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69-425: The chorus of the song: "Back, back and forth and forth..." is taken from the funk group Cameo 's single " Back And Forth ". The hook of the song: "Check out my gravel pit..." is sung by Paulissa Moorman. According to The Wu-Tang Manual the beat for the track was sampled from Antoine Duhamel 's soundtrack to a French TV miniseries entitled Belphegor . RZA has stated that he originally wanted Aaliyah to record

138-650: A 14-member group known as the New York City Players ; this name was later changed to Cameo. As of the first half of 2009, some of the original members continued to perform together. Two other original members were hired by the hip hop group Outkast . In 2015, Cameo announced a new residency show at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino , opening in March 2016. On February 20, 2019, Larry Blackmon of Cameo announced "El Passo",

207-515: A BAFTA Award for best original soundtrack the following year. Yundi's recording of three Beethoven sonatas went platinum in his native China. The label also released Andreas Ottensamer 's debut "Portraits", and the label debut of Brooklyn Rider "A Walking Fire". Milos Karadaglic's "Latino Gold" topped the UK classical charts and entered the pop charts. Banjo soloist and 15-time Grammy Award winner Bela Fleck 's concerto for banjo and orchestra "The Impostor"

276-412: A Major League Baseball game, to portray the "Mercury Man", complete with a winged hat similar to its logo, to promote Mercury recordings. Some early Mercury recordings featured a caricature of him as their logo. In 1947, Jack Rael, a musician and publicist/manager, persuaded Mercury to let Patti Page (whom he managed) record a song that had been planned to be done by Vic Damone , "Confess". The budget

345-399: A bonus CD containing an interview with Wilma Cozart Fine, and a deluxe booklet detailing the history of Mercury Living Presence. The CD set was issued worldwide and was sold by major retailers. A limited-edition six-LP box set was also issued. The CD set brings back into print dozens of titles that had not been available as manufactured CDs since the early 2000s. In 2013, Decca Classics issued

414-701: A distinctive and fresh perspective to classical music. In its first year, artist signings to the label included Icelandic neoclassical composer Olafur Arnalds , New York-based string quartet Brooklyn Rider , Chinese pianist Yundi , and Austrian clarinetist and Berlin Philharmonic soloist Andreas Ottensamer . The label also oversees the recording career of Montenegrin classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic , and has an ongoing partnership with Tori Amos , which dates back to her work with Buhr on her classically inspired Night of Hunters album for Deutsche Grammophon in 2011. Following Buhr's longstanding relationship with

483-492: A division of PolyGram K.K. (now Universal Music Japan ). In 1995, it was relaunched as Mercury Music Entertainment. It later merged with Kitty Records in 2000 and became Kitty MME. Half of it was merged into the Universal J label in 2002, the other half became known as Universal Sigma in 2004. Its artist roster included Seiko Matsuda , Yūji Oda , Delta, ZIGGY, Kinniku Shōjo Tai , and Takashi Sorimachi . After 13 years,

552-592: A featured oboe player in the late 1940s for Mercury). The first record in this new Mercury Olympian Series was Pictures at an Exhibition performed by Rafael Kubelík and the Chicago Symphony . The group that became the best known using this technique was the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra , which, under the leadership of conductor Antal Doráti , made a series of classical albums that were well reviewed and sold briskly, including

621-416: A horn-oriented funk band in the 1970s, influenced by Parliament-Funkadelic . By the 1980s, Cameo expanded their sound with influences from pop , hip hop , rock and reggae , and placed more emphasis on keyboards and drum machines. Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group . It had significant success as an independent operation in

690-539: A label), hence those labels control US rights to these works (in the case of The Who, they had been on US Decca Records and MCA Records in the past, their prebreakup catalogue is now on Geffen Records in North America). Mercury Classics was relaunched in 2012 as an international classical label by UMGI, appointing musicologist and record executive Dr. Alexander Buhr as managing director. The label aims to identify and work with strong creative individuals who bring

