Reprise Records was founded yesterday in 1959 by Frank Sinatra. He was tired of not having total control over his own recordings and being lumped in with awful musicians. He decided to start his own label which he called Reprise. He though Reprise would have made an awesome name for a kid, but used it for his record label.
 
He made sure to hand select the talent. The first signings were his rat pack buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Comedian Redd Foxx was also a "recording" artist signed to Reprise.
 
Sinatra signed even more legendary acts. The list includes, Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, and Jo Stafford.
 
The labels philosophy was that the artist should have complete creative control over their work. That meant not only partial to full ownership, but also publishing rights. This is the reason you can find Dean Martin stuff through other labels.
 
Sinatra sold the rights to Warner Brothers in 1963 and it was the begining of the end. Reprise signed some great new artists, the Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, but by the late 1960's it moved to straight pop oriented sound.
 
Towards the late 70's, the label was losing big name artists by the week. Joni Mitchell and Captain Beefhart left, which made Sinatra claim that he wanted to be the only recording artist on Reprise. Neil Young refused to leave.
 
Now a label that once stood for complete creative control has bands like 50% Smashing Pumpkins, Avenged Sevenfold, The Used, My Chemical Romance, Disturbed, and Green Day. Some older artists still remain, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, and Depeche Mode.
 
Another record label started with good intentions and run into the ground by a larger conglomerate.
 
No disrespect to SFC Lewis C Walton who was MIA, I just needed Taps.