White Whale Records

White Whale Records was an American independent record label, founded in 1965 by Ted Feigin and Lee Lasseff in Los Angeles, California, and probably best known as the record label of The Turtles and a handful of one-hit wonder bands.

White Whale, in addition to releasing almost all of The Turtles' discography, also released Nino Tempo & April Stevens's single "All Strung Out (On You)", a hit single by Rene y Rene titled "Lo Mucho Que Ti Quiero", an album by Liz Damon's Orient Express, and the only album by Texas band The Clique. Warren Zevon was a staff songwriter for the label, and they issued some of his earliest recordings (as part of the duo Lyme & Cybele). Dobie Gray also recorded for the label, recording the first chart version of "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden," which later became a much bigger hit for Lynn Anderson.

Three compilations of singles from the label have been released on compact disc: Happy Together: The Very Best of White Whale Records, and two volumes of the Phantom Jukebox series, on Rev-Ola records. [1]

The Turtles

When White Whale signed the Turtles, they were known as "The Crossfires"; a surf music band looking to change their style, as surf music was fading. The label encouraged a name change to "The Tyrtles", in the manner of The Beatles and The Byrds. The band accepted the new name, but not the variant spelling. Relations between the label and the band were not always smooth, with White Whale pressuring the band for "more hits", then for singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman to fire the rest of the group, and work instead with hired musicians, in order to save money. Kaylan wrote the song "Elenore" as a humorous take on "Happy Together" (the only #1 hit for both the group and the White Whale label), which ironically became a hit itself. He and Volman also democratized the group, insisting everyone share in the writing and vocal duties, despite what the label wanted, and recorded a concept album, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands (on which "Elenore" was featured).

When the Turtles disbanded in the early 1970s, White Whale lost their big moneymaker; in retaliation, and to prevent Kaylan and Volman from continuing their musical careers, White Whale insisted they held the rights to not only the Turtles' name and back catalog, but Kaylan and Volman's individual given names. Kaylan and Volman responded by moving into session work and continuing under a pseudonym, Flo and Eddie; White Whale Records, on the other hand, went out of business not long after. The label's final releases were the single "1900 Yesterday" by Liz Damon's Orient Express and a self-titled album by the same group; although both charted (the single reaching a respectable #33), it wasn't enough to keep the company going. White Whale's assets were sold at auction in 1974, at which point Kaylan and Volman won the rights to the Turtles' master recordings. Kaylan and Volman would not earn the rights to their own names (or the Turtles') again until 1983.

Anthem Records

Feigin and Lasseff folded White Whale Records in 1971 and created a new label called Anthem Records (not to be confused with the later Canadian label of the same name.) Anthem was initially distributed in the United States by United Artists. Two White Whale acts were transferred to Anthem (Liz Damon's Orient Express and The Dillards), and they are the only artists to have albums issued on the label. The label also provided US distribution for a single by Freddie Mercury under the alias "Larry Lurex". One of Anthem's last signings was the duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, whose Buckingham Nicks LP was released via Polydor in 1973. (Polydor issued several albums with credits to "Anthem Record Productions" after the label lost distribution with United Artists the previous year.) Anthem Records was officially dissolved that same year.

Current ownership

While Flo & Eddie Inc (distributed by Manifesto Records) controls The Turtles' catalog the rest of the White Whale catalog is currently controlled by Concord Music's Craft Recordings under Varese Sarabande. Since the 1990s, several CD reissues and compilations of White Whale material have been released.