759-679: A merger with a competitor, consolidated all of its Nashville operations under the Mercury name. Mercury Nashville took over management of all of PolyGram's country back catalog from sister labels such as Polydor (including releases once issued by MGM Records), A&M , and the small country back catalog of Motown Records (Motown released these albums under subsidiary labels). All country artists under contract to other PolyGram labels either moved to Mercury or were dropped altogether. Today, Mercury Nashville continues to be an active imprint under Universal Music Group Nashville, where it continues to manage

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828-572: A modified Westrex mixer. For the original LPs, the mixer directly fed the custom cutting chain. At Fine Recording in New York City, the Westrex cutter head on a Scully lathe was fed by modified McIntosh 200W tube amplifiers with very little feedback in the system. Older mono records were made with a Miller cutter head. The original LP releases of the classical recordings continued through 1968. The Mercury classical-music catalogue (including

897-711: A part of the Mercury Music Group, a division of Universal Music Group, which Group controls the French operations of UMG labels Mercury, Fontana Records, Verve Records, Decca Records, Blue Note Records , Island Records, and Virgin Records, among others. Various other national Universal Music Group companies are known to actively use the Mercury Records trademark as an imprint for their local A&R operations, but no other Universal Music Group companies use

966-714: A second, 55-CD box set, along with a second six-LP box set. The CD box set included two bonus discs: a new reissue of the 1953 monophonic recording of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" by Dorati with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and a first-time-on-CD reissue of the premiere recording of John Corigliano 's Piano Concerto, played by Hilde Somer with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Victor Alessandro. On January 4, 2015, Mercury co-founder Irwin Steinberg died at

1035-528: A variety of recording styles from classical music to psychedelic rock. Its subsidiaries, though, focused on their own specialized categories of music. From 1947 to 1952, John Hammond was a vice-president of Mercury Records. Mercury, under its EmArcy label, released LPs by many post-swing and bebop artists, including Clifford Brown and Max Roach , Kenny Drew , Dinah Washington , Nat Adderley , Cannonball Adderley , Ernestine Anderson , Sarah Vaughan , Maynard Ferguson , Walter Benton , Herb Geller . In

1104-722: A year-long Las Vegas residency show at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino . In 2019, their single "Candy" was interpolated by Beyoncé for her cover of fellow R&B group Maze 's song " Before I Let Go ", featured in her film and accompanying live album Homecoming . Kevin Kendrick, Jeff Nelson, Willie Morris, Anthony Lockett and Aaron Mills continue to tour with Cameo as well as other artists. Kevin Kendrick and Aaron Mills have both worked with Outkast , playing on their singles " Ms. Jackson " (2000) and " Prototype " (2003), among other tracks. Ex-Cameo vocalist John Kellogg became an entertainment lawyer, representing such artists as

1173-671: The Billboard Hot 100 . 1985's album Single Life , featuring the title track and " Attack Me with Your Love ", hit number 2 on the Top R&;B chart and continued the band's momentum, paving the way for what was to come the following year. The single " Word Up! " was released in 1986 and reached number 1 on the Billboard R&;B chart, plus number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's biggest single on

1242-730: The Island Def Jam Music Group , Mercury Records has been placed under Island Records, although its back catalogue is still owned by the Island Def Jam Music Group (now Island Records). Mercury Records was started in Chicago in 1945 and over several decades, saw great success. The success of Mercury has been attributed to the use of alternative marketing techniques to promote records. The conventional method of record promotion used by major labels such as RCA Victor , Decca Records , and Capitol Records

1311-622: The 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released rock, funk , R&B , doo wop , soul music , blues , pop, rock and roll , and jazz records. In the United States, it is operated through Republic Records ; in the United Kingdom and Japan (as Mercury Tokyo in the latter country), it is distributed by EMI Records . Since the separation of Island Records , Motown , Mercury Records, and Def Jam Recordings combining

1380-485: The 1970s, Mercury released hits by musicians such as The Statler Brothers , Paper Lace , Rod Stewart , Bachman-Turner Overdrive , Cledus Maggard and The Citizen's Band , William Bell , Rush , and Reba McEntire . From late 1974 to early 1983, the company's label design featured a painting of three famous buildings that are located in Chicago: Marina City , John Hancock Center , and One IBM Plaza ,

