge error. Instead, Decca decided to offer the contract to The Tremeloes, a talented band who went on to release some great music, but had nowhere near the success of The Beatles.

From Quiz Red Bird Records

Answer: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller began their songwriting collaboration in the fifties with such hits as "Hound Dog" and "Kansas City". They wrote many of Elvis Presley's hits as well as songs recorded by The Drifters, The Coasters and numerous other artists. Their first record company was Sparks records. In 1953 they released "Smokey Joe's Cafe" and "Riot in Cell Block" by The Robins along with other less successful efforts. When Atlantic Records bought Spark the pair became free-lance writers until forming Red Bird Records in 1962. Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote such classic Number One hits as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "Take Good Care of My Baby". Burt Bacharach and Hal David met at the Bill Building in 1957 and went on to collaborate on numerous hits such as "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head". Pomus and Schumann also met the same year at the Brill Building and wrote such classics as "A Teenager in Love", "Save The Last Dance For Me" and many more.

From Quiz Philles Records Lyrics

Answer: Be My Baby

"Be My Baby" was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector, and the Ronettes had a number two hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with it in 1963. The song was also a hit for Andy Kim in 1970. Hal Blaine's opening drum line to the song has been copied by dozens of different artists, from the Beach Boys to the Jesus & Mary Chain to R.E.M.

From Quiz Chess Records

Answer: Chicago, Illinois

Leonard bought into Chicago-based Aristocrat Records in the late forties. Charles and Evelyn Aron and other partners formed the company in 1947. In September, 1947, Leonard Chess invested heavily in the label and the following year Leonard Chess and Evelyn Aron were operating the label. By 1950 Chess was the sole owner and invited his brother Phil to help manage the company, renamed Chess Records. Lejzor Czyz was born in Poland and when the Czyz family emigrated to the US their name was changed to Chess. Lejzor became Leonard and Fiszel's name was changed to Phil. Leonard and Phil became owners of nightclubs on Chicago's South Side and gradually became involved in the recording business to record artists who were performing in their clubs. Cadet Records, Checker Records and Cadet Concept Records were subsidiaries of Chess.

From Quiz Reprise Records-The Early Years

Answer: Ring-a-Ding-Ding!

The "Ring-a-Ding-Ding!" album was recorded by Frank Sinatra at Reprise over three days in mid-December, 1960 and released in 1961. Johnny Mandel was the arranger. In addition to the title song, the album featured such classics as "A Foggy Day", "Let's Fall in Love", "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and "Let's Face the Music and Dance" among the 15 tracks contained on the LP. The title track was written specifically for the album for Frank by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen. The album was released to good reviews and reached number four on the Billboard Album Chart. "Sinatra's Swingin' Session!" was simultaneously released by Capital. "This Is Sinatra!" was released by Capitol in 1956 and in 1959 Capitol released "Look to Your Heart". Interesting fact; Frank earned his nickname, "Chairman of the Board", from his ownership of Reprise Records.

From Quiz Monument Records

Answer: Hendersonville, Tennessee

Monument Records was formed in 1958 and had their recording studio and offices in the Nashville suburb of Henderson, Tennessee. Fred Foster and Bob Moore founded the company. Bob Moore was a bass player who was performing with Little Jimmy Dickens and Red Foley by the time he was in his teens. By the late fifties he was recording with Elvis and other notables when he co-formed Monument Records. Two years later he formed the Bob Moore Orchestra and recorded the Billboard Top Ten hit, "Mexico". Fred Foster had previously worked for Mercury Records and ABC-Paramount in Washington, DC. He conceived the idea of Monument Records from his days in DC and invested his life's savings into staring the company. He also produced many of the hits recorded at Monument Records. Fred was also a songwriter and co-wrote "Me and Bobby McGee" with Kris Kristofferson.

