Beserkley Records was an American independent record label based in Berkeley, California , from 1973 to 1984. Beserkley is usually regarded as a power pop and rock and roll label. During the 1970s, the label released albums by Earth Quake , Greg Kihn , Jonathan Richman , and The Modern Lovers , the Rubinoos , and the Tyla Gang . Several other artists appeared on singles, or on compilation albums . From 1980 to its dissolution in 1984, Beserkley was a one-artist label, the artist being Greg Kihn.
35-448: The label was founded by Matthew King Kaufman , along with members of the Bay Area band Earth Quake . Kaufman was a law graduate who became co-manager of Earth Quake, and helped them sign with A&M Records in 1970. After experiencing frustration at what he saw as A&M's incompetence in handling the band, and winning some compensation for the unauthorized use of Earth Quake's music in
70-500: A deal with New World Pictures to set up a feature film company called Rhino Films. The first project planned by Rhino Films was to be a film about the rock band Big Daddy , which was a Rhino group that was returned to the US after several years of absence. In 1985, Rhino signed a six-year distribution agreement with Capitol Records . During 1989 Rhino and Capitol's parent EMI made a deal to jointly acquire Roulette Records ; Rhino received
105-434: A long run of success, Kihn's 1984 album Kihntagious was a comparative flop, and Kaufman essentially shut down Beserkley. He blamed the label's demise on "corporate rock": "When marketing costs surpassed production budgets, it stopped being fun," he later said in an interview for a 2004 Beserkley label compilation. Kaufman followed Kihn to EMI , where he remained Kihn's producer for his two EMI albums. He licensed some of
140-416: A number of influential old school hip hop and electro 12" singles that were released in the early to mid-1980s. While a few of the singles are early releases from Hip-Hop artists who would go on to greater success later on in the decade such as Run-DMC and Slick Rick , the majority of the tracks in the series are considered one-hit wonders by acts who have fallen into relative obscurity but that had
175-445: A record shop on Westwood Boulevard , Los Angeles, in 1973, run by Richard Foos, and became a record distributor five years later thanks to the effort of then-store manager Harold Bronson. Their early releases were mostly novelty records (such as their first single, in 1975, Wild Man Fischer 's "Go to Rhino Records"). The difficulties involved in getting airplay and distribution for such material eventually caused Foos and Bronson to take
210-618: Is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group . Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus. Founded in 1978, Rhino was originally a novelty and reissue label during the 1970s and 1980s. It released compilation albums of pop , rock & roll , and rhythm & blues successes from the 1950s through the 1980s, as well as novelty-song LPs (compiled in-house or by Dr. Demento ) and retrospectives of famous comedy performers, including Richard Pryor , Stan Freberg , Tom Lehrer , and Spike Jones . Rhino started as
245-457: The 'Rhino Handmade' division of limited-edition releases available primarily from their website. All Handmade deluxe editions were limited to about 3,000 copies or fewer, and once sold out were not re-pressed. In 2003, co-founders and longtime executives Richard Foos and Harold Bronson left Rhino, reportedly due to frustration with the challenges of an increasingly competitive market. In fact, Time Warner's final vesting of its 100 percent ownership of
280-495: The 1980s and 1990s, the company's head of A&R , Gary Stewart, signed artists who recorded new music, including Cindy Lee Berryhill , Steve Wynn , Rank and File , Gene Clark and Carla Olson , The Textones, and NRBQ . These albums were released on the main Rhino label and on subsidiary labels such as RNA (Rhino New Artists) and Forward. However, the company's artists tended to generate more critical acclaim than public interest; for
315-620: The American album charts and received steady airplay on FM radio. By the end of 1980, Kihn was the only artist on the Beserkley roster, and in 1981 he had his first top 40 hit with "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)". Kihn's early 1980s albums Rockihnroll (1981), Kihntinued (1982) and Kihnspiracy (1983) all reached the top 40 on the LP charts, and his 1983 single " Jeopardy " became Beserkley's biggest-ever hit, peaking at US No. 2. The label's demise
