10 Facts About Bell Records

Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 in New York City by Arthur Shimkin, the owner of the children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benny Bell who used the Bell name to issue risque novelty records.

Bell Records was shut down in late 1974, and its assets were transferred to Columbia Pictures' new label, Arista Records.

At its inception in 1952, Bell specialized in budget generic pop music, with the slogan "music for the millions".

The following year, Larry Uttal folded his Madison Records label into Bell after purchasing the label, along with its Amy and Mala subsidiary labels.

Later that year, the Mala, Amy, and Bell Records labels were merged into a single unit, keeping the Bell Records moniker.

Related searches

Bell Records had its final No 1 hit in January 1975 with Barry Manilow's "Mandy", followed shortly by the label's final hit, as well as its final single, "Look in My Eyes Pretty Woman" by Tony Orlando and Dawn after which the more successful Bell Records albums were reissued on Arista.

The last releases utilizing the Bell imprint have the designation "Bell Records, Distributed by Arista Records, 1776 Broadway, New York City 10019" around the rim of the label.

Bell Records had a division in Japan that was notable for reissuing Colgems original recordings, most notably the Monkees, who enjoyed considerable success in the country well into the 1970s.

In 1974, while the US Bell Records label released Re-Focus, The Japanese Bell Records label re-released the entire original Colgems LP catalog along with EP's, Box Sets and several Greatest Hits collections.

The Bell Records logo has made occasional appearances on the jackets and labels of Arista UK releases.