RECORDS
Capitol was founded in 1942 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, with the financial help of movie producer Buddy DeSylva and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs. It was immediately successful, registering its first gold-selling single (Ella Mae Morse's 'Cow Cow Boogie') in that same year. By 1946 the company had sold 42,000,000 records, and had such household names as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Les Paul and Les Baxter on its books. Its policy of concentrating on popular music paid off handsomely, and by 1955, when EMI bought 96% of its shares, it was a huge organization. EMI built new studios in Hollywood for the company : the Capitol Tower, which was featured on the singles' sleeve of the late '50s and late '70s. Capitol flourished throughout the '60s and '70s, with a diverse roster of artists from the Beach Boys to Kraftwerk; in 1979 it was made part of EMI Worldwide Music. It gave birth to two subsidiary labels, EMI America in the late '70s, and Manhattan in the early '80s. Its success continued through the '80s and '90s, encompassing everything from Soul and Pop to Heavy Metal. Its singles appeared on a variety of label designs in Britain. The purple label was used in the 78rpm era and, with slight variations, on into the early '60s; labels on EPs were coloured sea-green, and there was also a red-and-gold Classical series. Around 1964 the colour changed to black, and it stayed that way until 1970, when it was succeeded by a two-tone label in a completely new design. By 1975 the two-tone design had gone, replaced by a pale orange and green label; this was functional rather than attractive, and was again replaced fairly quickly. The company returned to the original 'dome' design, this time coloured bright red; the red domed label saw out the remainder of the decade, though a black label with horizontal silver stripes made the occasional appearance. Distribution was of course by EMI, apart from the first eight years of the label's existence in Britain (1948-55), when it was handled by Decca. There were also a number of different company sleeves; Capitol singles appeared in a multicoloured sleeve which seems to have been common to all the EMI labels and which featured pictures of current EMI albums. Thank to Robert Lyons for the info.
1960S DISCOGRAPHY CAN BE FOUND HERE 1970S DISCOGRAPHY CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF THE CL SERIES CAN BE FOUND HERE
| 80 | Sammy Hagar | Heartbeat | CAPITOL | RED | 1 |
| 81 | Start | Hey You | CAPITOL | START | 1 |
| 84 | Billy Squier | Rock Me Tonite | CAPITOL | SQ | 1 |
| 86 | Tavares | Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel | CAPITOL | TAV | 1 |
| 86 | Tavares | It Only Takes A Minute | CAPITOL | TAV | 2 |