Chart history

Billboard Top LPs Chart

Catalog #	Artist	Title	Peak position	Peak date
White Whale WWS-7111	Turtles, The	It Ain't Me Babe	98	10/23/1965
White Whale WWS-7114	Turtles, The	Happy Together	25	4/29/1967
White Whale WWS-7115	Turtles, The	Golden Hits	7	11/18/1967
White Whale WWS-7118	Turtles, The	The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands	128	11/16/1968
White Whale WWS-7119	Rene and Rene	Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero	129	1/11/1969
White Whale WWS-7124	Turtles, The	Turtle Soup	117	11/1/1969
White Whale WWS-7126	Clique, The	Clique, The	177	1/17/1970
White Whale WWS-7127	Turtles, The	More Golden Hits	146	4/11/1970
White Whale/Makaha MS-5003	Liz Damon's Orient Express	Liz Damon's Orient Express	190	3/6/1971

Billboard Hot 100 & Bubbling Under Charts

Catalog #	Artist	Title	Peak position	Peak date
White Whale 222	Turtles, The	"It Ain't Me Babe"	8	9/18/1965
White Whale 224	Turtles, The	"Let Me Be"	29	11/27/1965
White Whale 227	Turtles, The	"You Baby"	20	3/26/1966
White Whale 228	Lyme and Cybelle	"Follow Me"	65	4/16/1966
White Whale 231	Turtles, The	"Grim Reaper of Love"	81	6/25/1966
White Whale 236	Nino Tempo and April Stevens	"All Strung Out"	26	10/22/1966
White Whale 238	Turtles, The	"Can I Get To Know You Better"	89	11/26/1966
White Whale 239	John's Children	"Smashed! Blocked!"	102	12/31/1966
White Whale 241	Tempo, Nino, & April Stevens	"You'll Be Needing Me Baby"	133	1/28/1967
White Whale 244	Turtles, The	"Happy Together"	1	3/25/1967
White Whale 246	Tempo, Nino, & April Stevens	"My Old Flame"	101	4/29/1967
White Whale 249	Turtles, The	"She'd Rather Be with Me"	3	6/17/1967
White Whale 252	Nino Tempo and April Stevens	"I Can't Go On Livin' Baby Without You"	86	7/29/1967
White Whale 254	Turtles, The	"You Know What I Mean"	12	9/30/1967
White Whale 257	Committee, The	"California My Way"	110	10/28/1967
White Whale 260	Turtles, The	"She's My Girl"	14	12/23/1967
White Whale 264	Turtles, The	"Sound Asleep"	57	3/30/1968
White Whale 268	Tempo, Nino, & April Stevens	"Let It Be Me"	127	5/25/1968
White Whale 273	Turtles, The	"The Story Of Rock And Roll"	48	7/13/1968
White Whale 275	Professor Morrison's Lollipop	"You Got The Love"	88	10/5/1968
White Whale 276	Turtles, The	"Elenore"	6	11/2/1968
White Whale 287	Rene & Rene	"Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero (The More I Love You)"	14	1/4/1969
White Whale 289	Malibu's, The	"A Broken Man"	121	2/8/1969
White Whale 292	Turtles, The	"You Showed Me"	6	3/1/1969
White Whale 298	Rene & Rene	"Las Costas"	128	3/22/1969
White Whale 300	Gray, Dobie	"Rose Garden"	119	5/31/1969
White Whale 308	Turtles, The	"You Don't Have To Walk In The Rain"	51	7/12/1969
White Whale 323	Clique, The	"Sugar On Sunday"	22	10/18/1969
White Whale 326	Turtles, The	"Love In The City"	91	10/18/1969
White Whale 333	Clique, The	"I'll Hold Out My Hand"	45	12/13/1969
White Whale 334	Turtles, The	"Lady-O"	78	12/20/1969
White Whale 338	Clique, The	"Sparkle And Shine"	100	2/28/1970
White Whale 353	Feather	"Friends"	79	6/20/1970
White Whale 355	Turtles, The	"Eve of Destruction"	100	6/27/1970
White Whale 360	Reivers, The	"Revolution In My Soul"	112	9/19/1970
White Whale 364	Turtles, The	"Me About You"	105	11/14/1970
White Whale 368	Liz Damon's Orient Express	"1900 Yesterday"	33	2/13/1971

See also

• List of record labels

External links

• White Whale Records
• White Whale singles
• White Whale USA singles discography