Fantasy Records

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Fantasy Records

Parent company	Concord Music Group
Founded	1949
Founder(s)	Max Weiss, Sol Weiss
Distributing label	Concord Records (In the US), Universal Music Group
Genre(s)	Various
Country	US
Web address	Fantasy

1968 label of debut CCR LP

Fantasy Records is a United States based record label, which was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record pressing plant called Circle Record Company (unrelated to the Circle Records label) before forming the Fantasy label. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, Vince Guaraldi and other jazz music artists. The label was the first to record "in person" performances by Lenny Bruce.

Fantasy's first subsidiary label, formed in 1951, was Galaxy Records. The labels were named in honor of fantasy and science fiction magazines. In the mid-1950s, Saul Zaentz joined the company and eventually instigated the company's major expansion. In 1965, another subsidiary label was formed which was short lived, Scorpio Records, in an attempt to capitalize on the British invasion sound.[1] In 1967 Zaentz led a consortium which bought out the Weiss brothers. The following year, Fantasy's most successful act emerged when the local group Creedence Clearwater Revival, which he managed, released their first hit record "Susie Q" in 1968 (the group had been signed in 1964 as the Blue Velvets, but the label renamed them The Golliwogs so they would "fit in" with the then new incoming crop of British Invasion bands, and after a series of failed releases under that name on the Fantasy and Scorpio labels,[2] the group changed its name to Creedence Clearwater Revival). Creedence Clearwater Revival was the most popular band that they produced.

Zaentz, advised by the journalist Ralph J. Gleason and benefitting from profits from the sales of Creedence Clearwater Revival records, pursued a policy of acquisition concentrating on independent Jazz labels. Zaentz had picked up Debut Records as a wedding present from bassist Charles Mingus to which were added Good Time Records, Prestige Records (in 1971), Riverside Records and Milestone Records (both 1972), Stax Records (1977), Contemporary Records (1984), Specialty Records (1991), Pablo Records (1987), Takoma Records and Kicking Mule Records (both 1995).

Fantasy also built its landmark headquarters building at the corner of Tenth and Parker in Berkeley, California in 1971 which was nicknamed "the house that Creedence built".[3] Expanded in 1980 to house Zaentz's film operations, the Zaentz Media Center was sold in 2007 to Wareham Development.

In 2004, Fantasy was sold to a consortium led by Norman Lear and merged with Concord Records to create a new company called Concord Music Group. While some operations are still located in Berkeley, the record label is now headquartered at the Concord Music Group location in Beverly Hills, California. Fantasy Studios, now owned by Wareham Development, is still operating in the Zaentz Media Center and continues its legacy in recording and mixing. Through the reshuffling, many top acts and engineers alike work out of the original building, which has now incorporated a multitude of mixed media projects. Fantasy Studios is a Bay Area landmark, as well as an award-winning studio whose repertoire includes Creedence Clearwater Revival, Green Day and Carlos Santana to NPR's "Hearing Voices" series. Top sound engineers Steven Hart, Jesse Nichols and James Willets all worked at Fantasy.

Shortly after Fantasy was purchased by Concord, John Fogerty, the lead singer and songwriter in Creedence Clearwater Revival, re-signed with the label after leaving it in the mid-1970s after a falling out with former owner Zaentz.