Arista album discography: Early CD era.

Arista got into making CDs relatively early, beginning to do so in 1983. Their first CD, Side Kick by the Thompson Twins, was carried from its LP counterpart Quick Step & Side Kick (in fact many of their earliest CDs were carried over from vinyl). The earliest CDs from Arista, much like their earliest albums, were reissues of previously released product.

Their second CD was a brilliant collection of ''Greatest Hits'' by Melissa Manchester (who had recently hit the Top-10 again with "You Should Hear How She Talks About You") that, like most greatest hits packages, spelled a ''death knell'' of sorts for her; she never hit the Top-40 again.

In 1983, Bertelsmann sold 50% of its stake in Arista to RCA. RCA and Bertelsmann's main label, Ariola, formed a joint venture together called RCA/Ariola International in 1985. The next year brought General Electric's purchase of the entire RCA Corporation; GE reverted Ariola's stake in Arista and in the aforementioned joint venture back to Bertelsmann (Reinhard Mohn had retired by this point and one of his successors at Bertelsmann was Thomas Middelhoff.)

1984 brought Kashif's R&B hits "Baby Don't Break Your Baby's Heart", "Are You the Woman" and "Ooh Love" (for all his success in the R&B field, he never hit the Top 40 pop charts), along with hits from the Thompson Twins' #10 Into The Gap album, hits that included "Hold Me Now" (#4), "Doctor! Doctor!" (#11), "You Take Me Up" (#44, despite being their biggest British hit), ''Sisters of Mercy'' (#11UK) and ''The Gap'' (#69US). It also brought Ray Parker, Jr.'s "Ghostbusters", a smash hit single from the smash hit film. Jermaine Jackson (one of the more unsung members of the Jackson 5) came to Arista in 1984 and began to reap success immediately with "Do What You Do" (#13pop, #14RB) and "Dynamite" (#15pop, #8RB). The other single from his self-titled debut album, "Sweetest Sweetest", didn't chart.

In February 1985, Whitney Houston (who had been signed in 1983) released her self-titled debut LP, with assistance coming Michael Masser, Kashif, Jermaine Jackson, and Narada Michael Walden. Response was initially slow, but it grew strong with the #3 pop hit "You Give Good Love", along with "Saving All My Love for You" and "How Will I Know" hitting #1. Meanwhile, Aretha Franklin, opting to go more in the pop direction had by her legendary recording of ''R-E-S-P-E-C-T'', put out Who's Zoomin' Who?, which spawned the hits "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" (with Eurythmics) (#18), "Who's Zoomin' Who" itself (#7) and another Grammy-winning smash, "Freeway of Love" (#3). In 1985, Barry Manilow exited Arista to join RCA.

1986 brought a revival of the theme song from the late great Muhammad Ali's biopic The Greatest, as Michael Masser's "Greatest Love of All" became a tour-de-force for Whitney Houston and went right to #1 on the charts and kept the DJs busy all year and right into the sessions of her next album. It did however, sound familiar, at least to the Canadian folk music legend Gordon Lightfoot. In April of 1987, he sued Masser, alleging that the song stole twenty-four bars from Lightfoot's 1970 hit "If You Could Read My Mind." According to Maclean's, Lightfoot commented, "It really rubbed me the wrong way. I don't want the present-day generation to think that I stole my song from [Masser]." Lightfoot has stated that he dropped the suit when he felt it was having a negative effect on Whitney Houston, as the suit was about Masser and not her.

Elsewhere, Carly Simon signed with Arista and, as her first album for the label suggested, it was on the charts where she was promptly Coming Around Again: the title track hit #18 and she also had AC hits in "Give Me All Night", "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", "All I Want Is You" (which featured Roberta Flack on backing vocals), and a cover of "As Time Goes By"; the harmonica solo on it, if you want to be reminded of the early Motown days, is from Stevie Wonder. Aretha Franklin successfully maintained her success from her previous album; her newest (for the year) had hits in "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" with George Michael, "Jimmy Lee", "Rock-A-Lott" and a hard rock cover of The Rolling Stones' classic, "Jumpin' Jack Flash". The music videos for each song were extremely popular on MTV, BET and other video outlets.

