ABKCO Records facts for kids
 |
|
| Predecessor | Allen Klein & Co. |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1961 |
| Founder | Allen Klein |
| Headquarters |
,
United States
|
| Revenue | $26,000,000 |
|
Number of employees
|
43 |
| Footnotes / references distributed by Universal Music Group |
|
ABKCO Music & Records, Inc. is an American company. It is a record label, a music publisher, and a film and video production company. ABKCO stands for "Allen & Betty Klein Company."
This company owns or manages the rights to music from many famous artists. These include Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks. They also own the music from the Cameo Parkway label. This label has recordings by artists like Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell.
ABKCO Records works with Universal Music Distribution. This means Universal Music helps get ABKCO's music to stores and listeners. Universal Music also helps distribute the Rolling Stones' music that came out after their time with ABKCO.
Besides music, ABKCO also owns the rights to some early films by Alejandro Jodorowsky. These films include Fando y Lis, El Topo, and The Holy Mountain. ABKCO also helped produce the 2020 film One Night in Miami. In this movie, the singer Sam Cooke is a main character.
ABKCO has released many popular soundtracks. These include music from the TV show Big Little Lies. They also released soundtracks for movies like Joy, Isle of Dogs, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Other soundtracks include Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox.
History of ABKCO
ABKCO started from a business called Allen Klein & Co. This company was founded in 1961 by Allen Klein. He was a business manager for music artists. Some of his early clients were Bobby Darin and Sam Cooke. Later, he also managed famous bands like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
In 1968, ABKCO Industries was created. It was an "umbrella company." This means it brought together different parts of the business. It included managing artists, publishing music, and making films and TV shows. That same year, ABKCO bought the entire music collection of Cameo-Parkway Records. They also bought a factory that made records. This factory was used to produce records for artists like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
For a long time, the music from the Cameo-Parkway collection was not easy to find. Many fans were disappointed. However, since 2005, ABKCO has worked to make this music available again.
Today, ABKCO often releases new collections and reissues of its music. They also help place their songs in films and commercials. Jody Klein, who is the president of ABKCO, has been important in this work. He helped release the Cameo-Parkway recordings. He also made sure that many recordings from the 1960s were remastered. Remastering makes old recordings sound much better. These remastered songs include music by the Rolling Stones, the Animals, Herman’s Hermits, and Sam Cooke. Allen Klein passed away in 2009.
