Originally a vehicle for film soundtracks from Arista, the 9500 series quickly became the main series once Bertelsmann took over its ownership.

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Arista's open to the rest of 1976 was with one of its biggest coups: the signage of Lou Reed. Reed had earlier put out a string of successful albums for RCA . . . that is, until 1975, which saw the debut of Metal Machine Music, a critically savaged (and less than healthy) mixture of industrial music, noise rock, and contemporary sound art that RCA (according to some sources) returned to stores by the thousands after a few weeks. Though his next album, Coney Island

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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.

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Somewhat hidden in the year laden with scandal involving Milli Vanilli is the fact of another meeting involving Clive Davis: that which was made in Atlanta between him and the duo of Antonio "L.A." Reid & Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. The result, LaFace Records, had enough of a history that I will cover it sometime in the future (it helps that their releases didn't appear under Arista's normal numbering system).

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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

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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.

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In 2000, Arista celebrated its 25th year as a record company. The year was marked both by joy and misfortune: both involved Clive Davis. The joy came in the fact that he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. The misfortune came via L.A. Reid: BMG put him in the seat long-occupied by Davis at the end of the year. Not one to give up so easily, he started J Records, an independent label with financial backing from Arista parent Bertelsmann Music Group. BMG would buy

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After a Whitney-laced 1987, 1988 was a relatively quiet year for Arista. Tommy Mottola attempted to keep Hall and Oates under contract when their RCA obligation ran out, so Hall and Oates did the inverse of what Barry Manilow had done in 1985 (he himself did the inverse in '87) and their first album for the label, Ooh Yeah!, included the hits "Everything Your Heart Desires" (#3 in May—their last to make the Top 10), "Missed Opportunity", and "Downtown Life". Aretha Franklin

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MEAT LOAF
BAD ATTITUDE
Record company: Arista Records
Distributor: Ariola-Eurodisc GMBH
Country of Origin: Germany
Stock No.: 206 619 for vinyl; 406 619 for cassette; 610 187 for CD.
Recorded: STEREOPHONICALLY
Manufacturing Facility for Record: Ariola Sonopress, Gutersloh, Germany
Producers: M.L. Aday, Paul Jacobs, Mack.

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