Over the years, I bought a lot of Arista albums. I remember playing Al Stewart’s Year of the Cat album in 1976 and wearing the grooves out! I was also fond of Patti Smith’s “Because the Night”–written with Bruce Springsteen–on her 1978 album, Easter.
Arista liked British bands like The Alan Parsons Project, the Thompson Twins, and the Eurythmics and promoted them relentlessly in the U.S.
“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.” — Wikipedia
Were you a fan of Arista? Any favorites here? GRADE: B
TRACK LIST:
| Grateful Dead*– | Touch Of Grey | 5:48 | |
| Patti Smith– | Because The Night | 3:04 | |
| The Kinks– | A Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy | 4:59 | |
| Al Stewart– | Year Of The Cat | 4:36 | |
| Haircut One Hundred– | Love Plus One | 3:32 | |
| Lou Reed– | Street Hassle | 4:02 | |
| Ministry– | Work For Love | 4:43 | |
| Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe– | Brother Of Mine | 6:31 | |
| Jeff Healey Band*– | I Think I Love You Too Much | 4:35 | |
| Patti Smith– | People Have The Power | 5:07 | |
| The Outlaws*– | Green Grass And High Tides | 9:50 | |
| The Alan Parsons Project– | I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You | 3:12 | |
| Graham Parker– | Local Girls | 3:41 | |
| Thompson Twins– | Hold Me Now | 4:46 | |
| The Church– | Under The Milky Way | 4:57 | |
| Eurythmics– | The King And Queen Of America | 4:31 |
Not really. I know a few of them, but not my era and no particular favorites. Maybe the Patti Smith (who we saw open for Neil Young in 2012).
Jeff, Diane and I saw Patti Smith as part of the BABEL speaker series a couple years ago. She both sang and discussed her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.
Don’t know many of these, George.
Just Thompson Twins, The Alan Parsons Project, Al Stewart, and The Kinks.
I’m not very familiar with who put out the albums; I just buy the artists I like.
Beth, some record labels concentrate on a certain sound and certain artists. I love RHINO Records because they put out a lot of retro music.
A few favorites—“Because the Night”, “Year of the Cat”, “Love Plus One”, “Hold Me Now”, “Under the Milky Way”—but by and large this strikes me as a rather forgettable collection.
Deb, I have a later ARISTA collection that might be more memorable…if I can find it.
Me too!
i also remember darkly a few of these songs/performers but buying their music?
Wolf, vinyl record albums were inexpensive back in the 1970s.
At least in the US….
But not in Europe, especially Germany!
I was so happy that I had bought a good tape recorder where i could record all my friends’ LPs. Everyone of my group had anoiher favourite band and we shared.
I bought some records on my travels to London where there were two large rcord shopss near to each other (Piccadilly) and you always had to look where a record was cheaper …
But these closed down a long time ago.
So when I went to NYC in the 80s the big store near Times Square was a destination for me as well as the smaller specialists in Chelsea and of course The Forbidden Planet on Broadway for SF.
Fond memories!
Wolf, we only have a couple of record stories still open. BEST BUY used to be about 1/3 music CDs. They discontinued selling CDs a couple of years ago in our local stores. I mostly buy my CDs now online.
Sony coproratese mildly obfuscates that Epic was essentially always another face of Columbia/CBS Records.
Nearly all are familiar, though few are the first thing one would think of by the performers in question.
Arista was the most supportive, among big commercial labels, of free and other innovative jazz recording in the ’70s, particularly, and that tends to take up more space in memory than much of this. Anthony Braxton’s FOR FOUR ORCHESTRA does tend to catch the eye and ear, even if I haven’t ever heard my copy in the quadrophonic playback that it was recorded in (the boxed set of LPs was playable on stereo equipment).
Gil Scott-Heron did sell more units for Arista, including to me.
Todd, I have some Gil Scott-Haron around here somewhere…
ORCHESTRAS, of course. What’s this “sleep” you speak of?
If one would like to hear (even a bit of) the Braxton, here ’tis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke6i_gUuP4s