1449-596: The Deutsche Grammophon label, some of Mercury Classics' early core classical recordings were rereleased under the aegis of sister company Deutsche Grammophon . In 2013, Mercury Classics released Olafur Arnalds ' label debut For Now I Am Winter , which entered the US Classical Chart at number one. It was followed by an EP of Arnalds' soundtrack of the ITV crime series Broadchurch , which received

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1518-712: The Gang (following the dissolution of De-Lite Records in 1985), the first three albums of the 1979-86 self titled series of the Gap Band (via Total Experience Productions) and Cameo (via distribution of leader Larry Blackmon's label Atlanta Artists Records). And the label released early rapper Kurtis Blow 's hit "The Breaks" (1980) also. Mercury released blues musician Robert Cray. In 1980, Phonogram moved its headquarters from Chicago to New York City. In 1981, Mercury, along with other U.S. PolyGram-owned labels, which included Polydor , RSO Records , and Casablanca , consolidated under

1587-549: The Living Presence catalogue) is currently managed by Decca Label Group through Philips Records, which reissued the recordings on LP and then CD. In turn, Mercury now manages the pop/rock catalog of Philips Records. In 2012, Decca Classics, the current owner of the Mercury Living Presence label, issued a value-priced 51-CD box that included 50 of the 1990s CD titles (remastered by Wilma Cozart Fine),

1656-559: The Mercury Records division of UMG France, the Mercury Studios film division (which absorbed Eagle Rock Entertainment , acquired by UMG in 2014), the classical music label Mercury KX, and catalogue reissues in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Brazil, as well. In 2024, Mercury Records became part of Universal Music Group-owned Republic Corps , joining sister labels Republic Records , Island Records ,[Casablanca Records]] and Def Jam Recordings . In 1951, under

1725-571: The O'Jays , Gerald Levert and LSG . He also pursued a career in music industry higher education, becoming Assistant Chair of the Music Business/Management department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts . Gregory B. Johnson has released two CDs on his own label, Allspice Record Co.—in 2007 A New Hip , which is a smooth Jazz CD, and in 2012 Funk Funk (Just for a Little Time) , an urban funk CD. Cameo began as

1794-628: The Oklahoma-based three-piece Hanson . Mercury, by having Thin Lizzy, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Def Leppard, Kiss, the Scorpions, and various other rock acts on their roster, became a premiere label for hard rock music. Most of these bands were on Vertigo Records in Europe (that label specialized in progressive rock and hard rock including subgenres like glam metal ). In late 1998, PolyGram

1863-591: The Platters , Brook Benton , the Diamonds, and Patti Page . In 1961, Philips , a Dutch electronics company and owner of Philips Records , which had lost its distribution deal with Columbia Records outside North America, played a key role in Mercury's future by signing an exchange agreement with the American record company. A year later, Mercury was sold to Consolidated Electronics Industries Corp. (Conelco), which

1932-468: The Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Billboard 200 charts respectively. Cameo then followed up with 1990's Real Men... Wear Black and 1992's Emotional Violence . The previous release was followed by two compilation albums in between the time of their next recording. In 1994, In the Face of Funk was released on the band's independent label and hit 10 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. This album

2001-599: The age of 94. This division of Mercury handled US distribution of most pre-1998 Polydor Records pop/rock releases currently under UMG control. Some exceptions remain, however. Some artists based outside the US did not have their releases on Polydor in North America, signing to various other labels, instead. Some of these bands, such as The Who , did sign to a label that also is now part of the UMG family (or later absorbed by such

2070-531: The band playing up their eclectic style. Band members Aaron Mills, Thomas "TC" Campbell and Jeryl Bright briefly left the band in 1983 to form a spinoff group called MCB. The band released She's Strange in 1984, which performed well and hit number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and 26 on the Billboard 200. The album's title track, eponymous single became the band's first number 1 R&B hit, as well as their first charting pop single; reaching number 47 on

