American, the label of Big Tree Enterprises of New York. Big Tree was founded in January 1970, with Doug Morris and Dick Vanderbilt as its executive officers ('BB', 6th February 1971). After a brief spell with Ampex and a longer one with Bell it signed a distribution pact with Atlantic in 1974, in a deal that covered marketing and distribution ('BB', 9th February). A couple of years or so later 'Music Week' of the 21st of August 1976 announced that Big Tree had been acquired by Atlantic; its new owners gave it a new and more ambitious label design not long afterwards. Having done well as an independent with the likes of Lobo, April Wine and Brownsville Station it enjoyed several more successes under its new ownership, notably with England Dan & John Ford Coley, but stopped issuing newly recorded material towards the end of 1979. In its independent years it offered a varied catalogue including several items licensed from UK companies. Some of those items - records by Dave & Ansil Collins, The Pioneers, Steeleye Span and Jonathan King for example - were not obvious candidates for release in the USA, whereas those by Hot Chocolate theoretically had wider appeal.
Big Tree products in Britain appeared on the Philips label initially, with singles having their own dedicated 6073-800 numerical series and the company getting an originating credit on the labels (1). Lobo scored handsomely twice, with 'Me And You And A Dog Named Boo' b/w 'Walk Away From It All' (6073-801; 5/71) and 'I'd Love You To Want Me' b/w 'Am I True To Myself' (UK, UK R-68; 5/74), which hit the No.4 and No.5 spots respectively, the second having been picked up and reissued by UK after the Philips version had missed out. A lesser hit came courtesy of Brownsville Station, whose 'Smokin' In The Boys Room' b/w 'Barefootin'' (6073-834; 2/74) peaked at No.27.
The agreement with Phonogram seems to have expired in 1975 or 1976; a few singles that had been on Big Tree in the States came out on Atlantic label in 1976, including the first of two hits for England Dan & John Ford Coley, 'I'd Really Love To See You Tonight' b/w 'It's Not The Same' (K-10810; 7/76), before Big Tree finally made its debut as a label in its own right, towards the end of that year. Sadly its records failed to achieve very much in the way of sales over here, though it managed a minor hit in 1979 with England Dan and John Ford Coley's 'Love Is The Answer' b/w 'Running After You' (K-11296; 5/79) which peaked at No.45. Its singles shared a K-10000 numerical series with those of Atlantic. They were manufactured and distributed by CBS at first, WEA having an agreement for both processes with that company. WEA took over distribution itself from April 1977, according to Billboard magazine. One label design served throughout (2), and there was no company sleeve. Douglas Morris went on to bigger things in the industry: by 2004 he was CEO of the Universal Music Group ('BB', 28th August).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.