From Quiz Philles Records 1962-67

Answer: Lester Sill

The label name was a combination of their first names: PHIL-LES. Sill produced three of the first five records released on Philles and then was squeezed out of the label by Spector. Sill later commented that, after working with Spector, "I just wanted ... out of there. If I wouldn't have [sold out], I would have killed him. It wasn't worth the aggravation." Sill then became head of Colgems Records, The Monkees' label, and served as musical director of the Monkees both before Brill Building head (and New Yorker) Don Kirshner was hired for that role during recording of their first album and then again after Don Kirshner was fired following their second album; the Monkees won the right to control their own musical output only after the success of their fourth record, "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd." Once again, though, Sill's contribution was overshadowed by a bigger self-promoter.

From Quiz Immediate Records 1965-70

Answer: Andrew Loog Oldham

Oldham, the Stone's manager and producer in 1965, set up the company in partnership with promotion agent Tony Calder. They followed the same model previously used by Phil Spector to create Philles Records in the 1960s. Oldham and Calder's focus was on the successful blues scene in England. Jagger and Richards were very involved with the label at the beginning. Unfortunately, Oldham was not as good a business manager as he was a visionary, and (again, unlike Apple) the label consistently lost money despite its artistic successes.

From Quiz The Heydays of the RSO Label

Answer: "How Deep is Your Love" by The Bee Gees

"How Deep is Your Love" was the first single released off of the wildly successful "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, and, fittingly enough, it was the first number one hit from the album. Although the song controlled the top spot for only three weeks, it remained in the top ten for an impressive 17 consecutive weeks. The other songs mentioned were all in the top 5 for the "How Deep is Your Love"'s first week, with "You Light Up My Life" at number 2, "Blue Bayou" at 3, and "It's So Easy" at 5 (making it a pretty good week for Miss Ronstadt). Missing from the list was the number 4 single, "Back in Love Again" by LTD.

From Quiz Record Labels

Answer: Factory Records

On May 19, 1978, Manchunian TV presenter Tony Wilson decided to start a club night, called Factory. Among the artists who played at these nights were bands like Joy Division and Durutti Column. In September of the same year a double 7" was released, called "A Factory Sampler", featuring some of the bands that played at the club. And so began the story of this infamous record label. For more info see the movie "24 Hour Party People" (2002), directed by Michael Winterbottom.

From Quiz Artists And Their Record Labels in the USA

Answer: RCA Victor

Before they adopted the famous "His Masters' Voice" logo, this record company was known as Monarch Records. Almost everyone remembers watching Nipper spinning around his or her record player growing up!

From Quiz U.S. Record Labels of the 1960s

Answer: Swan

The Beatles, believe it or not, had Top 40 hits on each of these labels during 1964. Capitol: "I Want To Hold Your Hand", Tollie: "Love Me Do", Vee Jay: "Please Please Me", Swan: "She Loves You", Atco: "Ain't She Sweet" and MGM: "My Bonnie". Quite an accomplishment. Capitol owned the rights to most of them. Not knowing how popular they were to soon become, they sold the rights to most of them to Vee Jay. Vee Jay then gave one to their subsidiary Tollie and sold the others to Atco and Swan. The one MGM owned was done in Germany by The Beatles with Tony Sheridan. Interesting note: I have "From Me To You"/"Please Please Me" on VJ 581 and "From Me To You"/"Thank You Girl" on Vee Jay 522.

From Quiz Elephant 6 Bands

Answer: Apples in Stereo

Rob produces many of the other bands' albums. A great guy with a knack for catchy pop songs.

From Quiz Record Labels

Answer: Capitol dome logo

The Capitol dome logo is at the bottom of the labels on the B-sides with sliced apple. In 1971, Apple re-released all the Beatles' Capitol singles from 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' in 1964 to 'Lady Madonna' in 1968. Originals of these re-releases have black stars on the 'whole apple' A-sides. A red apple was only known to be used once, and that was for the 'Let It Be' album in 1970.

From Quiz MOTOWN

Answer: Mary Wells

Mary Wells had a huge hit with "My Guy" and was known as "The Queen of Motown" until she left them in 1964, but she was not one of the Supremes. Those three young ladies had just graduated high school, and were among Berry Gordy's favorites, his "little special girls" as Mary Wilson recalled years later.

