American Century Records (simply known as American Century or ACR) is an American record label founded in 1964 by Richie Finestra, Zak Yankovich, and Skip Fontaine. During the 1960s, American Century Records earned a reputation as a highly successful American recording label, specializing in rock and pop hit-making recordings by several musicians, bands, and singers including Black Oak Arkansas, Dusty Springfield, Grand Funk Railroad, Jethro Tull, José Feliciano, Johnny Winter, The Lemon Pipers, Lobo, Robert Goulet, and Status Quo. In the early 1970s, the label expanded into a variety of genres such as reggae, funk, heavy metal, disco, and punk with releases by artists such as Hannibal, Indigo, Johnny Nash, Nasty Bits, Slade, and Thin Lizzy.
In 1972, American Century Records suffered financial loss due to several disastrous artists signings, loss of popularity of many of its already established artists, and departure of some of those artists as well. In 1973, the label had planned to sell the company to German record label, Polygram. However, Richie Finestra canceled the deal and ultimately decided to keep the label going. Finestra's decision of canceling was widely controversial by his partners due to the fragility of the company's finances as well as his drug induced state at the time. Finestra, however, wanted to change the image of American Century Records by having artists that he believed exemplified the spirit of rock and roll. The following year, the label had cut most of its roster to make room for new innovative acts and successfully got back on top with the success of their new talent roster, most notably from the Nasty Bits and Indigo. The success of those bands, not only brought the label out of financial ruin but also popularized punk and disco music.
History
Pilot
Roster
- America
- Black Oak Arkansas
- Bobby Womack
- Bread
- Captain Beefheart
- Carly Simon
- Charlie Daniels
- The Chi-Lites
- Don McLean
- Donny Osmond
- Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show
- Dusty Springfield
- Edgar Winter
- Edwin Hawkins Singers
- England Dan & John Ford Coley
- Grand Funk Railroad
- Hannibal
- Honey Cone
- Hoyt Axton
- Indigo
- Jethro Tull
- Johnny Nash
- Johnny Winter
- José Feliciano
- Lobo
- The McCoys
- Minnesota Strips
- Nasty Bits
- Pagoda
- The Penny Fliers
- Ray Stevens
- Robert Goulet
- Rod Stewart
- The Lemon Pipers
- Savoy Brown
- Sister Mary Melissa
- Slade
- Status Quo
- Terry Jacks
- Thin Lizzy
- Tony Orlando and Dawn
- Twiggy
- The Veiniacs
- Wilson & Chick
- Wood Line
- Xavier