RSO Records


RSO Records was a record label formed by rock and roll and musical theatre impresario Robert Stigwood and record executive Al Coury in 1973. The "RSO" stands for the Robert Stigwood Organisation. The company's main headquarters were at 67 Brook Street, in London's Mayfair. It underwent four distribution stages: by Atlantic Records from March 1973 to December 1975, by Polydor Records from January 1976 to December 1977, as an independent label under the PolyGram Group umbrella from January 1978 to around October 1981, and finally by PolyGram Records from around November 1981 until the label's end in 1983.
RSO managed the careers of several superstars, and, as a record label, released the soundtracks to Fame, Sparkle, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Times Square, Grease, Grease 2 and Saturday Night Fever. The release of Grease and Saturday Night Fever made RSO one of the most financially successful labels of the 1970s.
The financial success of the independent label was exceeded by successes on the pop charts never before seen by the recording industry. By one point in 1978, the label boasted an unprecedented sixth consecutive number-one single on the Billboard pop charts, holding the top spot for 21 consecutive weeks. With singles releases from the Grease album and another huge Andy Gibb smash, RSO would log a further 10 weeks at the number 1 position, giving the label a record nine in one calendar year. This feat remains unduplicated by any record label to date. It also released a one-off single that summer by Paul Jones, featuring orchestrated ballad-style versions of two punk classics, "Pretty Vacant" and "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker".
As well as the label was operating in 1978, the disastrous commercial and critical failure of RSO's movie version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band crippled the company. The woes of this failure were only somewhat offset by the middle of 1979, as the Bee Gees album Spirits Having Flown went on to eventually sell nearly 20 million copies.
In 1980, the label's most famous act, the Bee Gees, filed a $200 million lawsuit against both RSO and Stigwood, claiming mismanagement, which was met with Stigwood's own $310 million countersuit alleging libel, defamation of character and extortion. It is still considered to be the largest successful lawsuit against a record company by an artist or group. The lawsuit was subsequently settled for an undisclosed amount, and after a public reconciliation, the band remained with the label until its dissolution.
By 1981, Stigwood had ended his involvement with the label, which was absorbed into PolyGram a few years later. All previous RSO releases were later re-released under Polydor's label, which is now owned by Universal Music Group. Reissues from Polydor are distributed in the U.S. by sister label Island Records.
The Star Wars soundtracks would pass through several hands before ultimately ending up with Sony Classical in the 90s and finally Walt Disney Records after Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm Ltd., while the Bee Gees catalog reverted to the Gibb family, who set up a new distribution arrangement with Warner's Reprise Records, which reissued their albums and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack until 2016, when the Bee Gees signed a deal with Universal's Capitol Records.

The logo

Stigwood explained the inspiration for RSO Records's akabeko logo in a 2001 interview for Billboard:

Label variations

The term "record label" derives from the circular label in the center of a vinyl record which prominently displays the manufacturer's name. During its existence, the styling of the RSO circular label changed as it changed its distribution partner.