36-524: Fabrique was Fashion 's 1982 second album. It was produced by Zeus B. Held . The album included the following UK hit singles: "Streetplayer (Mechanik)" which reached No. 46 in April 1982 and "Love Shadow", which peaked at No. 51 in August of the same year. "Move On" and "Something In Your Picture" were also issued as the first and third singles of the album but failed to chart. The album itself peaked at #10 in
72-651: A Birmingham bands compilation called Bouncing in the Red (EMI). In June 1980, after a last gig in London with U2, Luke James left the band, and later moved to the United States. A revised line-up was assembled, containing Dik and Mulligan along with Tony Dial (former singer with the Neon Hearts) on vocals and guitar and Ian Moore on bass. This version of the group recorded sessions for BRMB, and played live gigs as
108-579: A consultant for the company's record and music operations. Shortly after his hiring by CPI, Davis became president of Bell Records , replacing the departing Larry Uttal . Davis's real goal was to reorganize and revitalize Columbia Pictures 's music division. With a $ 10 million investment by CPI, and a reorganization of the various Columbia Pictures legacy labels (Colpix, Colgems, and Bell), Davis introduced Columbia Pictures' new record division, Arista Records, in November 1974, ultimately owning 20 percent of
144-589: A division of Bertelsmann Music Group , the North American division of German conglomerate Bertelsmann . Founded in November 1974 by Clive Davis and deactivated in 2011, Arista was re-established in 2018. Along with RCA Records , Columbia Records , and Epic Records , it is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels. After being fired from CBS Records , Clive Davis was recruited by Alan Hirschfield , then- CEO of Columbia Pictures , in June 1974 to be
180-584: A joint-venture with Sean "Puffy" Combs to form Bad Boy Records . In 1997, Arista acquired Profile Records , the home of Run-D.M.C. and Poor Righteous Teachers . In 1989, Arista Records signed Milli Vanilli , a contemporary R&B duo consisting of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan that was based in Germany. The label released its debut album, Girl You Know It's True , which was a remixed and re-edited version of All or Nothing , which had been out in Europe
216-547: A list price of $ 29.95. Into the 1980s, Arista continued its success, including major UK act Secret Affair . Over the years it acquired Northwestside Records , deConstruction Records , First Avenue Records , and Dedicated Records in the UK. In 1989, Arista entered into a joint venture with Antonio "L.A." Reid and Babyface in the creation of LaFace Records , record company of Toni Braxton , Usher , Outkast , and TLC , which it acquired in 1999. In 1993, Arista also entered into
252-494: A post-debacle interview, Morvan defended himself for his part in the deception by saying: "[Before Milli Vanilli] I was working at a McDonald's . What would you have done?" At the end of the year 2000, following its 25th anniversary, BMG fired Davis as president/CEO due to age restrictions. Although Davis was still one of the most successful record heads in the entire music industry, BMG had an age restriction policy. L.A. Reid succeeded Davis as Arista's president/CEO. Under Reid,
288-593: A result of the Sony-BMG merger, Arista once again became related to Columbia Pictures , which is fully owned by the Sony Corporation of America (through Sony Pictures Entertainment ) – who would buy out BMG's share in 2008. After the Sony-BMG merger, LaFace Records was eventually revived; the label was now fully owned by Sony-BMG and began operating as part of the Jive Label Group . During
324-630: A support act for The Human League , as well as at the Holy City Zoo club in Birmingham. However, Dial and Moore soon left, and the band regrouped once more. By late 1981, Fashion—which had now been picked up by Arista Records —consisted of De Harriss (vocals, guitar), Martin Recchi (bass), Mulligan (synths) and Dik Daviss (as he now billed himself) on drums. This line-up issued the single "Move On" in November 1981, and though it did not chart,
360-649: A unit of Bertelsmann , on July 27, 1979; the acquisition was completed on October 1 of that year. After Arista lost $ 12 million in 1982, Bertelsmann sold a 50% interest in the company to RCA Records in 1983. In 1985, RCA and Bertelsmann merged their music operations to form RCA/Ariola International; RCA owned 75% and Bertelsmann owned the remaining 25%. After General Electric absorbed the RCA Corporation in 1986, GE sold off various RCA assets, including all of its interest in RCA/Ariola to Bertelsmann, and it
396-533: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Fashion (band) Fashion was a British new wave band , primarily active from 1978 to 1984, with a brief revival in 2009. They began as a post-punk band, before developing into a new wave/synth-pop ensemble that placed three singles on the lower reaches of the UK chart in 1982–84. Fashion went through several line-up overhauls during its initial existence between 1978 and 1984. John Mulligan (synthesizer, bass) and Dik Davis (drums) were constants, but
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#1732771809664432-629: The Grateful Dead in 1976, and the group released their only Top 40 pop hit, " Touch of Grey ", on the label in 1987. In addition to Outlaws , Patti Smith , Eric Carmen , Air Supply , the Kinks , Lou Reed , Alan Parsons and Dionne Warwick , Arista signed Aretha Franklin in 1980, after her long relationship with Atlantic Records ended. The label's most significant acquisition came in 1983 when Davis signed Whitney Houston . Houston would become Arista's biggest-selling recording act and one of
