ABKCO Records

ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.
PredecessorAllen Klein & Co.
Founded1961[1]
FounderAllen Klein
Headquarters,
United States
Revenue$26,000,000
Number of employees
43[1]
Footnotes / references
distributed by Universal Music Group

ABKCO Music & Records, Inc. (Allen & Betty Klein Company) is an American independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company. It owns and/or administers the rights to music by Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, Herman's Hermits, Marianne Faithfull, Dishwalla, the Kinks as well as the Cameo Parkway label, which includes recordings by such artists as Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, the Orlons, the Dovells, Question Mark & the Mysterians, the Tymes and Dee Dee Sharp. Until 2009, ABKCO administered Philles Records and its master recordings, including hits by the Righteous Brothers, the Ronettes, the Crystals and others (via a licensing deal with EMI Music Publishing, which owned the Philles catalog since the mid-1990s). The label is infamous for its management contracts and lawsuits by its founder Allen Klein, the latter of which persisted until his death.

ABKCO Records is currently distributed by Universal Music Distribution, which also controls distribution of the Rolling Stones' post-ABKCO catalog through Polydor Records and Interscope Records.[2]

In addition to music, ABKCO controls the rights to Alejandro Jodorowsky's early films, including Fando y Lis, El Topo, and The Holy Mountain. Additionally, they served as a production company on Regina King’s 2020 film One Night in Miami, in which Sam Cooke is a central character.

Selected soundtrack releases from the label include the films Joy, Safety Not Guaranteed, Our Idiot Brother, Fast Five, The Worlds End, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Men Who Stare At Goats, and the films of director Wes Anderson, starting from The Darjeeling Limited onwards. The label has also released soundtracks for the television shows Big Little Lies, Boardwalk Empire, and Californication.

  1. ^ a b Abkco Music & Records Inc. "Abkco Music & Records Inc - New York, New York (NY) | Company Profile". Manta.com. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
  2. ^ "Soumya Sriraman Appointed Vice President Of Marketing and Operations, Universal Music and Video Distribution/Visual Entertainment - Mentions That Abkco is One of the Labels Distributed by UMG". New.umusic.com. Retrieved 2011-09-12.