2139-635: The cannon shots, and the bells of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon at the Riverside Church in Chicago. Besides Mercury's mono and stereo versions of the 1812 , only one other classical album rang up gold-record sales in the 1950s in the U.S. The New York Times music critic Howard Taubman described the Mercury sound on Pictures at an Exhibition as "being in the living presence of

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2208-415: The company. Philips and German electronics giant Siemens reorganized their joint-ventured record operations, Grammophon-Philips Group, home of Deutsche Grammophon , Philips Records, and Polydor to become PolyGram in 1972. That year, PolyGram bought Mercury from NAPC. Mercury's corporate name was changed to Phonogram Inc. to match a related company in the UK that operated the Mercury label there. During

2277-455: The country back catalog that once belonged to PolyGram (MCA Nashville manages what Universal had already owned at the time of the PolyGram merger). In 1958, Mercury switched its distribution in the UK from Pye to EMI, and in 1964 to Philips. Mercury operated as an imprint in the UK under Phonogram, a division of Dutch electronics company Philips from the mid-1960s until 1998, when Phonogram

2346-434: The direction of recording engineer C. Robert (Bob) Fine and recording director David Hall , Mercury Records initiated a recording technique using a single microphone to record symphony orchestras. Fine had for several years used a single microphone for Mercury small-ensemble classical recordings produced by John Hammond and later Mitch Miller (indeed, Miller, using his full name of Mitchell Miller, made several recordings as

2415-587: The first new single from the band in 19 years. Formed by Larry Blackmon in 1974 as the New York City Players the band was signed by Casablanca Records to its Chocolate City imprint in 1975 as the Players. However, according to original band member Nathan Leftenant, the group soon changed its name after the threat of legal action by Mercury Records due to the name "the Players" being too similar to Ohio Players , who recorded for Mercury at

2484-524: The first-ever complete recordings of Tchaikovsky 's ballets Swan Lake , The Sleeping Beauty , and The Nutcracker . Dorati's 1954 one-microphone monaural recording (Mercury MG 50054) and 1958 three-microphone stereo rerecording (Mercury MG 50054) of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture included dramatic overdub recordings of 1812-era artillery and the bells of the Yale University Carillon . A stereo release in 1960 featured new recordings of

2553-545: The funk classic " Shake Your Pants ", the mid-tempo single "We're Goin' Out Tonight", and the ballad "Why Have I Lost You" (a re-recording of a song from their 1978 album We All Know Who We Are ). It reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 25 on the Billboard 200 chart. Their second album of 1980, Feel Me , 1981's Knights of the Sound Table and 1982's Alligator Woman also went gold and saw

2622-558: The iTunes top 10 in more than 20 countries. Influential classical music website Alto Riot named Mercury Classics its Label of the Year 2013. In 2016, Mercury Classics became Mercury KX and changed its focus to post-classical music Mercury's Nashville unit dates back to 1957, when Mercury formed a joint venture with Starday Records specifically for releasing artists performing country music. Mercury bought out Starday's half in 1958. In 1997, PolyGram, looking to cut costs in anticipation of

2691-401: The independent label Encounter. Cameo started with a deep, funk sound, but it was obvious from the start their sights were set on the dance floor. Their first album was Cardiac Arrest which featured its first hit single, " Rigor Mortis ". Follow up albums We All Know Who We Are , Ugly Ego and Secret Omen contained dance floor songs such as "I Just Want to Be" and "It's Serious",

2760-472: The label announced it was stopping the production of CD and vinyl singles, and would only release them physically as "rare exceptions". In 2012, signings on Mercury included Pixie Lott , Arcade Fire , Amy Macdonald , Noah and the Whale , Chase & Status , Jake Bugg , and Bo Bruce . In July, Mercury announced that Mike Smith was joining as president of its music division. In March 2013, Mercury UK

2829-574: The label as a key marketing differentiator, nor do they operate frontline divisions based on the Mercury label. The Mercury label was first launched in Japan in 1952, by Taihei Onkyo . The company's name was later changed to Nippon Mercury in 1953, however, the Mercury label started to be handled by King Records in 1957, and later by Nippon Victor . It was relaunched in 1970 by Nippon Victor and Matsushita Corporation , as Nippon Phonogram. It operated several Phonogram labels in Japan. In 1993, it became

