Label Guide: Elektra

Elektra Records was formed in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt in Holzman's St. John's College dorm room. The name is taken from Electra, one of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione in Greek mythology. Holzman found the 'C' in the original name "too soft" but liked the "solid bite" of the letter 'K', hence the spelling of the label name.

During the 1950s and early 1960s the label concentrated on folk music recordings, releasing a number of best-selling albums by Judy Collins, Phil Ochs or Tom Paxton. In 1964, Elektra launched a classical budget label, Nonesuch Records, which became the best-selling budget classical label of the era. The profits from Nonesuch made it possible for Elektra to experiment with their pop releases by the mid-1960s.

Elektra was one of the first labels to sign up leading acts from the new wave of American psychedelic rock in 1966–67. The label's most important signings were the Chicago-based Paul Butterfield Blues Band (with Mike Bloomfield), the Los Angeles bands Love and The Doors, and the Detroit bands The Stooges and MC5. Another of Elektra's LA signings was Tim Buckley.

Elektra, along with its Nonesuch Records subsidiary, was acquired by Kinney National Company in 1970. Soon afterwards Kinney consolidated their label holdings under the Warner Communications umbrella. Holzman remained in charge of Elektra until 1972, when it merged with Asylum Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records. The label is still in business today, as an independent entity within Warner Music.