468-607: The best-selling acts in music history with sales of over 220 million records worldwide, according to the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA ). Arista had an imprint label in the 1970s called Arista Novus , which focused on contemporary jazz artists. It distributed two other jazz labels, Arista Freedom, which specialized in avant-garde jazz and, until 1982, GRP Records , which specialized in contemporary jazz and what came to be known as smooth jazz . A country music division, Career Records,
504-570: The Bell/Arista-distributed label, Big Tree . Several Bell acts, such as Barry Manilow , the Bay City Rollers , and Melissa Manchester continued with Arista. The British Bell label kept that name for a couple of years before changing its name to Arista. The label was mentioned in the 1978 Nick Lowe song "They Called It Rock", in the lyric, "Arista says they love you/But the kids can't dance to this." Arista signed
540-632: The UK in November 1978 and June 1979 respectively. The group was quickly picked up by I.R.S. , who put out a third single in the US in September 1979, "The Innocent". Their sound was varied, playing punk , post-punk and indie repertoire, although Mulligan at that time also had a synthesizer which later characterized the future synth-pop years of the band. Still signed to I.R.S. , in 1979 they recorded and released their first album, Product Perfect . All three members were credited as having written
576-679: The UK, where he now works under the name David Harris as a songwriter and producer in Lincoln. Thirty years after the first Fashion single was issued, original vocalist/guitarist Luke Sky (now based in California) reactivated the Fashion name to issue a new album. Released in February 2009, Stairway to Nowhere featured Luke Sky on vocals and all other instruments, with the exception of Vuk Pavlovic of Nature's Pocket providing drums for three of
612-593: The band live. Songs during Tate's period included "Love Is" and "What You Gonna Do Next." Tate subsequently departed, with Darby left to perform lead vocals. This iteration of the band was signed by Epic Records. In 1984, Fashion released an album entitled Twilight of Idols , with Darby now acting as lead singer and primary songwriter, penning all but two tracks. Keyboardist Mulligan remained, as did bassist Recchi (who now billed himself as Marlon Recchi, rather than Martin) along with drummer "Dik"/"Dik Mamba"/"Dik Daviss", who now billed himself as Dik Davis. Zeus B. Held
648-515: The band's frontman changed with each of the band's three albums. Fashion was formed originally as Fàshiön Music, in Birmingham , England, in 1978, and consisted of John Mulligan (bass, synthesizer), Dik Davis (drums), and Al James (vocals, guitar). James became known as Luke Sky, or simply Luke or Lûke (short for "Luke Skyscraper" – a reference to the Star Wars character Luke Skywalker and
684-412: The charts, spending 16 weeks on the top 100. The album was re-released with additional material in 2004 as The Height Of Fashion . All tracks written by David "Dee" Harris except where noted. (Tracks marked with an asterisk (*) are bonus tracks on The Height of Fashion) 'Double Play' cassette (Arista Canada ATC6604 (c)1982) contains all the above plus: This 1980s pop album–related article
720-487: The company. The label was named after Arista , New York City's public secondary school honor society (of which Davis was a member at Erasmus Hall High School ). In early 1975, most of the artists who had been signed to Bell were let go, including David Cassidy (who left for RCA Records ), Tony Orlando and Dawn (who left for Elektra Records ), and the 5th Dimension (which departed for ABC Records ). Others, such as Suzi Quatro and Hot Chocolate , were farmed out to
756-425: The duo had not performed a single note on their album. This revelation caused a huge firestorm in the music industry, as recording artists, particularly bubblegum pop acts that heavily relied on electronic processing and overdubbing (what they referred to as "studio magic"), were now under scrutiny and subsequently forced to cut back on lip-synching to show that they were authentic. Milli Vanilli 's Grammy Award
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#1732771809664792-486: The fact that James was tall and thin), while John Mulligan was known simply as Mulligan and Dik Davis simply as Dïk (or "Dik Mamba" on their debut single). In 1978, they also founded their own Fàshiön Music label; from this point forward, the band was generally (though not completely consistently) identified as Fashion, as distinct from the name of their self-owned label. Fashion released their first two singles ("Steady Eddie Steady" and "Citinite") as independent issues on
828-650: The label had success with newer acts such as Avril Lavigne , Pink , and Kelis , but struggled with newer releases by more established acts already on the label. Reid seemed to lose focus and have many miscalculations when it came to promoting Arista's established acts such as TLC , Toni Braxton , Whitney Houston (Houston being BMG's biggest selling act out of all BMG labels), and several other acts. Reid seemed to put more money in promoting newer acts and less money into promoting established acts. Whitney Houston's December 2002, Just Whitney , as well as her November 2003 album One Wish: The Holiday Album failed to achieve
864-507: The previous year. The album was certified sextuple platinum in the U.S., and charted five top-ten singles, three of them reaching the number one position. In 1990, Milli Vanilli won two American Music Awards and a Grammy Award for Best New Artist . Carol Decker , lead singer of the band T'Pau , was interviewed after their performance on MTV and said that Milli Vanilli had used a Synclavier and were not singing. Later that year, Frank Farian , producer of Milli Vanilli , confirmed that
