Oingo Boingo and Quiet Riot both made early appearances on these albums. Many of the novelty records became favorites on the Dr. Demento radio show, and Demento would release dozens of compilations on Rhino over the years. Phase three : While Foos and Bronson enjoyed the novelties and obscurities, they didn't sell many records, and by it became obvious they needed another strategy for the label. Having grown up as fans of rock from The '60s , the next logical move was to reissue that music, which the major labels had long-neglected in favor of newer material.
Working out licensing deals with other labels, Rhino put together reissues of original albums and well-chosen Greatest Hits Albums with informative liner notes. One band that received a lot of attention was The Turtles , since bandleaders Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman owned the rights to their recordings, and Bronson was from the same hometown as them and went to school with Kaylan's younger brother.
They also continued the retro theme by releasing the old-fashioned covers of modern songs recorded by Big Daddy. Having been fans of The Monkees , they got the licensing to release rarities albums, followed by reissues of their long out-of-print original albums. This turned into an unexpected gold mine in , when an MTV-fueled 20th anniversary Monkee revival shot the reissues into the Billboard chart. More Monkee material followed including the reunion album Pool It!
They still kept the novelty tradition going, though, with albums like the Golden Throats series, devoted to questionable celebrity music endeavors, which singlehandedly shone new light on the failed attempts by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy to become singing or, in Shatner's case, recitation sensations during the original Star Trek run.
Phase four : By the start of The '90s , Rhino was recognized as the top label for reissues, but they were gradually opening up into a larger entertainment company. They'd been early adopters of the Compact Disc format, and also established a home video division. This led to major expansion for Rhino in The '90s , with a wide and impressive music catalog with Rhino's resident curators Bill Inglot, Gary Stewart and Andrew Sandoval all well-regarded in the industry , reissues of classic film soundtracks, and even a film production venture with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as their highest-profile project.
Having access to the Atlantic catalog was a big boost for Rhino; since they'd proven that archival reissues could make money, other labels stopped licensing music to Rhino so they could do their own reissues.
One important department was the creation of multi-volume sets devoted to One-Hit Wonder artists of various eras and genres. They entered the children's music market with Kid Rhino, and also established Rhino Handmade, which released limited edition sets geared toward collectors.
Phase five : The familiar theme of " the dungarees versus the suits " played itself out over the next few years, with the freewheeling Rhino way of business running up against the Warner corporate wall.
Rhino had created the market for retro pop culture, and had built its brand by appealing to niche fandoms. Warner, however, was concerned with profits, and the two visions clashed frequently.
Frustrated, Foos and Bronson quit in Foos, along with some other Rhino refugees, founded Shout! Factory as a Spiritual Successor to Rhino, while Bronson has turned his focus to writing. In , Rhino became a full division of the newly created Warner Music Group, and still handles reissues, though the lineup is now tilted more heavily toward music of The '70s and The '80s.
One interesting part of the Rhino legacy is that other major labels started up imprints that specialized in Rhino-style back-catalog reissues. Universal Music Group didn't even try to disguise the inspiration for their reissue label. Back covers of releases were often devoted to information on issues ranging from AIDS to homelessness to animal overpopulation. Further, Rhino's merchandising of reissues was placed in the context of social consciousness, using commercial release of cultural icons as a tool for understanding the not-so-distant past.
Proceeds from album sales were often donated to relevant charities, and Rhino has been involved over the years with national causes such as the Rock the Vote campaign and the "ban the box" campaign for CDs as well as the local community specifically the Wooten Center, a Los Angeles inner-city recreation and education center. The company was selling 50, copies of the album each day, and its success almost became a recipe for disaster.
Foos and Bronson spent a year trying to come up with another gold single, relenting only after they had wasted significant earnings. Reissues continued to serve Rhino's consumer market, and the company went back to focusing on what had made it successful in the first place. In , Rhino took advantage of, or perhaps fueled, the nostalgia trend for the s that was sweeping the nation.
Rhino released the first five volumes of a s retrospective entitled Have a Nice Day: Super Hits of the '70s. This series was so popular that, by , it would comprise 25 volumes.
Another landmark issue that year looked further back in time to the Beat Generation. Expanding to reach the country music audience, Rhino also released vintage material by country artists Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Buck Owens in Children became a new market for Rhino in Aiming to please the children of America and their music-shopping parents, the Kid Rhino label was launched in February of that year, licensing classic songs from Hanna-Barbera.
This deal gave Atlantic a 50 percent interest in Rhino. The "Atlantic Launch" was Rhino's biggest undertaking to date in terms of promotions and releases. The company also entered into an agreement to distribute Avenue Records, including seven albums by the s group War that had been out of print for a decade. The Aretha Franklin set earned the company its first Grammy, capturing the award for liner notes.
The Monterey boxed set contained previously unpublished photos, interviews with festival participants, performance notes, and background on the festival. Net proceeds were donated to charitable organizations. One reason for Rhino's success may have been its unprecedented act of going on the road without its artists.
