Label Guide: Barnaby

When American pop singer Andy Williams purchased the entire catalogue of defunct Cadence Records, he formed Barnaby to manage the music rights. In 1965, he began to reissue some Cadence material on Columbia Records, but it wasn't until 1970 before Williams started his own record label.

Barnaby Records, named after Williams' dog Mr. Barnaby, was created to release the rest of the long unreleased Cadence archive, principally that of the Everly Brothers, which had been long out of print but in continued great demand. Barnaby also released new material by artists such as Ray Stevens and Jimmy Buffett.

Barnaby had several distributors including CBS (1970 - 1973), then MGM, and finally GRT in 1974. Once Barnaby ceased operating as a working record company at the end of the 1970s, Williams licensed the old Cadence and Barnaby material to various other labels such as Varese Sarabande and Rhino.