20th Century-Fox was formed through the merger of
Darryl F. Zanuck's
Twentieth Century Pictures with the
Fox Film Corporation on May 31, 1935. Before the merger, Fox Film Corporation tried out a couple of short-lived record labels in conjunction with its
Movietone sound system. Although Movietone was a dedicated sound-on-film system, in 1929-30 Fox produced some soundtracks on disc to accompany features shown in theaters not yet equipped for optical sound. Between 1933 and 1937, a custom record label called
Fox Movietone was produced starting at F-100 and running through F-136. It featured songs from Fox movies, first using material recorded and issued on the
RCA Victor Bluebird label and halfway through switched to material recorded and issued on
ARC's dime store labels. These scarce records were sold only at Fox Theaters. In 1938, 20th Century-Fox began a new, semi-private line of records employing white labels with typed, or mimeographed, information. Matrix numbers are variable, but the earliest known records in this series correspond to the picture
Sally, Irene and Mary (1938) and the latest ones to ''
The Gang's All Here'' (1943). Fox set up a record company in South Africa and started talks with
Roulette Records to form a partnership in the US but talks fell through and Fox decided to set up their own company in the US. Onorati brought with him "Carol of the Drum," a
Katherine K. Davis Christmas carol that had been recorded at Dot, but not released; it was retooled as "
The Little Drummer Boy" and issued on 20th Fox as a single by the
Harry Simeone Chorale. It became a Christmas standard in short order and put the label on a sound footing. During Onorati's tenure, 20th Fox was at its most ambitious and the album program was oriented towards an adult audience, whereas the singles attempted, without much success, to crack the sales charts. 20th Fox albums often appeared in deluxe packaging, and sometimes the film soundtrack albums featured narration or were bridged with dialog from the films. Other releases, such as those featuring
Glenn Miller,
George Gershwin, and
Shirley Temple, were sourced from vault film elements. 20th Fox also featured new albums by veteran artists such as
Eubie Blake,
Claude Hopkins and
Stuff Smith;
Hugo Winterhalter made his debut as a leader on 20th Fox. his last 20th Fox project was the soundtrack album for
The Longest Day. Onorati was replaced by Basil J. Bova.
20th Century-Fox Records Upon assuming the top job at 20th Fox, Basil Bova's first order of business was to quell rumors that the label planned to merge with
Cameo-Parkway Records. In May 1963, Bova renamed 20th Fox Records as 20th Century-Fox Records and the label design was changed to incorporate the movie studio logo. 20th Century-Fox was unusual in that its singles and album programs were separate entities; whereas the singles exploited pop and novelty fare, the album program was considerably more adult and represented a continuation of the plan Onorati had originally devised for the label. Exceptions include albums based around successful singles, such as
Sing We Now of Christmas which included "The Little Drummer Boy" by The Harry Simeone Chorale,
Navy Blue by
Diane Renay and two albums by
Mary Wells who enjoyed five mid-chart hits in 1964 and 1965. Bova anticipated that the soundtrack album for
Cleopatra would be "the blockbuster of them all". Appearing before the film's release by about two months in June 1963, the soundtrack debuted at #2 on the Billboard album chart and sold steadily. But the film opened to losses so great that belt-tightening was felt throughout the studio structure, and in 1965 it reached the record label. The 20th Century-Fox studio closed its newsreel division in 1963, cutting off the label's access to documentary audio for use in a series of current events albums, and tentative steps towards branching out into folk music and psychedelic rock were stopped altogether. From 1966,
ABC Records handled distribution of 20th Century-Fox Records, and the label issued soundtrack LPs only, but also briefly instituted a budget subsidiary, Movietone Records, to handle back catalog. 20th Century-Fox Records enjoyed one more hit album with the soundtrack to
Valley of the Dolls, though it did not contain
Dionne Warwick's version of the film's theme. They also released the soundtrack to
Hello Dolly, starring
Barbra Streisand, among other film-related projects. In 1970, the 20th Century-Fox studio shut down the record label, though ABC Records still continued to distribute stock on
The Little Drummer Boy, a repackaging of
Sing We Now of Christmas.