No one can talk about 1987 (or that particular year in the life of Clive Davis) without mentioning Whitney. The second album from Houston catapulted her to international fame, and made world history: the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and remained at the top for eleven consecutive weeks, creating a record; the most cumulative weeks (25 weeks) at number one on the albums chart by a female artist during the 1980s, while all four of its first singles, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" topped the pop charts. Whitney was the first woman where this happened to her. The album and its first single topped the charts in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and mainland Europe. Indeed her success was such that she gained the most attention out of anybody at Arista that entire year; even Barry Manilow returning to the label after two years couldn't divert attention from Whitney.

Early Arista CDs used a silver disc with the Arista logo to the left of the label. This was actually similar to the label used on MCA CDs from the period. Many of these albums were also on vinyl with the same stock numbers; starting in 1984, they used a label showing a sunset with the ARISTA name in front of it and a black mountain silhouette below the name, the text being in grey and (mostly) in a Eurostile font.

ARCD-8001
ARCD-8002 Thompson Twins/Side Kicks
ARCD-8003
ARCD 8004 Melissa Manchester/Greatest Hits
ARCD 8005 Krokus/Headhunter
ARCD 8006 Dionne Warwick/Heartbreaker ‎(CD, Album)
(numbering sequence jumps 10 numbers)
ARCD 8016 Ministry/With Sympathy
ARCD-8017
ARCD 8018 The Kinks/State Of Confusion ‎(CD, Album)
ARCD-8019
ARCD-8020
ARCD-8021
ARCD-8022
ARCD-8023
ARCD 8024 Air Supply/Greatest Hits
ARCD-8025
ARCD 8026 Peter Allen/Not The Boy Next Door ‎(CD, Album)
ARCD 8027
ARCD 8028
ARCD 8029
ARCD 8030
ARCD 8031
ARCD 8032
ARCD 8033 The Alan Parsons Project/Eye In The Sky
ARCD 8034
ARCD 8035
ARCD-8036 Kenny G
ARCD 8037
ARCD 8038
ARCD 8039 Barry Manilow/Greatest Hits (Comp)
ARCD 8040 The Alan Parsons Project/I Robot (Album)
(numbering sequence jumps 10 numbers)
ARCD 8050 The Kinks/Low Budget ‎(CD, Album, RE)
(numbering sequence jumps 7 numbers)
ARCD-8057 Hiroshima
ARCD-8058
ARCD-8059
ARCD-8060
ARCD-8061
ARCD 8062 The Alan Parsons Project/Eve
ARCD 8063
ARCD 8064
ARCD-8065 The Grateful Dead/Terrapin Station
ARCD 8066
ARCD 8067
ARCD 8068 The Kinks/Sleepwalker
ARCD 8069 The Kinks/Misfits
ARCD 8070 Barry Manilow/Tryin' To Get The Feeling
ARCD 8071
ARCD 8072
ARCD 8073
ARCD 8074
ARCD 8075 Graham Parker And The Rumour/Squeezing Out Sparks
ARCD 8076
ARCD 8077
ARCD 8078
ARCD 8079
ARCD 8080
ARCD 8081 The Jeff Lorber Fusion/Wizard Island
(numbering sequence jumps 12 numbers)
ARCD 8093 Graham Parker And The Rumour/The Up Escalator
(numbering sequence jumps 9 numbers)
ARCD 8102 Barry Manilow/Greatest Hits Vol. II
(numbering sequence jumps 14 numbers)
ARCD 8116 Dixie Dregs/Dregs Of The Earth
ARCD 8117
ARCD 8118
ARCD 8119