Booths were set up at festivals in Austin, Texas; Telluride, Colorado; Boston; Philadelphia; Yosemite Park, California; and elsewhere, with each booth offering catalogs and promotional material and mailing list sign-up sheets.
Rhino followed up the festival, sending prize packages of Rhino samplers, merchandise, and fliers to those on the new mailing list.
At Rhino our mission is to put out great stuff, have some fun, make some money, learn from each other, and make a difference wherever we can. Several partnerships brought Rhino's product to larger audiences in The company took on a line of spoken-word tapes from apparel manufacturer Esprit that featured recordings from social issues lecturers such as Gloria Steinem and Jeremy Rifkin.
With the clothing, craft, and accessories chain Putumayo, Rhino released a series of world music albums which were sold in Putumayo retail outlets. Kid Rhino and McDonald's embarked upon a new partnership in , working together to create recordings starring McDonaldland characters such as Ronald McDonald.
Ronald Makes It Magic, the first product of the partnership, was released the next year. A mega-licensing deal was made with Warner Bros. Animation, securing the rights for Kid Rhino to release audio titles using voices of the classic Looney Tunes characters as well as three new kids on the block Yakko, Wakko, and Dot.
Marking the first folk festival of its magnitude in the Los Angeles area in 25 years, the event featured folk artists along with a crafts festival and vendors. Adding to the company's laurels, Rhino International received its first gold record, the French release of Aretha Franklin's 20 Greatest Hits. The company also released the first major retrospective of late s and early s punk, power pop, and new wave music, a nine-volume set called DIY Do It Yourself.
This set was targeted at both older fans who remembered the songs and younger consumers aged 16 to 30 who were part of the punk revival that spawned the Seattle "grunge" sound, with groups like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. Rhino turned Sweet 16 in , and the company threw a birthday party in the form of a national identity-promoting tour. Accolades for Rhino releases were plentiful in Finally, The Best of War.
In the spring of , Rhino and the Library of Congress signed a deal enabling Rhino to compile and release anthologies of historic recordings from the national archive, with the first project slated as a box set of presidential speeches. This agreement was the first large-scale licensing and production deal between a label and the Library of Congress.
Rhino also acquired the rights to the Monkees catalog, and videos of the group's TV series and specials were subsequently released, along with the movie Head, a Monkees feature film, and reissues of all nine original Monkees albums with previously unreleased bonus tracks and new liner notes. Two new divisions were established—Rhino Films and Rhino Books. Looking to the future as well as the past, Rhino went online in October of on CompuServe.
New ventures continued in , when Rhino launched its partnership with Turner Entertainment Co. A new catalog arrangement with Elektra Entertainment resulted in the release of Love Story, —, a double-CD anthology of the s psychedelic band Love. Having achieved a high level of success with its longstanding pop culture audience, Rhino began to tap other markets for its existing releases in The company directed attention to developing its market in the black community, launching the "Deep in the Groove" campaign to emphasize existing releases and new various-artists series such as Phat Trax and Smooth Grooves.
The latter, a four-volume classic romantic rhythm-and-blues series, reached gold status by Rhino standards through the sale of over , units in The company also debuted an urban marketing campaign, dubbed "Rhino, Baby! You Didn't Know? Now You Know! Rhino Home Video had a landmark year in with its first gold certification, earned for the classic Jimi Hendrix film Rainbow Bridge. Partnership with the Starbucks coffee chain resulted in the production of two special CDs for its caffeinated customers.
Secretary of Labor Robert Reich visited Rhino's Los Angeles headquarters in and praised its continuing democratic attitude toward employee involvement, bestowing Rhino with a corporate citizenship award. Rhino then had about employees. Foos simultaneously sent an ironic letter to Bob Dole, who had recently criticized rap music, offering him a copy of Rhino's White Men Can't Wrap, a compilation of pop hits spoken by actors of the s and s.
The name "Rhino" was selected by Richard Foos when he opened that original record store on Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles to signify the way in which he opened the doors and blindly charged ahead. In , according to Success, only 10 percent of the records produced in the United States were profitable, while 90 percent of Rhino's products earned profits.
This track record placed Rhino in the rare position of having no debt and no history of significant earnings loss over the years. With spirit, daring, and unique flair, Rhino has continued to charge ahead with a finely focused vision of how to succeed in the entertainment industry. The RMAT turned into a yearly event taken by thousands of participants. In August , Rhino put on its first RetroFest, a three-day retro concert and memorabilia festival.
The deal did not include Rhino's film or book operations or retail stores. Rhino Home Video, which then had a staff of just five people, was included. Rhino co-founders Richard Foos and Harold Bronson remained with the company as president and managing director, respectively. The deal brought responsibility for most of the back catalog of WMG's many record labels, including Warner Bros.
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