20th Century Records The label was dormant (with
ABC Records distributing the label's back catalog during that time) from 1970 to early 1972, when the label was revived as 20th Century Records by
Russ Regan on a budget of $1 million a year for the first 3 years. The first three acts signed to the 20th Century label were
The DeFranco Family,
Maureen McGovern, and
Barry White; however,
Brighter Side of Darkness gave the newly renamed label their first hit record in 1973 with
Love Jones. The label also had major hits with
Barry White's
The Love Unlimited Orchestra,
Love Unlimited,
Carl Douglas (best known for the song "
Kung Fu Fighting"),
Edwin Starr,
Stephanie Mills,
Leon Haywood, Carl Carlton and the
Star Wars soundtrack in 1977. The label also released the debut album from
The Alan Parsons Project in 1976 in most of the world except Europe.
Other projects The company also re-released the
Harry Simeone Chorale's recording of "
Little Drummer Boy" and the album on which it was first featured,
Sing We Now of Christmas, later reissued as
The Little Drummer Boy (this was part of the first 1958-era label series). It became the best selling Christmas album of all time. The rights were later acquired by
PolyGram, which released it on CD in 1988, on the
Mercury Records label. Among the movie soundtrack albums released by 20th Century Fox Records were those of
Zorba the Greek,
The Bible: In the Beginning,
Doctor Dolittle, and
Patton, all of them 20th Century Fox films. However, the label did not issue the soundtrack albums of any of the
Rodgers and Hammerstein films released by the studio. Instead, the albums made from five of these films were released by
Capitol Records (
Oklahoma! and
Carousel due to star
Shirley Jones' recording contract and
The King and I due to contractual obligations of
Yul Brynner), and the remaining two albums by
RCA Victor (
South Pacific and
The Sound of Music due to stars
Mitzi Gaynor's and
Julie Andrews' recording contracts with that label). Years later, the Capitol albums reappeared on CD in expanded versions issued by
Angel Records. (The film versions of
Oklahoma and
South Pacific, although released in
roadshow format by the Magna Corporation, were given general release by 20th Century Fox.)
Later years In 1966, Fox had a deal with
ABC Records for distribution and until 1970, this partnership enjoyed success. By 1970, with the parent 20th Century Fox in financial trouble (which eventually led to discontent that resulted in the ousting of
Darryl Zanuck), the new output of the record company dropped to zero. Although albums that had been selling were distributed by
ABC Records, no new product was forthcoming and 20th Century-Fox then shut down its record subsidiary. It was re-activated in 1972 as
20th Century Records and designed a smart new blue label with a new logo.
Russ Regan, a veteran "record man", became the new head of the label, a move that increased their credibility in the business considerably. Promotion seemed better, too, as the first two singles issued by the new incarnation both charted. Their biggest selling artist at the time,
Barry White, scored two number one hits with "
Love's Theme" with
Love Unlimited Orchestra and his own "
Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe". 20th Century-Fox had budgeted a million dollars a year for three years to support the revived label, but it began paying its own way after only six months.
Closure Managerial and operational control of the label were sold to
PolyGram in April 1982; the company acquired its catalog in July. Oil magnate
Marvin Davis, who had acquired 20th Century Fox, was not interested in the record company, hence its sale. All of its catalog and contracts for then-current artists including
Stephanie Mills,
Dusty Springfield and
Carl Carlton were transferred to
Casablanca Records, which PolyGram had purchased in 1977. In 1986, PolyGram dissolved Casablanca Records, moving that label's entire catalogue to
Mercury Records.
Universal Music Group, the successor of PolyGram, now owns the old 20th Century-Fox Records catalog with reissues handled by
Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), on behalf of
Mercury Records/
Republic Records. Soundtracks that 20th Century Fox owned are controlled by
Fox Music (now
Hollywood Records) but are often licensed to other entities for reissues. ==Related record labels==