ARCD-8120 Dregs/Unsung Heroes
(numbering sequence jumps 22 numbers)
ARCD-8142 Melissa Manchester
(numbering sequence jumps 19 numbers)
ARCD 8161 Patti Smith Group/Radio Ethiopia
ARCD 8162
ARCD 8163
ARCD 8164
ARCD 8165 Bob Weir/Heaven Help The Fool
ARCD 8166 Patti Smith Group/Easter
ARCD 8167
ARCD 8168
ARCD 8169
ARCD 8170 The Jeff Lorber Fusion/Water Sign
(numbering sequence jumps 11 numbers)
ARCD 8181 Grateful Dead/Go To Heaven
ARCD 8182
ARCD 8183
ARCD 8184
ARCD 8185
ARCD 8186 Gino Vannelli Nightwalker
ARCD 8187
ARCD 8188
ARCD 8189
ARCD 8190
ARCD 8191
ARCD 8192 Kenny G/G Force - FUN FACT: Not the 2009 Disney movie.
ARCD-8193 The Best Of The Alan Parsons Project
ARCD 8194
ARCD 8195
ARCD 8196
ARCD 8197
ARCD 8198 Angela Bofill/Teaser
ARCD 8199
ARCD 8200 Thompson Twins/Into The Gap
ARCD 8201
ARCD-8202 Icicle Works
ARCD 8203 Jermaine Jackson
ARCD 8204 The Alan Parsons Project/Ammonia Avenue
ARCD-8205 Kashif/Send Me Your Love
ARCD-8206
ARCD-8207
ARCD-8208
ARCD-8209
ARCD-8210
ARCD-8211
ARCD 8212 Whitney Houston
ARCD-8213
ARCD-8214
ARCD-8215
ARCD 8216 Air Supply/Lost In Love
ARCD 8217 Air Supply/The One That You Love ‎
ARCD 8218
ARCD 8219
ARCD 8220
ARCD 8221
ARCD 8222 Aretha Franklin/Jump To It
ARCD 8223
ARCD 8224 The Kinks/Give The People What They Want
ARCD 8225 The Alan Parsons Project/Pyramid
ARCD 8226 The Alan Parsons Project/The Turn Of A Friendly Card
ARCD 8227
ARCD-8228 The Grateful Dead/Shakedown Street
ARCD 8229 Al Stewart/Year Of The Cat
(numbering sequence jumps 13 numbers)
ARCD 8243 Krokus/The Blitz
ARCD 8244 Thompson Twins/In The Name Of Love ‎
ARCD 8245
ARCD-8246 Ghostbusters (Original Soundtrack)
ARCD 8247
ARCD 8248
ARCD 8249
ARCD 8250
ARCD 8251
ARCD 8252
ARCD 8253
ARCD 8254 Barry Manilow/2:00 AM Paradise Café ‎(CD, Album)
ARCD 8255
ARCD 8256
ARCD 8257
ARCD 8258 Angela Bofill/Let Me Be The One
ARCD 8259
ARCD 8260
ARCD 8261
ARCD-8262 Dionne Warwick/Finder Of Lost Loves ‎
ARCD 8263 The Alan Parsons Project/Vulture Culture
ARCD 8264 The Kinks Word Of Mouth ‎
ARCD 8265
ARCD 8266 Aretha Franklin/Who's Zoomin' Who?
ARCD 8267
ARCD 8268 Arista's Perfect 10 ‎
ARCD 8269 Jeff Lorber/Step By Step
ARCD 8270
ARCD 8271
ARCD 8272
ARCD 8273
ARCD 8274
ARCD-8275 Peter Allen/Captured Live At Carnegie Hall
ARCD 8276 Thompson Twins/Here's To Future Days
ARCD 8277 Jermaine Jackson/Precious Moments
ARCD 8278 Perfect (Original Soundtrack Album)
ARCD 8279
ARCD 8280
ARCD 8281
ARCD 8282 Kenny G/Gravity
ARCD-8283 Air Supply
ARCD-8284
ARCD-8285
ARCD 8286 Aretha Franklin/Who's Zoomin' Who?
ARCD-8287
ARCD-8288
ARCD-8289
ARCD-8290
ARCD-8291
ARCD-8292 Air Supply/Now And Forever
ARCD-8293
ARCD-8294
ARCD 8295 Dionne Warwick/Dionne ‎(CD, Album)
ARCD-8296 The Monty Python Instant Record Collection (The Pick Of The Best Of Some Recently Repeated Python Hits Again Vol. II
ARCD-8297
ARCD-8298
ARCD-8299
ARCD 8300
ARCD 8301 Outlaws/Outlaws ‎
ARCD 8302
ARCD 8303
ARCD-8304 Stephen Schwartz/Godspell
ARCD 8305
ARCD 8306
ARCD 8307
ARCD 8308 Arista's Perfect 10 Rides Again
ARCD 8309
