The American division of Ariola Records. Ariola America was the vehicle by which the big German multimedia company Bertelsmann made its first attempt to break into the American market. It was founded by Ernest Luftner and run by Jay Lasker, whose track record included co-founding Reprise Records, founding Dunhill Records, and being the president of ABC Records (q.v.). Despite their best efforts and a couple of No.1 singles for Mary MacGregor and Amii Stewart the new company didn't have the success for which the parent was hoping. Bertelsmann decided upon a quicker and surer route to gaining a market share, and it purchased the established and successful Arista Records (q.v.) in 1979. By the end of 1982 Ariola America had disappeared as a mainstream Pop label.
In Britain, Ariola America made its debut in February 1976. Its first two releases had been issued in the USA the previous year, and subsequent UK issues seem to have generally come out several months after their counterparts in the States. Mary MacGregor gave the label its only British Top Ten hit in 1977, with her American success 'Torn Between Two Lovers' (AA-111; 2/77), but in the autumn of that same year Ariola and Ariola Hansa were launched in the U.K. (q.v. both) and the Ariola America label was discontinued. Ariola America had a licensing agreement with EMI, and its records were manufactured and distributed by that company; numbering of singles was in an AA-100 series. The agreement seems to have lasted for some time after the demise of the label, as several of the company's records appeared on EMI International with an Ariola America logo (4) in the first half of 1978. From August of that year, however, its product came out on Ariola. For some reason the two new Ariola labels were placed with Pye rather than EMI.
