The Capitol of the Music World by Kevin Hall

The Capitol of the Music World

After reading Ian’s paper on the slow demise of the record store I decided to delve into the history of the record industry in Los Angeles. Like Ian said, in most Americans minds Los Angeles is the hub of music in America. Musicians good and bad, large and small, bands and soloists all have, over the decades, poured into LA to ‘make it’ and ‘make it big’ if possible. So what does ‘making it’ entail? Well first and foremost you have to be signed by a record label, preferably a big one. In LA’s not so distant past, Capitol Records personified this big label, more so than anything else. Los Angeles was the American musician’s promised land and Capitol Records became the Canaan of the chosen few who ‘made it.’ So this comment paper will focus on the life and death (of sorts) of a record label that more than any other, represented music in Los Angeles.

Three Men’s Journeys

There are three men responsible for the creation of Capitol records. Below I included brief biographies of each of these men showing their individual journeys to the point of April 8, 1942 when they came together and created Capitol records.

Johnny Mercer – The Singer/Song Writer

Johnny Mercer was a huge musical success in America during the 1930s and 1940s. He wrote, co-wrote and sang many very popular songs of the time (i.e. He wrote “I’m an Old Cow Hand” for Bing Crosby). When he teamed up with Harold Arlen they created such hits as “That Old Black Magic,” “Ac-Cent-Tchu- Ate the Positive” and “Come Rain of Come Shine.” While he and Arlen were busy with their successful musically career Johnny also collaborated with Richard Whiting, Harry Warren, Jerome Kern, Jimmy Van Heusen, Henry Mancini, Dorothy Fields and Hoagy Carmichael.[i] Mercer was also responsible for the lyrics to "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" to "Jeepers Creepers" and "Hooray for Hollywood."[ii] Johnny helped co-found Capitol Records in 1942. He died in 1976.[iii]

Buddy DeSylva – The Man from Tin Pan Alley

DeSylva was a native New Yorker raised in California. He got his start in music working with and creating songs for such people as Al Jolson (i.e. “I’ll Say She Does”). During the 1920s and early 1930s he became part of a highly successful Tin Pan Alley team with Ray Henderson and Lew Brown. They had such Broadway hits as George White’s Scandals of 1926, Hold Everything!, Follow Thru and Flying High. By 1941, he had become the executive producer for Paramount Pictures (he produced The Little Colonel and Double Indemnity to name only two) he kept this position until 1944. Buddy got involved in music again in 1942 when he helped co-found Capitol Records. DeSylva died in 1950.[iv]

Glenn (Clyde) Wallichs – The Business Man

Wallichs was an extremely successful business owner. He was the owner of Wallichs Music City (in existence from 1940-1978), which was the penultimate music store in Southern California. This store that was located on the corner of Sunset and Vine and sold sheet music, instruments, LP’s, 45s, tickets to shows, later on 8 tracks and cassette tapes and even sold TVs. Wallichs Music City is considered to be the prototype of the American music store (sold records from racks and had the first listening booths). Music fans came in droves from all over to shop at Music City to meet artists like Johnny Mercer and many others when they were autographing their music. Wallich started Capitol Records (originally called Liberty Records) out of a storefront across the street from Music City in 1942 with the help of Mercer and DeSylva. Wallichs died in 1971.[v]

Capitol Records

What follows is a brief history of the West Coast’s first record label. I separated it into three sections: The Origins, The Middle Years and The New Age of Music.

The Origins

Johnny Mercer was the public figurehead of the organization. Buddy DeSylva was the moneyman. Glenn Wallichs was the shrewd businessman that knew all the angles. Together these men started an extremely successful music empire. As I stated before the first Capitol Records office opened on April 8, 1942 across the street from Wallichs Music City. This was a perfect spot to learn about music as a product and to figure out how to package and sell it to the masses. The business slow in the early 1940s because of World War II but after the war business kicked into high gear.

Even though the 40s were a hard time they became a major competitor in the music industry. They had such artists as Paul Whiteman (widely known as the King of Jazz), Ella Mae Morse (“Cow Cow Boogie” Capitols first gold record), Bing Crosby, Les Paul, Peggy Lee (“Mañana”) and Nat King Cole (Nat spent his whole career with Capitol, start to finish). This early success led to larger things in the 1950s and 1960s.[vi]

By the 1950s Capitol decided to focus almost solely on popular music. Their artists rankings included Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, The Andrew Sisters, the Kingston Trio and Dean Martin to name a few big names. They also started experimenting with the rock genre during the late 1950s (i.e. The Jodimars).

It is also during the mid 1950s that EMI bought controlling interest in Capitol records and moved them to the now EXTREMELY famous Capitol Tower. The Tower has always been one of the architectural landmarks of Los Angeles and of course one the buildings that the whole world associated with LA itself. So ended the beginnings of Capitol Records.[vii]

The Middle Years

With the EMI take over Capitol records shifted its focus to Rock music. By the 1960s, Capitol had The Beach Boys, The Steve Miller Band, Bobby Darin, Pink Floyd and The Beatles. With these heavy hitters of the 1960s, Capitol Records became more and more successful. It is during this time that Capitol Records started to become one of the major players in the music industry. With acts like The Beatles and The Beach Boys (two of the most popular bands in America) how could they not?

During the 1970s, Capitol helped show how one label (under two separate EMI sub labels) could showcase alternative genres of popular music. David Bowie, George Clinton (Funk), Heart (Hard Rock), Blondie, Natalie Cole and Rosanne Cash (Country) were some of the extremely varied acts that came out of these Capitol controlled EMI labels. Then in 1979 Capitol was absorbed into EMI Music Worldwide.[viii]

The New Age of Music

When the 1980s rolled around Capitol Records had splintered their popular music into all kinds of genres. Some of the genre music that Capitol specialized in were “80s Rock” (i.e. Duran Duran and The Pet Shop Boys), Punk/Hard Rock (i.e. The Red Hot Chili Peppers), Heavy Metal (i.e. Mega Death and Iron Maiden), Rap (i.e. N.W.A. and the Beastie Boys), Jazz (i.e. Dave Koz) and Soul (i.e. Freddie Jackson). It is with this continued diversification of the music industry that Capitol thrived even more. Having their fingers in all the pies (genres) helped them remain a major force in the recording industry.

By the 1990s, popular music had splintered even more. Capitol kept up with the times by popularizing new trendy genres in American music. A great example of this is Latin music and its wide spread acceptance with the singing sensation Selena. They also got in on the ground level of the new pop country genre with Garth Brooks. With these strikes into what would become very lucrative new ventures Capitol did not ignore the other “older” musical genres (i.e. Cold Play and Jane’s Addiction), all of which kept Capitol on the cutting edge of popular music.

With the turning of another century, Capitol Records would go through many, many changes. The first of these changes was when EMI merging Capitol with Priority Records, Hoo-Bangin’ Records and Black Wall Street Records. The Labels brought in Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. Then in what the public considered a surprising move EMI sold the Capitol Tower in late 2006.

The last event that changed Capitol forever occurred in early 2007. EMI combined Capitol Records and Virgin Records creating the Capitol Music Group. With this massive restructuring many people lost their jobs and a lot of bands were cut from the roster. So with no tower and a completely new corporate infastructure Capitol is moving into a new and uncertain future.[ix]

Good Sources of Information to Check Out

Websites

Capitol Records Official Website-

http://www.hollywoodandvine.com/

New Georgia Encyclopedia-

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.com/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-954

Wikipedia-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Records

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mercer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_DeSylva

Variety-

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117435753.html?categoryid=16&cs=1