Casablanca Records-Truly In Tune With Disco?

**Salsoul1975** · February 10th, 2005, 06:29 PM

The title of my thread might give off whiffs of sacrilege, but this is a question I've always thought about--as much as Casablanca Records did for disco music in its late '70s heyday, why was it cold to remixers? For a label that was committed to disco (with the exception of a few artists, namely Kiss), it seemed to offer very little with blank-sided 12" singles. Also, did Casablanca ever release any promotional records on white labels? With many compilations disco-centered labels such as Salsoul, West End and Prelude have put out over the years (many of which featured obscure-to-unreleased material), Casablanca's compilations have not matched up to its competitors. The Casablanca Records Story, which came out a decade ago, didn't tell the whole story, or at least the majority of it. Sure, there were some obscure songs included in that compilation, but not enough to make it a worthwhile set. Of course, because Casablanca was bought out by PolyGram records, which was then bought out by Mercury and then by Universal Records it is obviously a corporate label. Still, this often makes you wonder if the smaller labels such as the aforementioned Salsoul, West End and Prelude came out winners in the end after all, releasing good compilations and keeping in tune with the disco and club establishment as opposed to Casablanca.

**Bernie** · February 10th, 2005, 06:39 PM

Casablanca was never my favorite Disco label as I'd gladly take Salsoul or Prelude anyday. Nonetheless they had a few great artists/releases: Donna Summer, Costandinos, Ultimate and Giorgio Moroder.

Regarding white label promos, there is one that I have...
http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/743_0_2_0_C/

**BrunoRepublic** · February 10th, 2005, 06:42 PM

While Casablanca never quite got the 12" single down right, they were the first label to use really use club play as a means of promotion. This marked a major change in the business, and for that they deserve credit.

**Salsoul1975** · February 10th, 2005, 07:24 PM

Originally Written by Bernie

Casablanca was never my favorite Disco label as I'd gladly take Salsoul or Prelude anyday. Nonetheless they had a few great artists/releases: Donna Summer, Costandinos, Ultimate and Giorgio Moroder.

Bernie, I agree with you 100%. I'll take Salsoul, or any of the other labels over Casablanca anyday. To me, it seemed that Casablanca was more about image than the music (just look at the lengths they went to make album covers for the Village People, Cher, etc.), although I have to give them nods to the covers they proivded for Donna Summer, Love and Kisses (or anything related to Alec Constandinos), and Giorgio Moroder. Also, I have no doubt that Neil Bogart lost tons of $$$ over his overblown handlings of his label's product, particularly with the hype for Thank God It's Friday. I remember reading a long time ago that Casablanca shipped 10 million copies of that movie's soundtrack album. Plus, Donna Summer's first few albums all went gold within weeks. For an artist who had to wait a year-and-a-half between hits ("Love To Love You Baby"-early 1976--"I Feel Love"-late 1977), I doubt half a million people bought albums like "A Love Trilogy" and "Four Seasons Of Love" for both of them to go gold right away.

**DiscoMan** · February 10th, 2005, 09:30 PM

Casablanca was never my favorite Disco label as I'd gladly take Salsoul or Prelude anyday.

Right on Bro!

**remicks** · February 11th, 2005, 01:24 AM

Blasphemous!! Of the beloved label that brought so much to the turntable .... Nightlife Unlimited, Teri Desario, Space, Scatt Bros., the entire Donna Summer catalogue , Love and Kisses, on and on. Casablanca was the voice for disco from day one ... they were the tiny label that took on the snobby big boys , Columbia, Warner Bros., Capitol , RCA ---- who all originally stuck up their noses at disco. Casablanca embraced it and brought it on in a big way .. They promoted disco like the big labels presented their rock products. They played as though they were one of the big boys ... flashy , aggressive and most of all ...fun....( of all the labels ..they were the most party-time fun) and when it paid off really well all of a sudden EVERY label created a disco department .... (hence the 1979 glut). Casablanca worked hard to turn their main roster of acts into stars and also financed their concerts.. Kiss... Village People....Donna... did any other disco label ?? They also actively sought out smaller acts and foreign imports that the rest of the American music industry was ignoring. They were very generous with their promos and supplied the disco pools with enough product for all the DJs. Some things they did wrong ... their pressings were always a little flat ...the sound too thin .... one sided 12"ers (what a waste) .... not enough commercial 12" (they were into selling albums). Any label that could arrange for their #1 star to do a disco duet with THE prima donna of music... Barbra Streisand ... had their act together.

**QUINNY** · February 11th, 2005, 10:54 AM

Casablanca meant very little to most of us jocks in the U.K. I'd venture. We liked 'em for a few of the records mentioned above, but probably equally for Parliament and Cameo, although these band's output was rather patchy in quality at the time.

**Eurodancemix** · February 11th, 2005, 01:34 PM

Ooooh, a juicy subject!

For some of us, Casablanca was THE disco label. I say this because their music was more in the vein of what the masses referred to as "disco" back in 1978 and 1979. I, myself, am a HUGE Casablanca fan, owning most (though not all) of their catalog.

