Talk:20th Century Fox Records

Problems with this Wiki
I am sorely tempted to overhaul this page as a member of the Labels Task Force. While it's problems are not obvious, they are considerable. In terms of content it closely follows the bsnpubs "Label Story" cited, but that article isn't based on much hard information and a lot of it is merely speculative. The way this is parsed out betrays an essential misunderstanding of the bsnpubs article. Dickie Goodman's tenure at 20th Century Fox is presented up front, but it was not of great significance, especially when compared to that of earlier TCF label heads like Henry Onorati or Basil J. Bova, neither of whom are mentioned. I couldn't find confirmation of Goodman as a label head at TCF outside of the bsnpubs page, suggesting that he may have been in A&R where I would expect him to be within such a company.

The history of the later, 1972-81 20th Century label is placed before that of the 1958-70 company and "The Little Drummer Boy" categorized as an "Other Project" when it was the most consequential project undertaken by the TCF label, and in particular was Onorati's baby. No mention is made of the semi-private 1938-44 78 rpm TCF label; that is only mentioned on the Fox Movietone label Wiki, and owes to an error on the bsnpubs page. While TCF Records did issue 78s, they did not use the device "Movietone" anywhere on the records. TCF Records was a very small part of a very large company, and while the fortunes of the label went up and down with that of the studio, the resource of the studio history is of only limited relevance to that of the label. Although the financial trouble of the TCF studio did lead to the ouster of Darryl Zanuck, his estrangement from TCF began in 1956, before the label was founded, and has little or no relevance to the label's history. The ABC distribution deal that began in 1966 was ended upon the founding of the new 20th Century label in 1972, which was a good thing for the TC label as they were not sucked under when ABC/Dunhill collapsed in 1977. However there is no mention of this in the article, which renders nonsense of the Polygram acquisition in 1982; had ABC been involved, then Polygram would already have acquired TCF in 1977 when they picked up the pieces of what was left of ABC. The "Closure" section is basically right, but shares with other web sources the common confusion between Fox Music and the TCF label; Fox Music is a publisher and a different entity entirely from the TCF label, and while the label existed they were associated, they were different branches of the same tree, not a single entity.Pinikadia 17:37, 4 December 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pinikadia (talk • contribs)

I am now working on improving this article. I cannot keep much of the following paragraph: "Their regular record label began in 1958 as 20th Fox Records. In 1963, 20th Fox Records became 20th Century-Fox Records. Comedian Dickie Goodman was president of the label in the early 1960s. 20th Fox was one of the few record labels to basically ignore rock music and they didn't sign any of the mid-1960s British acts, either. This explains how little chart action the label received (with the exception of the best-selling "The Little Drummer Boy" by The Harry Simeone Chorale, which was a Christmas hit in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962). Other exceptions to this was two big hits in 1964 by Diane Renay and 5 mid-chart hits by Mary Wells in 1964-1965." It is subjective, unsourced and for the most part, untrue.Pinikadia 00:09, 9 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Thank you! Perhaps the Fox Movietone records should be moved to its own article?  Is there really a direct relationship between the two labels?  I'll have to find the Sutton book on pre-war labels, it probably has more details regarding Movietone, and I think can be used as support to your (accurate) statements regarding sales location and recording sources (Bluebird, ARC).    78.26   (spin me / revolutions) 14:21, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Fox Movietone 78 rpm label
78.26 a good resource for the pre-20th Century Fox Movietone label is at. Bear in mind that once you get into the B-5000 matrix numbers that these belong to the 20th Century Fox label. The Victor derived sides can be cross checked against DAHR .Pinikadia 22:41, 14 April 2015 (UTC)