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2898-412: The late 1950s, Mercury released jazz recordings of multiple artists, including Max Roach, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young , Dizzy Gillespie , and Buddy Rich. During the 1960s albums were released by artists including Gene Ammons , Quincy Jones , Buddy Rich , Cannonball Adderley , Dinah Washington , Max Roach , Paul Bley and Jimmy Smith. During the 1950s, Mercury released hits of musicians such as

2967-764: The latter of which was used for a dance contest scene in the 1978 film Thank God It's Friday . The band's debut single "Find My Way" was a disco song that was also used in the film, and was included on the Thank God It's Friday soundtrack. ("Find My Way" was their cover of a 1972 Three Degrees and a 1969 Tymes tune.) Bassist Aaron Mills joined the band in 1978, after a stint in Donald Byrd 's jazz-funk collective N.C.C.U., which toured with Cameo. Mills impressed Blackmon with his bass playing, and Blackmon invited him to join Cameo. The 1979 single "I Just Want to Be"

3036-563: The latter which was Mercury's headquarters during that period, having moved from its long-time address at 35 East Wacker Drive . Mercury released soul musicians such as the Dells and Marvin Sease. From the 1970s through the early 1980s, Mercury released albums of funk musicians such as Ohio Players , the Bar-Kays , Con Funk Shun , and Hamilton Bohannon . Mercury released albums by Kool &

3105-400: The movie Short Eyes . Each Wu-Tang member adopts a different name in the video. RZA becomes "Bobby Boulders", Meth is "Joe Quarry", Ol' Dirty Bastard becomes "Ol' Dirty Blocks", Ghostface is renamed "Frank Stoney", Raekwon is "Lex Rockhead", and U-God is "Stonefingers". The song uses two samples. The trumpet introduction comes from " It's a Man's Man's Man's World " by James Brown , while

3174-609: The new name PolyGram Records, Inc. (now UMG Recordings ). Under PolyGram, Mercury absorbed the artists and catalogue of Casablanca Records (also home to the 20th Century Records back catalogue), which consisted of hard rockers Kiss and disco stars Donna Summer and the Village People , and primarily became a rock/pop/new wave label with Van Morrison , Thin Lizzy , All About Eve , Julian Cope , Scorpions , Rush , John Cougar Mellencamp , Big Country , Tears for Fears , Bon Jovi , Cinderella , and Def Leppard as well as

3243-540: The newly created Def Soul Records. Mercury's former country unit became Mercury Nashville Records . However, Mercury Records was relaunched in 2007 as a label under The Island Def Jam Music Group, appointing record executive David Massey as the President and CEO of the new venture. The label was defunct in 2015. On April 11, 2022, Republic Records announced that they had acquired Mercury Records, and it will continue as their imprint. The Mercury name also survives on

3312-602: The orchestra" and Mercury eventually began releasing their classical recordings under the 'Living Presence' series' name. The recordings were produced by Mercury vice president Wilma Cozart , who later married Bob Fine. Cozart took over recording director duties in 1953 and also produced the CD reissues of more than half of the Mercury Living Presence catalog in the 1990s. By the late 1950s, the Mercury Living Presence crew included session musical supervisors Harold Lawrence and Clair van Ausdall and associate engineer Robert Eberenz. Besides

3381-451: The pop chart. The follow-up single " Candy " reached number 1 R&B and 21 pop, while their next release, " Back and Forth ", went to number 3 R&B and number 50 pop. Meanwhile, the accompanying album also hit numbers 8 and 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B charts respectively, becoming their highest-charting album. Two years later, Cameo released Machismo to mixed critical reviews and dropped to chart at numbers 10 and 56 on

3450-660: The recordings with the Chicago and Minneapolis orchestras, Mercury also recorded Howard Hanson with the Eastman Rochester Orchestra, Frederick Fennell with the Eastman Wind Ensemble , and Paul Paray with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra . In late 1955, Mercury began using three omnidirectional microphones to make stereo recordings on three-track tape. The technique was an expansion on the mono process—center