ARCD 8310
ARCD 8311
ARCD 8312
ARCD-8313 The Monkees Greatest Hits
ARCD-8314 Krokus/Metal Rendez-vous ‎(CD, Album)
ARCD-8315
ARCD-8316
ARCD-8317 Marvin Hamlisch/Ice Castles (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
ARCD-8318
ARCD-8319 Greatest Hits Of The Outlaws, High Tides Forever
ARCD-8320
ARCD-8321
ARCD-8322
ARCD-8323
ARCD-8324
ARCD-8325 Marlo Thomas And Various/Free To Be...You And Me
ARCD-8326
ARCD-8327
ARCD-8328
ARCD-8329
ARCD-8330 Haircut One Hundred/Pelican West
ARCD-8331 Barry Manilow/This One's For You
ARCD-8332
ARCD-8333 The Best Of The Delfonics
ARCD-8334 The Monkees/More Greatest Hits
ARCD-8335 The 5th Dimension/Greatest Hits On Earth
ARCD-8336
ARCD-8337 Godspell (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
ARCD-8338
ARCD-8339
ARCD-8340
ARCD-8341
ARCD-8342 Al Stewart/Time Passages
ARCD-8343
ARCD-8344
ARCD-8345
ARCD-8346
ARCD-8347
ARCD-8348 Best Of Jennifer Warnes
(numbering sequence jumps 11 numbers)
ARCD 8359 Al Stewart/Past, Present And Future
ARCD-8360
ARCD-8361
ARCD-8362 Patti Smith/Horses
(numbering sequence jumps 21 numbers)
ARCD 8383 Cruzados
ARCD-8384 The Alan Parsons Project/Stereotomy
ARCD-8385 Kashif Condition Of The Heart
ARCD-8386
ARCD-8387
ARCD-8388
ARCD-8389
ARCD 8390
ARCD 8391
ARCD 8392
ARCD 8393
ARCD 8394
ARCD 8395 Jermaine Stewart/Frantic Romantic
ARCD 8396 Angela Bofill/Tell Me Tomorrow
ARCD 8397
ARCD 8398 Dionne Warwick/Friend
ARCD 8399
ARCD 8400 GTR
ARCD 8401 Patrice Rushen/Watch Out! ‎
ARCD 8402 Krokus/Change Of Address
ARCD 8403
ARCD 8404
ARCD 8405 Whitney Houston/Whitney
(numbering sequence jumps 11 numbers)
ARCD 8416 Arista's Perfect 10 III
ARCD 8417
ARCD 8418
ARCD 8419
ARCD 8420
ARCD 8421
ARCD 8422 Latin Quarter/Modern Times
ARCD 8423
ARCD 8424
ARCD 8425 The Best Of Angela Bofill
ARCD 8426 Air Supply/Hearts In Motion
ARCD 8427 Kenny G/Duotones
ARCD 8428
ARCD 8429
ARCD 8430
ARCD 8431
ARCD 8432
ARCD-8433 The Best Of Al Stewart
ARCD-8434
ARCD-8435
ARCD-8436
ARCD 8437 Hiroshima/Ongaku
ARCD 8438 Nothing In Common - Original Soundtrack
ARCD 8439 Cruzados/After Dark
ARCD 8440 KBC Band
ARCD 8441 Exposé/Exposure
ARCD 8442 Aretha Franklin/Aretha
ARCD 8443 Carly Simon/Coming Around Again
ARCD-8444 Jermaine Stewart/The Word Is Out
ARCD 8445 Krokus/Alive And Screamin'
ARCD 8446 Dionne Warwick/Reservations For Two
ARCD-8447 Kashif/Love Changes
ARCD-8448 The Alan Parsons Project/Gaudi
ARCD-8449 Thompson Twins/Close To The Bone
ARCD-8450
ARCD-8451
ARCD-8452 Grateful Dead/In The Dark
ARCD-8453 Patti Smith Dream Of Life ‎(CD, Album)
ARCD-8454
ARCD-8455 Jermaine Stewart Say It Again
ARCD-8456
ARCD-8457 Kenny G/Silhouette
(numbering sequence jumps a whopping 29 numbers)
ARCD-8486 The Best Of The Alan Parsons Project - Volume 2
ARCD-8487 The Alan Parsons Project/The Instrumental Works
ARCD-8488
ARCD-8489
ARCD-8490
ARCD-8491 Witness
ARCD-8492 Four Tops/Indestructible
ARCD-8493 Jermaine Jackson/Don't Take It Personal
ARCD-8494
ARCD-8495
ARCD 8496 Kenny G/Duotones
ARCD-8497
ARCD-8498
ARCD-8499