Portrait Records: Difference between revisions

| name = Portrait Records

| image_name = [[File:Portrait logo.png|frameless|class=skin-invert]]

| image_size = | parent = [[Sony Music Entertainment]]

'''Portrait Records''' was a sister [[record label|label]] of [[Epic Records]] and later of [[Columbia Records]]. Notable artists [[Cyndi Lauper]] and [[Sade (band)|Sade]] signed with Portrait, but their contracts were absorbed by Epic after that incarnation of the label was shuttered.

By 1979, however, Epic was looking to consolidate some of its low-end producing labels and, for a short time, Portrait and Epic had both names on the same label. In 1980, only [[Heart (band)|Heart]] was picked up from Portrait; releasing ''[[Bébé le Strange]]'', after which thenthey took a threetwo-year hiatus., releasing ''[[Private Audition]]'' in 1982.

In 1982, the label was relaunched again tapping into the [[New Wavewave music|Newnew Wavewave]] scene and other music not gaining any airplay. It signed artists such as [[Altered Images]], [[Aldo Nova]], [[Accept (band)|Accept]], [[Arc Angel (band)|Arc Angel]], [[Hawaiian Pups]], [[The Elvis Brothers]], [[Eddy Grant]], [[Orion the Hunter (band)|Orion the Hunter]], [[The Producers (band)|The Producers]], [[Saga (band)|Saga]], and [[Peter Baumann]] (formerly of [[Tangerine Dream]]). The label was completely black but the red logo stayed intact. Portrait struck gold again with the signings of [[Cyndi Lauper]] and [[Sade (band)|Sade]], both in 1983. Americans wouldn't get Sade until a year later. Aldo Nova did make some headway with the songs "Fantasy" and "Monkey on Your Back" from his ''[[Subject...Aldo Nova]]'' album. Saga also found success with the songs "On the Loose" and "Wind Him Up", which would gain the band gold and platinum albums worldwide. In 1985, British singer [[Toyah Willcox|Toyah]] released her album ''[[Minx (Toyah album)|Minx]]'' on Portrait. In 1986, British guitarist and songwriter [[Bill Nelson (musician)|Bill Nelson]] released {{nowrap|''Getting the PortraitHoly Ghost Across''}} (US title: {{nowrap|''On a Blue Wing'')}} on the label.

By the end of 1986, the only act making money on this label was Lauper.{{factcitation needed|date=November 2012}} Her album ''[[True Colors (Cyndi Lauper album)|True Colors]]'' went [[Music recording sales certification|platinum]], but it wasn't enough to keep the label afloat. At the end of 1986, Portrait was shuttered again.

In 1988, the label re-emerged once more but as a contemporary [[jazz]] outfit, with signings as diverse as [[Stanley Clarke]], [[Ornette Coleman]], Prime Time and [[Japan]]eseJapanese import [[T-Square (band)|T-Square]]. The logo changed dramatically. This time the label had two: the primary one was a painted P with the word "portrait" in a red block, while the secondary one was an outline drawing of a woman. This one was gone by 1990.

Epic did try to make the label work two more times: in 19921988, it was trying to do jazz collections, and, in 1999, it was relaunched through [[Columbia Records]] as a hard-rock/metal label, signing [[Ratt]], [[Cinderella (band)|Cinderella]], [[Great White]], [[the Union Underground]], and [[Mars Electric]]. In 2000, [[Iron Maiden]] signed with Portrait in conjunction with [[Columbia Records]] in the US. Finally, after trying so hard to keep it afloat, Portrait dissolved in 2002 after the US release of Iron Maiden's ''[[Rock in Rio (album)|Rock in Rio]]'' album.

[[Category:SonyAmerican Musicjazz Entertainmentrecord labels]]