Guinness Records was the name of an American record label operational in 1977. It was, along withTiger Lily Records one of the major tax scam labels, releasing around one hundred albums.[a][1]
Guinness Records was established in 1977 by Marvin L. Popkin as a tax shelter based around the idea of investing in amaster recording that would be greatly over valued so that the investors could claim a tax loss when the deliberately under-promoted album failed to sell.[2]
Most recordings were sourced from recording studio vaults and published as albums without the knowledge or consent of the performers. Several defunct bands are known to have had releases as a result of this practice, but the most high-profile performers identified were Detroit area bandThe Rockets,Atlantic Starr, who had two unauthorized albums based on demo tapes released under their original name, Newban, independent musicianR. Stevie Moore, who had a trio of demos released on an album attributed to a group called Hotgun, andThe Vibrations, whose producer Robert John Gallo, provided the masters of the band's final album to Guinness Records, along with several other sets of masters, some unreleased, he had produced for other performers.[1][2]
The types of albums released by Guinness fell into three broad categories:
Throughout its short existence, the label was closely associated with another tax scam labelDellwood Records, believed to be linked toPrelude Records, which acted as Guinness Records distributor.[b][1]
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