350-1124: The Beach Boys , Yes , the Doobie Brothers , the Cars , Chicago , Tom Paxton , Third Eye Blind , the Doors , War , Spirit of the West and, most recently, the Bee Gees ; as well as soundtracks spanning the Turner-owned pre-1986 MGM and pre-1950 Warner Bros. periods, in addition to WB's own post-1949 period. Rhino's soundtrack releases include Gone with the Wind , The Wizard of Oz , Easter Parade , North by Northwest , Casablanca , King Kong , Doctor Zhivago , Superman , and Finian's Rainbow . The Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. film soundtrack libraries are currently managed by Warner Bros.' in-house label subsidiary, WaterTower Music . In 1999, Rhino started
385-560: The Beserkley Records catalogue to Rhino Records in 1986. He also continued to act as an occasional talent scout/producer, discovering Ed Haynes and producing his 1989 debut Ed Haynes Sings Ed Haynes for Apache Records. In 1991, Kaufman co-founded Eastern Light Productions, producing a series of award winning Russian historical documentaries in collaboration with the Soviet Filmmakers' Society, Kinocenter . In 1996, he launched
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#1732863135185420-470: The Beserkley singles were especially successful, but in 1975 some were assembled, together with newly recorded tracks, into the album Beserkley Chartbusters Vol. 1 . As well as tracks by Earth Quake, this included tracks by power-pop group the Rubinoos , Jonathan Richman and Greg Kihn . Richman's recordings were his first as a solo performer (after the disbanding of the original Modern Lovers ) and included
455-839: The Modern Lovers made the American charts, they were quite successful in the UK, with the singles "Roadrunner (Once)" and "Egyptian Reggae" making the UK Singles Chart . Other 1970s Beserkley acts had less commercial success, although the Rubinoos made the US charts, hitting No. 45 with a cover of " I Think We're Alone Now " in 1977. As well, Earth Quake made the lower rungs of the American LP charts with their second of four albums for Beserkley (1976's 8.5 , which peaked at No. 151). Beserkley's records were initially distributed by Playboy Records until about 1977 (and during part of 1976, Playboy itself
490-638: The Old School ) and catalog material from the Warner vaults. Led Zeppelin 's 2007 release Mothership and the soundtrack to the film Juno are among the label's successes. In 2013, WMG acquired certain EMI assets divested by Universal Music Group including Parlophone and worldwide rights to Roulette Records. Those assets are now managed by Rhino. Street Jams is a series of compilation albums issued by Rhino Entertainment between 1992 and 1994. The albums catalogue
525-664: The Son Of Beserkley label. In 2008, Kaufman launched a new label, Fun Fun Fun Recordings . Their first release was a compilation called "MP3 Jackpot Winners" which features songs discovered via the MP3 Jackpot website. Other 2008 Fun Fun Fun releases include "Skankin' Foolz Unite!" by Berkeley ska band, the Uptones , and "Repulsa" by metal goth act Repulsa . In 2009, Fun Fun Fun released CDs by Sex 4 Moderns, Hobo, and Stiff Richards, all produced by Kaufman. In 2009, Kaufman commissioned
560-412: The U.S. rights to Roulette's catalog, excluding jazz. When the distribution deal with Capitol ended in 1992, Rhino signed a new distribution deal with Atlantic Records , and in turn Time Warner bought a 50 percent stake in the record company. In 1993, Rhino's home video unit ended its deal with Uni and moved its deal to A*Vision Entertainment . In 1998, Time Warner bought the other half of Rhino, making
595-657: The UK. In addition to his duties as label owner and producer, Kaufman occasionally co-wrote songs with various Beserkley acts under the pseudonym "Rose Bimler". Kaufman was also an occasional recording artist for Beserkley, releasing singles under the names "Son of Pete" and "Count Slowly and the Four Twenties". By the end of 1980, the only artist on Beserkley was Greg Kihn, who between 1981 and 1983 released three US top 40 albums and two US top 40 singles: " The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em) " (#15, 1981), and " Jeopardy " (#2, 1983). All were produced by Kaufman. However, after
