Warner/Reprise Records

Hoping to find musical freedom, Johnny Mercer, the writer of “Moon River,” helped launch Capitol Records in 1942. Nineteen years later, Frank Sinatra, in search of musical freedom of his own, left Capitol and formed the Reprise label. In 1963 Reprise was sold to Warner Brothers, and, although the label continued to record Sinatra, it soon forswore 1950s swing-a-ding-dingness. If Reprise never had a distinctive sound, it did have a clear identity: West Coast hip, blue jeans, and Native American jewelry. Under the guidance of producers and artists-and-repertoire men Lenny Waronker and Ted Templeman, several artists came to embody this identity musically—especially Little Feat and the far more popular Doobie Brothers, who made an unanticipated but lucrative switch from country rock to rhythm and blues with the addition of singer Michael McDonald. James Taylor typified the new singer-songwriter mode with several best-selling albums for Warner Brothers, and Neil Young had enormous success with his tuneful After the Gold Rush (1970) for Reprise.