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Albert Productions

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Albert Productions
Parent companyJ. Albert & Son Pty Ltd (BMG Rights Management)
Founded1963
FounderTed Albert
Distributor(s)Sony Music Entertainment
GenreRock 'n' Roll, Various
Country of originAustralia
LocationSydney
Official websitewww.albertmusic.com

Albert Productions, a division of music publishing and recording company Albert Music, is one of Australia's longest established independent record labels to specialise in rock and roll music. The label was founded in 1963 by Ted Albert, whose family owned and operated the Sydney music publishing house J. Albert & Son.[1]

History

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During the 1960s, Albert Productions operated like other similar companies, such as those founded by record producers Joe Meek, Phil Spector or Shel Talmy. Typically, these companies discovered and signed new pop performers and groups, produced their recordings independently, then leased the finished product to established record labels, who handled their release, distribution and promotion.[2]

Ted Albert signed two of the most important Australian groups of the mid-1960s, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs and The Easybeats.[1] Their recordings were released through a deal with EMI's subsidiary label Parlophone and included some of the biggest Australian hits of the decade, most of which were produced by Albert himself and Shel Talmy.

The company curtailed its recording activities in the late 1960s but was revived in the early 1970s, when Albert Productions established its own record label and a state-of-the-art recording studio in central Sydney. Early Alberts acts included Alison MacCallum, Ted Mulry, John Paul Young and Bobbi Marchini, and many of their recordings were produced by visiting British pop svengali Simon Napier-Bell. However, the label's greatest success came in the mid-1970s, following the return to Australia of former The Easybeats' members, Harry Vanda and George Young.

In the last years of The Easybeats, the duo had become both a powerful songwriting team and highly skilled producers, and upon returning to Australia in early 1973 they became inhouse producers for Albert Productions, which quickly became one of the most successful labels in Australian music. In the early 1970s, they produced 20% of the music on the Australian charts, and regularly had three or four tracks in the top 20 simultaneously.[3] Usually working in collaboration with engineer Bruce Brown, Vanda & Young produced (and often also co-wrote) a string of successful singles and albums for acts including former bandmate Stevie Wright, John Paul Young, AC/DC, The Angels, Cheetah and William Shakespeare.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Vanda & Young also enjoyed their own successful career as Alberts recording artists, releasing a string of highly regarded albums and singles under the ironic pseudonym Flash and the Pan. These included the Australian hits "Down Among the Dead Men" and "Hey St Peter" and "Walking in the Rain", which was later covered by Grace Jones.[4]

The Albert Productions label is known internationally through its association with hard rock band AC/DC. Vanda & Young produced all their albums recorded in Australia between 1974 and 1978, and two mainstay members of the band, Malcolm and Angus Young, were George's younger brothers. In 2003, Albert Productions established operations in the United Kingdom and then added the Northern Ireland rock band The Answer to its recording artist stable.

Albert Productions does not only specialise in rock and roll: Australian R&B singer Paulini signed to Albert Productions in 2009.

Alberts serves at the local sub-publisher for Famous Music UK, EMI Virgin, Bug Music, Irving Berlin, and Concord, among others.[5]

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AC/DC Highway to Hell

Further reading

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  • Noel McGrath. Australian Encyclopaedia of Rock. Published by Outback Press Australia. 1978. (ISBN 0727019090)
  • Clinton Walker. Highway To Hell. Published by Pan Macmillan, Australia 1994, & Picador 2002. (ISBN 0 330 36377 8).
  • Glenn Goldsmith. Hard Road. Published by Random House Australia, 2004. (ISBN 1 74051 261 8).
  • Peter Wilmoth. The Countdown Years. 1974-1987. published by McPhee Grible, Australia, 1993 (ISBN 0 86914 293 3).
  • Murray Engleheart. Blood Sweat & Beers. Published by HarperCollins, Australia, 2010. (ISBN 978 0 7322 8935 5).
  • John Tait. Vanda & Young, Inside Australia's Hit Factory. Published by UNSW Press. Australia, 2010. (ISBN 978 1 74223 217 1).
  • Jane Albert. House of Hits. published by Hardie Grant Books, Australia, 2010 (ISBN 978-1-74066-881-1).

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "History - Alberts". Alberts. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  2. ^ Zuel, Bernard (9 August 2014). "Albert Productions, the label behind AC/DC, rocks up 50 years". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  3. ^ "Albert Productions, the label behind AC/DC, rocks up 50 years". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  4. ^ Danckert, Sarah (14 January 2018). "Vanda-Young sue US pop duo, Air France over alleged Love is in the Air breach". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  5. ^ "Catalogues". Alberts. Archived from the original on 6 April 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
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