Editing Atlantic Records (section)

===Expansion===
Atlantic played a major role in popularizing the genre that Jerry Wexler dubbed rhythm & blues, and it profited handsomely. The market for these records exploded during late 1953 and early 1954 as R&B hits crossed over to the mainstream (i.e. white) audience. In its tenth anniversary feature on Atlantic, ''Billboard'' noted, "... a very big R&B record might achieve 250,000 sales, but from this point on (1953–54), the industry began to see million sellers, one after the other, in the R&B field".<ref name="Kramer p. 38" /> ''Billboard'' said Atlantic's "fresh sound" and the quality of its recordings, arrangements, and musicians was a great advance from standard R&B records. For five years Atlantic "dominated the rhythm and blues chart with its roster of powerhouse artists".<ref name="Kramer p. 38" />

Beginning in 1954, Atlantic created or acquired several subsidiary labels, the first being [[Cat Records]]. By the mid-1950s, Atlantic had an informal agreement with the French label [[Barclay Records|Barclay]], and the two companies regularly exchanged titles, usually jazz recordings. Atlantic also began to get recordings distributed in the United Kingdom, first through [[EMI]] on a 'one-off' basis. But in September 1955 Miriam Abramson traveled to the UK and signed a distribution deal with Decca.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Paul Ackerman |title=Rhythm & Blues Notes |magazine=Billboard |date=November 12, 1955 |page=122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA122}}</ref> Miriam recalled, "I would deal with people there who were not really comfortable with women in business, so...we would do business very quickly and get it over with".<ref>Broven 2009, p. 67.</ref>

A subsidiary label, [[Atco Records|Atco]], was established in 1955 to keep Herb involved.<ref>{{Cite news |title=East-West In Singles Bow |magazine=Billboard |date=September 30, 1957 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RCEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16}}</ref> After a slow start, Atco had considerable success with [[Bobby Darin]]. His early releases were unsuccessful, and Herb planned to drop him. But when Ertegun offered him another chance, the result was "[[Splish Splash (song)|Splish Splash]]", which Darin had written in 12 minutes. The song sold 100,000 copies in the first month and became a million-seller. "[[Queen of the Hop]]" made the Top 10 on both the US pop and R&B charts and charted in the UK. "[[Dream Lover]]" reached No. 2 in the US and No. 1 in the UK and became a multi-million seller. "[[Mack the Knife]]" (1959) went to No. 1 in both the US and the UK, sold over 2 million copies, and won the 1960 [[Grammy Award]] for Record of the Year. "[[Beyond the Sea (song)|Beyond the Sea]]" became Darin's fourth consecutive Top 10 hit in the US and UK. He signed with [[Capitol Records|Capitol]] and moved for Hollywood to attempt a movie career, but hits such as "[[You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby]]" and "[[Things (Bobby Darin song)|Things]]" continued to benefit Atco through 1962. Darin returned to Atlantic in 1965.<ref>{{cite news |title=Darin Signs With Atl'tic |magazine=Billboard |date=July 17, 1965 |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2CgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA4}}</ref> In 1965, Atlantic formed a budget label called Clarion Records.  21 albums were released simultaneously in 1965,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.discogs.com/label/159222-Clarion | title=Clarion | website=[[Discogs]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.45worlds.com/vinyl/album/sd603 | title=Vinyl Album: Bobby Darin - Clementine (1966) }}</ref> all of them shown on the back cover of their releases.  No further albums were issued as the label lasted less than a year.