From Quiz Swan Song

Answer: Hipgnosis

Hipgnosis was an art design group which was based in London and began designing album covers in 1968. They gained recognition after designing the cover for Pink Floyd's classic album "Dark Side of the Moon". The logo for Swan Song was based on a painting by Liverpool born American painter William Rimmer called "Fall of Day" which featured the Greek god Apollo.

From Quiz The Labels: Atco

Answer: Deep Purple

"Deep Purple" was first published and composed as an instrumental song in 1933 by American jazz musician Peter DeRose. In 1938, lyrics were added to the song by American-Lithuanian lyricist Mitchell Parish. In 1963, Nino Tempo and his sister Carol LoTempio (using the stage name April Stephens) released their version of the song which charted at the number one spot on the US Billboard charts and had sold over a million copies by the following year. The song would be the only charting single by the sibling duo in the United States.

From Quiz The Labels: Arista

Answer: Monica

Monica Denise Brown (simply known by her stage name as Monica) had eight Top Ten hits on the US Billboard charts between 1995 and 2003. "The Boy Is Mine", "The First Night", and "Angel of Mine" all reached the number one spot on the charts and all reached Platinum status in the United States. Her studio album "The Boy Is Mine", released by Arista Records in 1998 went 3x Platinum in both Canada and the United States and featured all three number one hits.

From Quiz Welcome to Death Row

Answer: Doggystyle

While many albums have reached number one the week of their release, none had ever been an artist's debut album. However, the success of Dr. Dre's "The Chronic", which featured Snoop on most of the tracks, set the table for "Doggystyle". The album shipped over 800,000 units upon its release on November 23, 1993 becoming a first week sales record that wouldn't be eclipsed until Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP" in 2000. By that time, "Doggystyle" had been certified 4x platinum by the RIAA.

From Quiz Recording Studios

Answer: Abbey Road

First built in the 1830's as a townhouse, this recording mecca has been a must-see for Beatles fans, for most of their material was laid down on tape here.

From Quiz Shipyardbernie's Greatest Hits:UK London Label

Answer: Pat Boone

"Love Letters In The Sand" entered the UK chart in Jul 1957 and reached number two. It entered the US pop chart in May 1957 and was number one for seven weeks. Written in 1931 by J. Fred Coots/Charles Kenny/Nicholas Kenny "Love Letters In The Sand" was released on the Dot record label in the US. Pat Boone had six US and one UK number one hits between 1955 and 1961. He had his last Top 10 hit on the US and UK pop charts with a song about a Mexican rodent "Speedy Gonzales", it reached number six on the US pop chart and number two on the UK chart in 1962.

From Quiz Stories Behind Record Labels

Answer: Frank Sinatra

It was after Sinatra entered the record business that he got the name "Chairman of the Board". Sinatra's premise was that his artists would have complete control and ownership of their music. The initial stable of artists included obvious selections such as Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., but he offered opportunities to artists as diverse as Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and even comedian Redd Foxx. In 1963 the company was sold to Warner Bros., which has been the distributor of Reprise's music ever since. Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Green Day and Eric Clapton are some of the heavyweight acts who have recorded for Reprise over the years.

From Quiz Red Bird Records

Answer: The Dixie Cups

"People Say", "I Wonder", "Little Bell" and "Iko Iko" were other singles released by New Orleans-based The Dixie Cups but none of them managed to succeed as well as their first release, "Going to the Chapel". The song was written by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. It was one of many hits that Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich collaborated on while with the label. Singer Joe Jones connected the girls with the Red Bird label. When Red Bird folded the act signed with ABC-Paramount but never released any hits with the new label. The Butterflys recorded "The Swim" and "Good Night Baby" on Red Bird in 1964. The Lovejoys released "It's Mighty Nice" in 1964. The Red Bird release, "You Never Had It So Good" was done by The Four-Evers in 1966.

From Quiz Philles Records Lyrics

Answer: You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

Although Philles only produced two records that reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by the Righteous Brothers not only was one of the two but also received the most radio airplay of any recording during the 20th century. Not bad for a song that wasn't recorded until 1965, when the century was almost two-thirds over. The song was written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Phil Spector, and the lead vocal is sung by baritone Bill Medley, with his partner, tenor Bobby Hatfield, only joining in on the chorus and at the end.

This is category 18495

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.