630-472: The United States, were embraced in the U.K. with Roadrunner reaching #11 on the UK singles chart. The follow-up single Egyptian Reggae reached #5 in the UK singles chart in 1977. By 1975, the label had an artist roster consisting of Earth Quake, Jonathan Richman (with and without the Modern Lovers ), The Rubinoos and Greg Kihn . Kaufman co-produced album releases by all these artists, as well as acquiring
665-571: The company a wholly owned unit of Time Warner. The Rhino Records retail store, which was part of the 50% sale in 1992 but which reverted to Foos after Time Warner bought out the remainder, closed in 2005. It was through this merger that the label reissued material from such artists as the Monkees , Eric Burdon , Fanny , Dannii Minogue , the Ramones , the Grateful Dead , Emerson, Lake & Palmer ,
700-495: The construction of a Ska Shrine devoted to skanking. Musashi "Moose" Lethridge and Eric Din of the Uptones built the shrine which now resides virtually at the Ska4u website . The shrine traveled with The Uptones for four dates in June, 2010, for The Warped Tour and is available to the public for dancing. Rhino Records Rhino Entertainment Company (formerly Rhino Records Inc. )
735-453: The first released version of " Roadrunner ", by Jonathan Richman backed by Earth Quake. Kaufman and Richman had previously worked together on the Modern Lovers' sessions for A&M in 1972. In 1976, Kaufman licensed those recordings, together with the ones the band had made around the same time with producer John Cale for Warner Bros. , and released them on Beserkley as the acclaimed album The Modern Lovers . Though neither Richman nor
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#1732863135185770-400: The label also manages the U.S. distribution or worldwide production of compilations for more recent Warner acts, including still-active artists such as Enya , New Order , and Chicago . In June 2006, Warner Strategic Marketing in the U.K. was dissolved and Rhino Records U.K. was formed. The division has two main factions: TV-advertised compilations (for example Pure Garage Rewind Back to
805-465: The label in other directions. One of Rhino's early artists was The Twisters, whose Los Angeles popularity far exceeded their album sales. Rhino's mail-order catalogs and early LP labels featured the company's mascot character Rocky—a cartoon greaser rhinoceros wearing a black leather jacket, designed by bootleg cover artist William Stout , and later cartoonist Scott Shaw! . Some of the label's earliest successes with re-issues were achieved by acquiring
840-472: The label, and its subsequent 'reorganization' of label staff, which did not stop at the former owners, were the major factors in their exits. Soon after, Foos inaugurated a new label, Shout! Factory , which began releasing dozens of CDs and videos mirroring the original early-1990s Rhino philosophy. In 2004, Time Warner spun off its music divisions and today Rhino is part of the newly organized Warner Music Group . In addition to dealing with archive material,
875-647: The mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, successfully producing records by Jonathan Richman , Greg Kihn and others. Born and raised in Baltimore , Maryland , Kaufman graduated from law school but never took the bar. Instead, convinced they were to be the next Beatles, Kaufman went to California to co-manage the San Francisco rock band Earth Quake . He helped the band get a two-record deal with A&M Records in 1970, and picked up production tips from Lou Adler and Glyn Johns . Also while at A&M, Kaufman helped organize
910-522: The most part, sales totals in the low five figures or less were routine for Rhino-produced albums, and the less costly, less risky re-issue business remained the company's primary revenue stream. One exception was the success of "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters , a 1981 song that went to the top of the U.S. Billboard charts in late 1986 after being featured in an episode of the hit NBC TV series Family Ties . In 1986, Rhino Records had signed
945-476: The movie The Getaway , he set up Beserkley Records, in 1973. Kaufman produced virtually all of Beserkley's output throughout its existence, often in association with Glenn Kolotkin , less frequently with Kenny Laguna . For the first two years of its existence, Beserkley only put out singles. The first release (in late 1973) was Earth Quake's version of the Easybeats ' " Friday On My Mind ". Initially none of
