Arista album discography: 1975-76

The story of Arista Records was, for much of its life, the continuing one of Clive Davis, who headed CBS Records fro 1967 to 1973.

It all began when Davis was fired from CBS for various allegations, including that he used company funds to bankroll his son's bar mitzvah (he strongly denied this claim back then and still does now). Clive was subsequently hired by Columbia Pictures (which later became sister to the former CBS Records in 1989) in June 1974 to be a consultant for the company's record and music operations. By November 1974, and with a 10 million dollar investment from Columbia Pictures, and while keeping time writing his memoirs. Davis folded the various Columbia legacy labels (Colpix Records, Colgems Records, and Bell Records) into a new entity named Arista Records, ultimately owning 20 percent of the company.

If you've continuing to wonder where the name Arista comes from, then you should take a visit to New York City's secondary school honor society (Clive was a member of such a society at Erasmus Hall High School). In early 1975, most of the artists who had been signed to Bell were let go, except David Cassidy, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and The 5th Dimension, who respectively joined RCA, WEA and ABC. Suzi Quatro and Hot Chocolate were farmed out to the Bell/Arista-distributed label, Big Tree. Several Bell acts, such as Barry Manilow, the Bay City Rollers, and Melissa Manchester moved to Arista. The British Bell label kept that name for a couple of years before changing its name to Arista.

Clive didn't take long to find some talent to grow. One of the first places he founded was in the least likely of his associated acts: pioneering vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and keyboardist Brian Jackson. Their first album for the label, The First Minute of a New Day (AL 4030) followed Scott-Heron's and Jackson's critically acclaimed collaboration effort Winter in America; the title track appeared on this album because it was not featured on its original LP release. Although it was guaranteed to be more of an underground than commercial success, it was still heavily promoted by them and entered the Top Jazz Albums chart at #17 on February 8, 1975. It later peaked at #5 before falling off the charts on July 19, 1975, 24 weeks after its original appearance; Arista's efforts also saw it peak at #8 on the Black Albums chart and #30 on the Pop Albums chart.

On the singles front, things looked promising for Clive's new label. Having sent out Bell Records with a bang on its last chart-topper "Mandy", Barry Manilow catapulted himself to stardom. He started his path to becoming Arista's signature star; within a year of its establishment he hit #12 with "It's a Miracle", #6 with "Could It Be Magic" and #1 with "I Write the Songs", a composition from the Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston that entered Arista into 1976. In the case of "Could It Be Magic", it was a remake of a song he initially released in 1973, but it did much better than the original version. The successes of these three singles led to his first two albums being reissued (now with roman numerals) and becoming huge album hits, doing something the original releases didn’t.

Meanwhile, another star saw her star turn upside down overnight in her own right: Melissa Manchester. Even though her first two works (for Bell) didn't do so well, she was on the verge of stardom and finally got it with her Arista debut, "Midnight Blue", which enjoyed 17 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts; it peaked at #6 by August 9, 1975.

Clive also tested the Bay City Rollers, who were noted in the book British Hit Singles & Albums as "the tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and "the first of many acts heralded as the 'biggest group since the Beatles' and one of the most screamed-at teeny-bopper acts of the 1970s". Here in America, their albums and singles hadn't even come out yet! Clive sought to change that. He put out their self-titled American debut album on Arista. It went to #20 thanks to one of the catchiest tunes that the decade ever brought: ''Saturday Night'' was an upbeat pop rock number encoded with a memorable hook that took it right to #1: the word "Saturday" was spelled out in a rhythmic chant. The track debuted here in the States via a satellite-link performance on Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell (the first three words of the title would be inherited by NBC for SNL as we know it today). The follow-up album, Rock and Roll Love Letter (AL 4071) did just as well, hitting #31 thanks to their #9 hit ''Money Honey''. They did even better with another follow-up, Dedication, which was modified to remove tracks that were on their previous US outing; the result, capitalizing on their #12 (#4 UK) remake of Dusty Springfield's ''I Only Wanna Be With You'', hit #26.

Some other singles, including former Raspberries musician Eric Carmen's #1 smash ''All By Myself'', and charting albums by Monty Python, the British comic troupe who entered America via PBS (particularly via KERA-TV13 in Dallas), completed Arista's (and thus, Clive's) story for the first two years.

The early Arista albums used a blue label with black print, with the A and ARISTA in white, along with the (optional) text ring. Early albums from Arista were distributed in Canada by Capitol Records (yes, THAT Capitol Records).

