RSO Records

Encyclopedia : R : RS : RSO : RSO Records

This article is about a record label. In rocketry, RSO can also stand for Range Safety Officer.

RSO Records was a record label, formed in partnership with Polydor Records by rock and roll and musical theatre impresario Robert Stigwood in the late 1960s, after the death of his business partner and mentor Brian Epstein. The "RSO" stands for the Robert Stigwood Organisation. The Company's main headquarters were at 67 Brook Street in London's Mayfair.

From its beginnings, it was a disco label. RSO managed the careers of several superstars (Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Andy Gibb, Player), and, as a record label, released the soundtracks to Fame, Tommy, The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, Jesus Christ Superstar, Times Square, Grease (Over 25 Million Copies sold worldwide), and Saturday Night Fever (Over 30 million copies sold worldwide). The release of the latter two albums made RSO one of the most financially successful labels of the 1970s. The disastrous commercial and critical failure of RSO's movie version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1978 nearly crippled the company, but this failure was quickly swept away by the 20 million plus selling Bee Gees album "Spirits Having Flown" in 1979. By 1981 Stigwood had ended his involvement with the label, which was absorbed into Polydor a few years later.

Trivia

The chyron of the RSO logo is seen during the end credits of Saturday Night Fever.

RSO Records

Trivia

See also