980-767: The recordings, which were released as the LP Spitballs . Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said, "I assume the title is a takeoff on Nuggets , and I approve of the concept ... I find most of the remakes amusing and one or two amazing. But inevitably, the music is ragged ... and I miss the pure dumb inspiration of the originals." Beserkley's major breakthrough came with Greg Kihn, who sang backup on Earth Quake and Richman records before forming his own band. Beginning with his third album (1978's Next of Kihn ), Kihn regularly made
1015-659: The rights to the White Whale Records catalog that included the Turtles . By the mid-1980s, most of Rhino's releases were re-issues of previously released recordings licensed from other companies. For superior sound quality, audio mastering of the original tapes (where possible) was done under the direction of Bill Inglot , and the label's creative packaging made Rhino one of the most respected re-issue record labels , receiving rave reviews from music collectors, fans, and historians; and later, Grammy nominations and awards. Rhino
1050-521: The rights to the 1972 A&M Modern Lovers recordings, which were issued as an album in 1976. Beserkley also released singles and compilation tracks by a handful of other artists. Buoyed by these successes, Kaufman opened a short-lived UK office of Beserkley, headquartered in Kingston-upon-Thames . They signed The Tyla Gang who released two albums in the US and the UK for the label, as well as The Smirks , who released two singles on Beserkley in
1085-452: The series of demos recorded by The Modern Lovers . These recordings were unreleased at the time, but would later form the basis of their acclaimed debut album. After becoming frustrated with A&M, Kaufman decided to set up his own label in 1973. Beserkley Records (headquartered at John Doukas' house at 1199 Spruce St. in Berkeley, California). The first releases from the label, ignored in
Beserkley Records - Misplaced Pages Continue
1120-555: Was briefly reactivated in 1988 for a lone new album by Mrs. Green , produced by Kaufman and released only in the UK and Germany. Kaufman operated the Son of Beserkley label for a time in the 1990s; his current label is called Fun Fun Fun Recordings. Matthew King Kaufman Matthew "King" Kaufman (born May 19, 1946) is an American record producer who was the owner of leading independent label Beserkley Records in Berkeley, California from
1155-491: Was distributed by CBS Records, and Beserkley was included in that arrangement, taking it from a small independently distributed label to briefly being a part of the huge CBS distribution system), then by Janus/GRT until 1979 and subsequently by Elektra . In 1978, the label commissioned a multi-artist project of 14 musicians from their roster, including Earth Quake and the Rubinoos. They were recorded playing oldies , both well-known and obscure, and traded lead vocals for each of
1190-864: Was quick to get into the compact disc market, releasing dozens of oldies CDs at the dawn of the CD age in 1984. Their retrospective compact disc releases, such as those in the Billboard Top Hits series ( Billboard Top Dance Hits ), are often remastered to restore or improve upon the releases' original analog audio quality. In the late 1980s, Rhino transitioned into a complete entertainment company specializing in home video (initially VHS , then DVD and Blu-ray ) reissues of television programs such as The Monkees , The Lone Ranger , The Transformers , Mystery Science Theater 3000 , and Ed Sullivan's Rock 'n' Roll Classics collection, as well as compact disc releases of select artists and movie soundtracks. Through
1225-520: Was relatively swift. After several years of success, Kihn's 1984 single "Reunited" flopped (peaking at No. 102) and the parent album Kihntagious stalled at No. 121 on the charts. Beserkley founder Kaufman then essentially dissolved the label and allowed Kihn to sign with major label EMI, where Kaufman would continue to act as Kihn's producer. The Beserkley catalogue was licensed to Rhino Records in 1986, and later to Castle Communications , Sanctuary Records , and BMG Rights Management . The label name
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