About 1976, Arista started using the copyright warning reading ''Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws''. Initially it appeared at 9 o'clock on the label, but it later moved to its more familiar place at 6 o'clock. In late 1976, Arista went to a black label with grey printing with the A and ARISTA in light blue.

The VERY early Arista albums consisted of reissues from the Bell catalogue.

AL-4001 "Godspell" Original Cast/Godspell (Album)
AL-4002 The 5th Dimension/Greatest Hits On Earth
AL 4003 Marlo Thomas/Free To Be...You And Me
AL 4004 Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando/Tuneweaving ‎
AL-4005 Various/Godspell
AL 4006 Melissa Manchester/Home To Myself
AL 4007 Barry Manilow I
AL 4008 Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando/Dawn's New Ragtime Follies
(cataloguing jumps 8 numbers ahead)
AL 4016 Barry Manilow II
(cataloguing jumps 15 numbers ahead)
AL 4031 Melissa Manchester/Melissa
AL 4032 Anthony Braxton/New York, Fall 1974
AL 4033 Eric Andersen/Be True To You
AL 4034 Peter Nero/Disco, Dance And Love Themes Of The 70's
AL 4035 Suzi Quatro/Your Mama Won't Like Me
AL 4036 Pierre Bachelet & Hervé Roy/Emmanuelle
AL 4037 The Brecker Brothers
AL 4038 The Headhunters/Survival Of The Fittest
AL 4039 The Monty Python Matching Tie And Handkerchief
AL 4040 Tamiko Jones/Love Trip
AL 4041 Batdorf & Rodney/Life Is You
AL 4042 The Outlaws
AL 4043 Jon Hendricks/Tell Me The Truth
AL 4044 Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson/From South Africa To South Carolina
AL-4045 Tony Orlando & Dawn/Greatest Hits
AL-4046
AL 4047 Linda Lewis/Not A Little Girl Anymore
AL 4048 Jerry Goldsmith/The Wind And The Lion
AL 4049 Bay City Rollers
AL 4050 The Album Of The Soundtrack Of The Trailer Of The Film Of Monty Python And The Holy Grail (Executive Version)
AL 4051 Larry Young's Fuel
AL 4052 The Eleventh House Featuring Larry Coryell/Level One
AL 4053 David Pomeranz/It's In Everyone Of Us
AL 4054 Harvey Mason/Marching In The Street
AL 4055 Terry Garthwaite/Terry
AL 4056 Joel Zoss
AL 4057 Eric Carmen
AL 4058 Hermann Szobel/Szobel
AL 4059 Tony Orlando & Dawn/Skybird
AL 4060 Barry Manilow/Tryin' To Get The Feeling
AL 4061 The Brecker Brothers Band/Back To Back
AL 4062 Jennifer Warnes
AL 4063 Loudon Wainwright III/T Shirt
AL 4064 Anthony Braxton/Five Pieces 1975 (Album)
AL 4065 Urszula Dudziak/Urszula
AL 4066 Patti Smith/Horses
AL 4067 Melissa Manchester/Better Days & Happy Endings
AL 4068 Airto/Identity
AL 4069 Lucky Lady
AL 4070 Outlaws/Lady In Waiting
AL 4071 Bay City Rollers/Rock N' Roll Love Letter
AL 4072 Larry Young's Fuel/Spaceball
AL 4073 Monty Python Live At City Center
AL 4074
AL 4075 Eric Andersen/Sweet Surprise
AL 4076 Silver
AL 4077 The Eleventh House Featuring Larry Coryell/Aspects
AL 4078 Funky Kings
AL 4079 Bernard Herrmann/Taxi Driver
AL 4080 Anthony Braxton/Creative Orchestra Music 1976 (Album)
AL 4081 Ben Sidran/Free In America
AL 4082 General Johnson
AL 4083 Mr. Big/Photographic Smile
AL 4084 David Forman
AL-4085 The Movies
AL 4086 Michal Urbaniak/Body English
AL 4087 Point Blank
AL 4088 Caravan/Blind Dog At St. Dunstans
AL 4089 The Monkees Greatest Hits
AL 4090 Barry Manilow/This One's For You
AL 4091
AL 4092 Deardorff And Joseph
AL 4093 Bay City Rollers/Dedication
AL 4094
AL 4095 Melissa Manchester/Help Is On The Way
AL 4096 Harvey Mason/Earthmover
AL 4097 Patti Smith Group/Radio Ethiopia
AL 4098 Lou Rawls/She's Gone
AL 4099 Miroslav Vitous/Majesty Music