900-494: The same success as her previous albums with Davis as head of Arista. Reid's extravagant spending, meanwhile, and lower sales of big-name established acts under his tenure, caused Arista to lose money. In two years, with Reid as CEO of Arista, Arista lost over $ 100 million. After BMG and Sony Music Entertainment merged in 2004, Reid was fired in January of that year. Arista, always an independently managed front line label at BMG,
936-417: The single still garnered enough attention to allow the band to record the album Fabrique (1982), produced by Zeus B. Held . In addition to "Move On", Fabrique contained the singles "Streetplayer (Mechanik)" and "Love Shadow", both of which were minor UK hits. Harriss (born David Harris) was now the band's frontman and songwriter, writing every song on the album (two were co-writes with Held). Fabrique
972-565: The songs collectively. Between 1978 and 1980, Fashion played shows with performers such as Toyah Willcox , UB40 , Hazel O'Connor and Billy Idol , who later became well known. A then-recently formed Duran Duran opened their shows; they toured the UK with U2 , both the UK and US with The Police , and opened for The B-52's on their first British tour. In March 1980, no longer associated with I.R.S., Fashion released their "Silver Blades" single, again on their own Fàshiön Music label. Later in 1980 they also released one more song, "Let Go", on
1008-531: The summer of 2011, the RCA Music Group underwent a restructuring that saw the elimination of the Arista name later on that year, along with sister labels J Records and Jive . RCA Records started releasing all RCA Music Group releases under RCA Records. Arista Nashville continued to operate through Sony Music Nashville and was not affected by the closing of Arista Records. Arista Records France
1044-514: The tracks. This iteration of Fashion existed for a short time before once again becoming dormant. Disbanded Arista Records Arista Records ( / ˈ ær ɪ s t ə / ARR -ist-ə ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment , a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America , the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony . The label was previously
1080-617: Was founded in September 2012, making it initially the last active remnant of the label, In 2023, Sony Music France closed Arista Records France, with the existing roster transferring to other labels under Sony's ownership. In July 2018, it was announced that Arista would be revived as a frontline label, making it now the fourth flagship record label under Sony Music alongside Columbia , RCA , and Epic . The company hired former Island Records president/CEO David Massey to lead Arista. In 1989, Arista Records launched Arista Nashville , which specializes in country music artists. Alan Jackson
1116-426: Was later re-issued with additional material as The Height of Fashion (1990, 2001). Harriss left Fashion before a proposed world tour of Fabrique . Following the loss of their lead singer and songwriter, once again Fashion was dropped by their label. Harriss was replaced by vocalist Troy Tate and guitarist Al Darby. Although Troy Tate did not record any studio material with Fashion, he performed his own songs with
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1152-557: Was merged into the Arista Nashville division in 1997. Arista Austin was used in the late 1990s as a country label. Arista Texas (later Arista Latin) was used in the mid to late 1990s as a Tejano/Regional Mexican label. Additionally, Arista was the U.S. distributor of Jive Records from 1981 until 1987. During the 1990s, Arista also distributed Logic, Rowdy and Heavenly Recordings . Looking to stave off bankruptcy, Columbia Pictures sold Arista to German-based Ariola Records ,
1188-578: Was merged with J Records in August 2005; J Records being the label that Davis started after being fired by BMG. The merged Arista and J record labels began operating under the newly formed RCA Music Group —of which Davis was re-instated as CEO after the merger of BMG and Sony, thus Davis once again became in control of Arista and several other labels from the very company that previously fired him. The Arista label continued to be used for new releases, although heavily scaled back, while its reissues are released through Sony Music's Legacy Recordings . Also, as
1224-709: Was once again the producer. "Eye Talk", released as a single, again put Fashion on the lower end of the UK Singles Chart . However, the band split up after playing live gigs to support the album. Mulligan went on to record material with Nick Beggs of Kajagoogoo . After leaving Fashion, De Harriss reverted to using the name "Dave Harris" and, in 1984, recorded an album with Richard Wright , keyboardist of Pink Floyd , as Zee . He later worked as an in-house songwriter and producer at Warner Chapell Music in New York City from 1990 to 2000. He then returned to
1260-442: Was renamed Bertelsmann Music Group , though Arista's U.S. releases would not note BMG until 1987. That year, in 1987, Arista Records formed a home video subsidiary, 6 West Home Video, in order to release home video titles on Arista Records' musical catalog, and the initial release, which served as the first title for the 6 West Home Video division was a one-hour performance on The Grateful Dead , So Far , with an October release and
1296-469: Was subsequently revoked. Clive Davis promptly released the duo from its contract and deleted the album and its masters from their catalogue—making Girl You Know It's True the largest-selling album to be deleted. A court ruling in the U.S. allowed anyone who had bought the album to get a refund . In response to the scandal, Arista's position was that the company had been completely unaware of Morvan and Pilatus having not themselves recorded their album. In
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