3519-501: The release of Yundi's new album Emperor/Fantasy , including Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with Berlin Philharmonic and Daniel Harding, Mercury Classics held the top two spots on the UK classical chart. In May 2014, the label released Tori Amos' 14th studio album Unrepentant Geraldines . The album entered the US Billboard top 200 at number seven, charted in UK (number 13), Netherlands (number 10), and Germany (number 15), and hit

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3588-595: The representation of the Stone Age in The Flintstones , mainly the recent movie . The "gravel pit" is a large, fancy pit made from stone and bones. The " pit ", a casino , contains a fountain, Stone Age cars, dancing women - including the actress Tamala Jones , credited as "Crystal Diamonds" - and large dinosaurs. It appears to be ruled by the Wu-Tang Clan (with the exception of Ol' Dirty Bastard , who

3657-520: The sample running along the whole song is taken from the French TV miniseries Belphegor ' s main titles. It also took samples from the films Enter the Dragon and Short Eyes . Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. Cameo (band) Cameo is an American funk band that formed in 1974. Cameo was initially

3726-622: The song, but was unable to arrange it before her death, leading to the Wu Tang Clan recording it. The song features verses from three of the Wu-Tang Clan's MCs, Method Man , Ghostface Killah and U-God , as well as spoken bits from RZA and Raekwon . The music video, directed by Joseph Kahn , features the Wu-Tang Clan arguing in their elevator -like time machine , and in argument accidentally sending themselves back to "2,000,000 BC", even though Method Man claimed they were going back to 2000 B.C. "2,000,000 BC" bears strong resemblance to

3795-403: The three-track tapes or magnetic film, with a 3-2 mix occurring in the mastering room. The same technique—and restored vintage equipment of the same type—was used during the CD reissues. Specifically, three-track tapes were recorded on Ampex 300-3 (½-in, three-track) machines at 15 in/sec. The 35-mm magnetic film recordings were made on three-track Westrex film recorders. The 3-2 mixdown was done on

3864-533: The time. The name Cameo was derived from a brand of cigarettes sold in Canada that the band saw during a visit to that country. Prior to this, Blackmon, keyboardist Gregory Johnson, and Gwen Guthrie formed the band East Coast, together with James Wheeler (alto saxophone), Melvin Whay (bass), Michael Harris (percussion), and Haras Fyre (also known as Pat Grant ) on trombone. They released one self-titled album in 1973 on

3933-420: Was Cameo's breakthrough hit. It reached number 3 on the Billboard magazine Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and along with the follow-up single, the top 10 R&B ballad "Sparkle", pushed the album Secret Omen to gold status with sales of over 500,000 copies, the band's first album to achieve this status. Their next album, Cameosis , came out in 1980 and also achieved gold status thanks in large part to

4002-634: Was a major force in R&;B , doo wop , soul music , pop doo wop, pop soul, blues , pop, rock and roll , jazz and classical music . Early in the label's history, Mercury opened two pressing plants, one in Chicago and the other in St. Louis, Missouri . By hiring two promoters, Tiny Hill and Jimmy Hilliard, they penetrated the pop market with names such as Frankie Laine , Vic Damone , Tony Fontane , and Patti Page . In 1946, Mercury hired Eddie Gaedel , an American with dwarfism, most notable for participating in

4071-763: Was absorbed into Virgin EMI by Universal Music. Virgin EMI was rebranded as EMI Records in June 2020. Launched in 1955 exclusively as a full-service local (Australian) A&R operation. Mercury Records first known Australian artist was Keith Potger in 1968, but the label was put into hibernation in 1999 in favour of the Universal label until 2007–2013. Some successful Australian artists on Mercury included: INXS , Kamahl , Bullamakanka , Darren Hayes , Carl Riseley, The Preatures , Tiddas , Dragon, Teen Queens , Melissa Tkautz and Karise Eden . In France, Mercury Records operates as

4140-531: Was an affiliate of Philips under its U.S. Trust division; in 1963, Mercury switched British distribution from EMI to Philips. In 1962, Mercury began marketing a line of phonographs made by Philips bearing the Mercury brand name. In July 1967, Mercury Records became the first U.S. record label to release cassette music tapes ( Musicassettes ). In 1969, Mercury changed its corporate name to Mercury Record Productions Inc., while its parent Conelco became North American Philips Corp. (NAPC) after Philips bought control of

