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| Portrait Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent company | Sony Music Entertainment |
| Founded | 1976 (1976) |
| Distributor | Sony Masterworks |
| Genre | Various (1976–1986) Jazz (1988–1990) (1999–2002) Classical crossover (2013–present) |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
Portrait Records is an Americanrecord label active from 1976 to the present, initially formed in association withEpic Records and later a division ofColumbia Records. Portrait has had several incarnations each emphasizing different styles of music ranging from pop-rock, to jazz and heavy metal and most recently classical crossover acts. Notable artistsCyndi Lauper andSade signed with Portrait, but their contracts were absorbed by Epic after that incarnation of the label was shuttered.
Portrait began in1976 as a sister label of Epic; its initial signings wereJoan Baez,Burton Cummings, and theMcCrarys. Cummings' "Stand Tall" was the lead-off single. Baez'sBlowin' Away album and the McCrarys' self-titled debut bowed in early 1977. The label design was similar to that ofColumbia's singles; design on it was in grey tones, while the logo was handwritten orange with a red outline. This was also the launch of Epic/Portrait/Associated (EPA) under the CBS moniker.
Heart was an early success for Portrait. Initially Heart was signed with small Canadian independent labelMushroom Records, but left after a dispute inadvertising theirDreamboat Annie album. The print advertisements featured a salaciousdouble entendre which the band had not approved, and which led some fans to think that the sistersAnn andNancy Wilson were incestuouslesbians.[1] Portrait quickly signed Heart to a contract, and released the single "Barracuda" beforeLittle Queen was to hit the shelves.The McCrarys also scored big with their 1978 single "You" for Prestige.
By 1979, however, Epic was looking to consolidate some of its less commercially successful sub-labels and effectively folded Epic and Portrait together as a single company. In 1980, onlyHeart was picked up from Portrait; releasingBébé le Strange, after which they took a two-year hiatus, releasingPrivate Audition in 1982.
Baez left the label after the release of her 1979Honest Lullaby album; she later admitted in her 1987 memoir,And a Voice to Sing With, that she regretted signing with the label, describing her having left her previous label (A&M) for Portrait as "the stupidest career move I ever made".
In 1982, the label was relaunched again tapping into thenew wave scene and other music not gaining any airplay. It signed artists such asAltered Images,Aldo Nova,Accept,Arc Angel,Hawaiian Pups,The Elvis Brothers,Eddy Grant,Orion the Hunter,The Producers,Saga, andPeter Baumann (formerly ofTangerine Dream). The label was completely black but the red logo stayed intact.
Portrait found major success withCyndi Lauper andSade, both signed in 1983. Aldo Nova did make some headway with the songs "Fantasy" and "Monkey on Your Back" from hisSubject...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 singerToyah released her albumMinx on Portrait. In 1986, British guitarist and songwriterBill Nelson releasedGetting the Holy Ghost Across (US title:On a Blue Wing) on the label.
By the end of 1986, the only act making money on this label was Lauper.[citation needed] Her albumTrue Colors wentplatinum, 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 contemporaryjazz outfit, with signings as diverse asStanley Clarke,Ornette Coleman, Prime Time and Japanese importT-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 artwork was gone by 1990.
Epic did try to make the label work one more time: in 1999, it was relaunched throughColumbia Records as a hard-rock/metal label, signingRatt,Cinderella,Great White,the Union Underground, andMars Electric. In 2000,Iron Maiden signed with Portrait in conjunction withColumbia Records in the US. Finally, after trying so hard to keep it afloat, Portrait dissolved in 2002 after the US release of Iron Maiden'sRock in Rio album.
In late 2012,Sony Masterworks reactivated the label as a classical music imprint with its first artistsThe Piano Guys on the newly relaunched imprint, and subsequently transferringJackie Evancho to Portrait from the Columbia label.