Salsoul, Prelude and West End were equally as good but their sound was more "New York" with a more soulful sound, whereas Casablanca was definitely more "West Coast". Of course, they had some soul acts but their primary releases had a very distinct dance sound.

**markydefad** · February 11th, 2005, 01:53 PM

Yeah, if ya asked me to name a "Disco Label", the first thing off the top o' me head, woulda been Casablanca. But then, I'm "West Coast" :D

My other fave would be T.K. Disco outta Miami--what great records they made!!! :D :D :D

I have to admit I had a sorta negative connotation back in tha day to the "Salsoul" label because of some of their dubious product...Salsoul Orchestra goes Broadway, does Christmas, does New Years ("O Dem Golden Slippers"??? puh-leeze Miss Thang) and uh... worked with the likes of, dare I say it?........................CHARO????!!!! :oops: :oops: :oops:

But now I have to admit they did some of the very best, but they did add a lotta cheese to their mostly tasteful product.

**marc0** · February 11th, 2005, 02:27 PM

I still have cherished memories for DC Larue"s Let them dance and Gloria Scott's Just As Long As we're together.

**Videoskooter** · February 11th, 2005, 04:55 PM

Let's face it. Casablanca DID release some awesome tracks and even now when you buy their famous Box-set you will notice that there's some supadupastuff on it.

My favourite label is UNIDISC, the Canadian Eurodiscolaunchers.

**djsonic** · February 12th, 2005, 12:38 AM

I love Casablanca! i remember i used to just look at the record spining on my record player, looking at the label made me feel warm inside.. i was about 15 yrs old,a dj friend of the family gave me 4 big boxes of disco singles from 1975-80 from a record store in chicago. i still have most of them, and it was full of casablanca lps and singles,and salsoul/tom&jerry/prelude/columbia/ 12"ers
it was like wining the lotto.
sorry to rant on like this guys,but i love my record memorys
i know some of u understand the love we have for disco vinyl
sonic.

**EricHG23** · May 6th, 2005, 07:35 PM

At the risk of getting attacked--isn't part of this just the same old backlash story? Casablanca started small people have to remember--but they did sorta eclipse all the other disco companies and perhaps have been mythologized a bit because of their image and success (and Neil Bogart's big spiral downwards).

As others have said though, for every mainstream skewering success there is a great little underground hit. And many fo their biggest acts WERE quality--DOnna Summer and all the many other Moroder/Belotte productions? Stunning. I'm also a big fan of producer Bob Esty even tho he seemed ot get handed to some of the more hopeless acts (but at his best, Paul jabara's Pleasure Island, DC Larue Let them Dance and Voodoo Drums, Take Me Home, even that Roberta Kelly gospel album), great eurodisco.

As for the box set--I think for a mainstream, 4 cd box set it's VERY comprehensive actually. I wish there was a companion of more obscure tracks but...

E

**kari** · May 7th, 2005, 06:49 PM

For me, living in a small(ish) Finnish town (with some very good record stores) in the late 70s, one thing was certain: if an album cover had "Casablanca" printed on it, I would buy it. Even when I knew nothing about the artists or even producers on those LP's -- I used to buy albums, not so much 12-inchers -- the label was a sure sign of what I'd like to hear.

I was a fan of Neil Bogart's company right from the start, and after a while I realized he wanted to play among the big boys. He turned an obscure disco label into something that in some ways rivaled Columbia and Warner. The Casablanca albums, especially those released by their big stars, were always events.

A bit later, in early 1979, I found another favorite in Prelude. Their stuff was different, but that didn't matter, I loved it just the same. What's more, Prelude (and TK) finally introduced me to the maxi single. Casablanca was always an LP label to me. Perhaps I should mention that I was never a DJ, I bought these records to listen to them at home.

Being born in 1962, I was a bit too young during the disco heyday -- not old enough to actually go to disco, but old enough to buy and enjoy the music!

Thinking back, Casablanca really means One Of Those Things to me. Prelude, TK, West End, Atlantic's "disco division", and all the other labels were, and are, great, but Neil Bogart was the King. And IMO, his and Casablanca's downfall was what ended the Disco Years. As well as the sense of fun I'll always associate with that time.

We never had a serious disco backlash in Finland. Perhaps it was just a matter of changing tastes and trends when we entered the 80's. But in any case, when Casablanca was gone, so was Disco.

Kari

**djmikejames** · May 8th, 2005, 12:59 PM

I was never crazy about the sound quality of their pressings. They did have Giorgio Moroder though so I guess that kind of makes up for their shortcomings !

Speaking of Cassablanca, one of my fav releases was the Scatt Brothers' "Walk The Night". Last week, I picked up a new house track, a remix of this classic and it's released on the AZULI label so it's a quality remake.

If anybody wants to pick it up it's named "The Walk" and the artist is "Divided Souls", it's quite twisted actually. It sounds like a version the Scatt Brothers would have made if they had access to today's technology.