4209-408: Was bought by Seagram , which then absorbed the company into its Universal Music Group unit. Under the reorganization, Mercury Records was closed and folded into the newly formed The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG). Mercury's pop roster was predominantly taken over by Island Records , while its hip-hop acts found a new home at Def Jam Recordings , and some of Mercury's R&B acts were moved to

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4278-683: Was bought by Universal Music. In March 2013, its artist roster was moved to Virgin EMI in a restructuring of Universal's UK labels. In 2005, Jason Iley was appointed the new managing director of Mercury. He joined the company from Island Records, where he was general manager. In July 2005, Iley appointed Paul Adam to senior artist and repertoire (A&R) director of the label; the two had previously worked together at Island Records. In October 2006, U2 decided to leave Island Records and moved to Mercury Records, reportedly to rejoin Iley, with whom they had worked previously at Island Records. In March 2011,

4347-431: Was dependent on radio airplay, but Mercury Records co-founder Irving Green decided to promote new records using jukeboxes instead. By lowering promotion costs, Mercury was able to compete with the more established record labels, and thus became an established record label itself. Mercury Record Corporation was formed in Chicago in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams , Ray Greenberg, and Arthur Talmadge . The company

4416-506: Was given a co-songwriting credit. These years saw a great period of inactivity and unofficial hiatus, in which time six compilation albums were released. The compilation albums released in this period were, in chronological order: The Hits Collection (2000), 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Cameo (2001), Anthology (2002), Classic Cameo (2003), The Best of Cameo (2004), Gold (2005) and The Definitive Collection (2006). In March 2016, Cameo began

4485-470: Was incarcerated at the time - he "appears" as a pair of enchained arms hanging out of a makeshift jail cell), who now have "stone age" personas and clothing. At the end of the video "Bo Rockhard" ( Bokeem Woodbine ), a rival ninja, challenges the Wu-Tang ninjas, RZA leads ninjas and fights off a horde of rival ninjas attacking the pit. The track's ending soundbite (as well as many found on the album) comes from

4554-560: Was released in the fall. In 2014, Mercury Classics released "Aranjuez", Milos Karadaglic's recording of iconic guitar concertos by Joaquin Rodrigo, featuring Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The album topped the iTunes Classical charts in more than 10 countries and the classical charts in the US, UK, France, New Zealand, and Denmark, where it peaked in the pop charts at number 17. With

4623-690: Was still paramount. Once the center, single microphone was set, the sides were set to provide the depth and width heard in the stereo recordings. The center microphone still fed the mono LP releases, which accompanied stereo LPs well into the 1960s. From 1961, Mercury enhanced the three-microphone stereo technique by using 35-mm magnetic film instead of half-inch tape for recording. The greater emulsion thickness, track width, and speed (90 ft/min or 18 in/sec) of 35-mm magnetic film increased prevention of tape layer print-through and gained in addition extended frequency range and transient response. The Mercury 'Living Presence' stereo records were mastered directly from

4692-462: Was then followed by a six-year unofficial hiatus with several compilation releases, until the next album Sexy Sweet Thing in 2000. The album hit 64 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and is their most recent charting release. In 2001, a sample from the band's single "Candy" was used in the Mariah Carey single " Loverboy ". The song hit number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Blackmon

4761-754: Was too small for them to hire a second singer to provide the "answer" parts to Page, so at Rael's suggestion, she did both voices. Though "overdubbing" had been used occasionally on 78-rpm discs in the 1930s, for Lawrence Tibbett recordings, among others, this became the first documented example of "overdubbing" using tape. The company released an enormous number of recordings under the Mercury label, as well as its subsidiaries ( Blue Rock Records , Cumberland Records, EmArcy Records , Smash Records , and Wing Records , later via Fontana Records and Limelight Records after being absorbed by Philips). In addition, they leased and purchased material by independent labels and redistributed them. Under their own label, Mercury released

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