It's debatable whether Atlantic / Migration deserves a page to itself, but I think it's defensible. According to the 'Billboard' issues of the 7th and 14th of September 1974 Bob Ezrin had opened Migration Records as an international record label based in Toronto, Canada. It had been signed to Atlantic for the USA and Canada, and was intended to be primarily a singles-orientated concern. The Migration logo was added to the standard Atlantic red-and-black labels for the company's releases in those countries, presumably as part of the deal; that in itself probably wouldn't be enough to justify treating them separately. In Britain, however, the two singles which were issued here not only had the Migration logo added but also kept the Canadian / American colouring, making them different from all the other British Atlantic singles of the time. It is true that other companies had their logos on Atlantic records in the '70s - the 'Hansa' logo on Boney M records is perhaps the most commonly seen example - but those logos were merely overprinted on the standard Atlantic labels; there was no colour change and no change in design, as there was for Migration. Again, the overprinted logos seem not to have come into use until the summer of 1977, two years after the second and last Atlantic / Migration single; up to that point if a record originated from an outside company the source was merely mentioned in the notes on the labels. In the light of those facts I'm inclined to grant Atlantic / Migration the benefit of the doubt and give it its own page. Migration seems not to have lasted for very long as a label: it managed around half a dozen singles in the USA in 1974-75 but that appears to have been the lot. It did however continue as a production company, and it can be found credited on Kiss's Ezrin-produced 'Destroyer' album amongst others. The two singles it released here were 'Baby Baby' b/w 'Happy Together' by Gary Bonner (K-10511; 11/74) and Jay Black's 'Running Scared' b/w 'Dolphins' (K-10637; 6/75). Their catalogue numbers were taken from the main Atlantic series. A third Migration single, The Johnson Family's 'I Only Want To Be With You' b/w 'Peace In The Family' came out four months after the Jay Black record but was issued on Atlantic's 'Antic' label (q.v.) rather than on Atlantic / Migration (K-11523; 10/75).
Copyright 2016 Robert Lyons.