Creator / Capitol Records

The iconic "swirl" label design used on Capitol singles from 1962 to 1968.^note It was also used from 1979 to 1981 on singles by The Knack.

Capitol Records is one of the major record labels in the United States.

Founded in 1942 by Los Angeles businessman Glenn Wallichs (owner of the Wallichs Music City record store) with songwriters Johnny Mercer and Buddy DeSylva, Capitol was the first West Coast-based US label. By the end of the decade, having already acquired a stable of prominent artists that included Nat King Cole, Stan Kenton, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford, Margaret Whiting, and many others, it had earned a place among the "Big Six" American labels.^note (The other five were RCA Victor, Columbia, Mercury, US Decca, and MGM — all of which, along with Capitol, had their own pressing plants.) A Canadian division was established in 1949.

British music conglomerate EMI purchased 96% of Capitol's stock in 1955, effectively acquiring the company.^note EMI had already lost the right to distribute US Columbia releases in Europe, and their contract with RCA was about to expire, so they wanted to make sure they would still have access to top American talent. A few years later, EMI's Dutch competitor Philips bought Mercury Records for similar reasons. The landmark Capitol Tower building in Hollywood (aka "The House That Nat Built") began construction soon afterward and was completed the following year. Several additional artists joined the label during the 1950s, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, The Four Freshmen, Stan Freberg, Dinah Shore, and The Kingston Trio.

The 1960s saw the arrival of the label's most famous artists: The Beach Boys and The Beatles. The former were signed to a seven-year contract in 1962 following their local success with "Surfin'" on the independent Candix label. Meanwhile, despite the latter's huge popularity in England, Capitol, which had the right of first refusal on American distribution of EMI artists, turned down the Fab Four's first few singles, which were handled instead by the smaller labels Vee-Jay and Swan. But they changed their mind with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", which in January 1964 became The Beatles' first major stateside hit and kick-started "Beatlemania" in the U.S.

The aforementioned Canadian branch also had their own right of first refusal for EMI releases. Since they had an A&R department of their own, this meant several British Invasion artists that were passed over by Capitol in the U.S. were released by Capitol in Canada, including The Hollies, Manfred Mann, The Yardbirds, The Dave Clark Five, Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Beatles' pre-"I Want to Hold Your Hand" material. In American collectors' eyes, it is quite the curiosity to see those artists and early Beatles singles on the famous Capitol "swirl" label.

From 1964 to 1970, Capitol had a subsidary label called Tower Records (not to be confused with the chain of record stores), which released "lower profile" artists such as The Standells and Chocolate Watch Band, as well as Pink Floyd's first three albums. As several of those artists would come to be recognized as "garage bands", Tower acquired a reputation as a Garage Rock label. The Tower label was unique to the United States — its artists were distributed on the main Capitol label in Canada, while overseas, the releases appeared either on Capitol or Stateside (an EMI imprint that was the foreign licensee for several smaller American labels). Capitol was also the North American distributor of The Beatles' Apple Records and EMI's "underground" imprint Harvest Records.

After several years of near-total ownership,^note (EMI increased their stake in Capitol Records to 98% in 1968 only to have Capitol merge with Audio Devices, Inc., causing their ownership to drop to 68% — they increased their holdings back to 70.84% in 1972) EMI purchased the remaining shares of Capitol by 1976.

In 2012, the American music operations of EMI were sold to the Universal Music Group, bringing Capitol Records under UMG ownership.^note EMI's British and European operations became part of Parlophone Records, which went to Warner Music Group— although UMG made sure they got the rights to the Beatles' catalog, and the backlogs of many of EMI's former talents (most notably Radiohead, who were also previously signed onto Capitol in the US) would be granted to the independent labels they were now operating under as part of WMG's agreement with the Independent Music Companies Association. EMI's publishing division went to Sony Music Entertainment. Since the acquisition, Capitol has expanded to the British market and began developing its own roster of artists, something they had never done under EMI. In 2014, the legendary label Motown became part of the UMG-owned Capitol Music Group.

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Capitol performers, past and present, with TV Tropes pages:

• 5 Seconds of Summer
• 50 Cent
• ABBA
• Trace Adkins
• Alcatrazz
• Alice in Chains
• Woody Allen ^note One of his 1960s albums of Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy, The Third Woody Allen Album, was originally released by Capitol.
• America
• The Andrews Sisters
• The Animals †
• Ashton, Gardner & Dyke
• Avenged Sevenfold
• Charles Aznavour (Europe only)
• Long John Baldry ^note Canada only
• The Band
• The Beach Boys
  • Brian Wilson
• Beastie Boys
• The Beatles +
  • George Harrison +
  • John Lennon +
  • Paul McCartney +
  • Ringo Starr +
  • Wings
• Beck
• The Bee Gees
• Dierks Bentley
• Mel Blanc ^note He released singles as himself and as his various Looney Tunes characters on Capitol before Warner Bros. created its own label.
• Mary J. Blige
• Garth Brooks
• Brothers Osborne
• Luke Bryan
• Butthole Surfers
• Catfish And The Bottlemen
• Eric Church
• George Clinton
• Cocteau Twins +
• Coldplay +
• Lloyd Cole
• Nat King Cole ^note Both as part of the King Cole Trio and as a solo artist.
• Harry Connick Jr.
• Bill Cosby
• Elvis Costello +
• Bing Crosby
• Crowded House
• Dick Dale
• The Dandy Warhols
• Bobby Darin
• Miles Davis ^note He had a nonet from 1948-1950 that recorded 12 tracks for Capitol; they were issued on various singles and compilation albums before receiving a definitive release as the Birth of the Cool LP in 1956.
• The Decemberists +
• Neil Diamond
• Marlene Dietrich
• Thomas Dolby
• The Doobie Brothers
• Eagles
• Duke Ellington
• Everclear
• Fatboy Slim
• The Fireman +
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Foo Fighters
  • Dave Grohl
• Tennessee Ernie Ford
• The Four Freshmen
• Stan Freberg
• Judy Garland
• Gentle Giant +
• Lisa Germano
• Jackie Gleason
• Barry Gordon
• Grand Funk Railroad
• Andy Griffith
• David Guetta
• Mickey Guyton
• Merle Haggard
• Halsey
• MC Hammer
• Corey Hart
• Walker Hayes
• Heart
• Herman's Hermits † ^note The Canadian branch released their debut single in Canada.
• Benny Hill +
• Unknown Hinson
• The Hollies †
• Bob Hope
• Phyllis Hyman
• Ice Spice
• Alan Jackson
• The Jesus Lizard
• Jimmy Eat World
• Grace Jones
• Tom Jones ‡ ^note The label acquired six songs he recorded with Joe Meek in 1963, which were released on the strength of "It's Not Unusual" in 1965.
• Josie and the Pussycats
• Carole King
• Kings of Leon
• Klaatu
• The Knack
• Kottonmouth Kings
• Kraftwerk
• Cheryl Ladd
• Lady A
• Mary Lambert
• Jerry Lewis ^note He recorded a few novelty singles for Capitol back in his "Martin and Lewis" days.
• Little Big Town
• David McCallum ^note A classically trained musician as well as an actor, he recorded a few instrumental albums for Capitol during the height of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s popularity.
• Manfred Mann †
• Marcy Playground
• Dean Martin
• Richard Marx
• Mazzy Star
• Megadeth
• Roy D. Mercer
• Steve Miller Band
• Missing Persons
• Robert Mitchum
• The Move +
• Ok Go
• Yoko Ono
• Buck Owens
• Sarina Paris
• Roger Payne, Katie Payne and Frank Watlington:
• Katy Perry
• Liz Phair
• Pink Floyd ‡
• The Plasmatics
• Poison
• Queen +
• Radiohead + (left in 2003; distribution rights to their material from before then are now owned by XL Recordings)
• Bonnie Raitt
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Carl Reiner
  • Mel Brooks^note Capitol released two of their Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy albums.
• Renaissance+
• Minnie Riperton
• Roy Rogers
• Linda Ronstadt
• Darius Rucker
• Dan Seals
• Bob Seger
• Selena
• Peter Sellers +
• Ravi Shankar +
• Dinah Shore
• Frank Sinatra
• Troye Sivan
• Sam Smith
• Rick Springfield
• Billy Squier
• Status Quo +
• Steppenwolf (Mexico only)
• John Stewart
• Rod Stewart
• The Stranglers
• Supergrass +
• Swedish House Mafia
• Sweet +
• Art Tatum
• Television
• Richard Thompson
• Tanya Tucker
• Tina Turner
• Carrie Underwood
• Keith Urban
• The Vines
• Steve Wariner
• WASP
• Mae West ‡ (released on Capitol in Canada)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic ^note His debut single, "My Bologna"/"School Cafeteria", was released by Capitol.
• Jack Wild
• Ron White ^note the album Behavioral Problems
• Tim Wilson
• XXXTentacion (via Caroline Distribution)
• The Yardbirds †
• Yellowcard
• Pete Yorn
• Frank Zappa + ^note An early version of Lumpy Gravy was released by Capitol, but quickly withdrawn due to a lawsuit by MGM, who claimed the release violated Zappa's contract with their subsidiary Verve despite the fact that said contract did not in theory prevent Zappa from conducting music for an album released by another label. The litigation gave Zappa time to reedit the album into its definitive form, which was released by Verve the following year.

+: Signed in the U.S. and Canada only
†: Signed in Canada only
‡: Tower Records artists

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