Arista album discography: 1978-81

In 1977, Melissa Manchester recorded an album titled Singin'..., featuring a cover of Michael Jackson's 1972 hit ''I Wanna Be Where You Are''. Its songwriter Leon Ware heard the cut and subsequently expressed interest in producing the singer. He went right to work on her, producing what was intended as the singer's 1978 album release - which Manchester planned to name Caravan - all original material except "Bad Weather", a Stevie Wonder composition which had been a single for the Supremes in 1974.

Clive Davis then received the resulting master tapes from Ware. Davis, however, didn't feel that it had anything that would put Manchester back in the Top 40. Davis had the idea of putting out the Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager composition "Don't Cry Out Loud" - originally recorded as a minor hit for The Moments - and strongly suggested that Manchester do her own version. She had in fact stated that this was her brainchild - but that she wanted to record it as a personal, intimate ballad, rather than as the bombastic, Broadway-style showcase that Harry Maslin would arrange for her; when she heard the latter, she was startled, somewhat pleasantly.

The track later was added to the album; even though she wanted to keep the album titled Caravan, it was in fact the tune itself, issued simultaneously as a single, that became the new title of the album. The album wound up becoming the new top 40 hit Clive had hoped for, hitting #10 in March and kicking the LP to #33. She was unable to maintain this new success though. Her next single, "Through the Eyes of Love", a theme song from Ice Castles which became a classic in its own right, only reached #76.

The Kinks looked for a long time like they wouldn't click either. Ever since they were banned from touring the U.S. in 1965, they spent their time putting out albums. These, such as Something Else (1967), The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968), Arthur (1969), and Lola Versus Powerman (1970), along with their accompanying singles, were considered among the decade's finest and most influential recordings; they were, however, not commercially successful. In the 1970s, success further eluded them, critically and commercially. The group may have been about ready to make a comeback however. In 1978, Van Halen covered "You Really Got Me" for their debut single, a Top 40 US hit, helping boost the band's commercial resurgence (the band later covered "Where Have All the Good Times Gone", another early Kinks song). The hard rock sound of Low Budget, released in 1979 on Arista, helped make it the Kinks' second gold album; it is their highest charting original album in America, where it peaked at number 11.

Meanwhile, a change of corporate hands was initiated at Arista during 1979. Columbia Pictures, which owned Arista from its inception (from 1976-79, Arista albums noted that it was ''a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.'') was suffering badly from a check-forging scandal involving executive David Begelman and numerous takeover attempts courtesy of MGM studio chief Kirk Kerkorian, and was seeking to stave off bankruptcy. To help do this, Clive Davis went to Munich and successfully convinced Reinhard Mohn (1921–2009), the head of the soon-to-be-giant empire known as Bertelsmann, to acquire the label. Its ownership of the label would span the next 25 years of Arista's life; Mohn was content with the idea of leaving Clive alone to do what he normally did at Arista.

Amidst the negotiations Clive had with Mohn, Arista cracked the R&B market for the first time, topping the Soul charts with "Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)" by a group called GQ, who went on to follow it up with a remake of Billy Stewart's ''I Do Love You''.

The first few albums in this series used a black label with A and ARISTA in light blue. In early 1979, the releases began using a blue-to-yellow colored label with quite the graphical assembly at the top of it.
AB 4200 Baby Grand/Ancient Medicine
AB 4201 David Sancious & Tone/True Stories
AB 4202 Phyllis Hyman/Somewhere In My Lifetime ‎(LP, Album)
AB 4203 Nova/Sun City
AB 4204 Pierre Moerlen's Gong/Expresso II
AB 4205 Outlaws/Playin' To Win
AB 4206 Camel/Breathless
AB 4207 Andy Mendelson/Maybe The Good Guy's Gonna Win
AB 4208 Breakwater
AB 4209 Bernie Worrell/All The Woo In The World
AB-4210 Randy Edelman/You're The One
AB 4211 Galaxy/Hot, Wet And Sticky
AB-4212 Raydio/Rock On
AB 4213 David Byron/Baby Faced Killer
AB 4214 Dwight Twilley/Twilley
AB 4215 Tycoon
AB-4216 Norman Connors/Invitation
AB-4217 Jennifer Warnes/Shot Through The Heart
AB 4218 Ben Sidran/Live At Montreux
AB 4219 Pierre Moerlen's Gong/Downwind
AB 4220 Robert Fleischman/Perfect Stranger
AB 4221 Patti Smith Group/Wave
AB 4222 Bobby Womack/Roads Of Life
AB 4223 Graham Parker & The Rumour/Squeezing Out Sparks
AB 4224 Blue Montreux/Blue Montreux
AB 4225 GQ/Disco Nights
AB 4226 Ohio Players/Everybody Up
AB 4227 Harvey Mason/Groovin' You
AB 4228
AB 4229 Lou Reed/The Bells
AB 4230 Dionne Warwick/Dionne
AB 4231
AB 4232 Thieves/Yucatan
AB 4233 Saint & Stephanie/Saint & Stephanie
AB 4234 The Jeff Lorber Fusion/Water Sign
AB 4235 The Rumour/Frogs Sprouts Clogs And Krauts
AB 4236 Michael Stanley Band/Greatest Hints
AB 4237 Iggy Pop/New Values
AB 4238 The A's
AB 4239 Charlie/Fight Dirty
AB 4240 The Kinks/Low Budget
AB 4241 The Rollers/Elevator
AB 4242 Linda Williams/City Living
AB 4243 The Pop/Go!
AB 4244
AB 4245 Blue Montreux II
AB 4246 FM/Surveillance
AB 4247 David Sancious/Just As I Thought
AB 4248 Karen Silver/Hold On I'm Comin'
AB 4249 The Sports/Don't Throw Stones
AB 4250 Eddie Kendricks/Something More
AB 4251
AB 4252 Hiroshima
AB 4253 The Waters/Watercolors
AB 4254 Came/I Can See Your House From Here
AB 4255 Pierre Moerlen's Gong/Time Is The Key
AB 4256 Mandrill/Gettin In The Mood
AB 4257 Chuck Cissel/Just For You
AB 4258 D.L. Byron/This Day And Age
AB 4259 Iggy Pop/Soldier
AB 4260 Willie Nile
AB-4261 John Miles/Sympathy
AB 4262 Gene Page/Love Starts After Dark
AB 4263 Gary Bartz/Bartz
AB 4264 Breakwater/Splashdown
AB 4266 The Sports/Suddenly
AB 4267
AB 4268 Air Supply
AB 4269 Original Mirrors
AB 4270 The Elevators/Frontline
AB 4271 Tonio K./Amerika
AB 4272 The Brecker Brothers/Detente
AB 4273 Magic Lady
AB 4274 Locksmith/Unlock The Funk
AB 4275
AB 4276
AB 4277
AB 4278
AB 4279 Pierre Moerlen's Gong/Live
AB 4280 Bus Boys/Minimum Wage Rock & Roll
AB 4281
AB 4282
AB 4283 Harvey Mason/M.V.P.
AB 4284 Willie Nile/Golden Down
AB 4285
AB 4286
AB 4287
AB 4288 Sky 3
AB 4289
AB 4290
AB 4291
AB 4292 Bram Tchaikovsky/Funland