TOWER 75:
CUE FANFARE

November marks the 75th anniversary of Capitol Records, and Steve Barnett's Tower Team is doing the festivities up right. Among the highlights: a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on 11/15, officially Capitol Records Day; a deluxe TASCHEN book brimming with photos and history; the rolling out of a 75-album vinyl collection showcasing the label's extraordinary output, with Crate and Barrel and American Airlines partnerships; and a "docuseries" telling its story. Even the signal emitted in Morse Code from the Tower will change.

The 75-LP set includes classic albums by The Beatles (group and solo), The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Pink Floyd, Glen Campbell, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Dean Martin, The Band, MC Hammer, Radiohead, Coldplay and plenty more. They'll be available via music retailers throughout 2017. They'll also be prominently featured in "The Listening Room" at Crate and Barrel outlets.

American Airlines, meanwhile, will kick off "Fly to the Beat," a music platform with Capitol acts well represented.

TASCHEN, meanwhile, will work its glossy, culturally literate magic on Capitol's history with 75 Years of Capitol Records, due 12/15 and way too big for a stocking stuffer--this thing will take up prime real estate under the tree. Stuffed with eye-popping pics, it also boasts a foreword by Beck and essays by music historians, Tower-admiring architecture scribes and others.

The planned docuseries, produced by Nigel Sinclair/Whitehorse Pictures (The Beatles doc Eight Days a Week, Dylan pic No Direction Home), will explore the creative lives of artists and the capacious archives of the label alike. Each episode will be direct by a prominent player in music and/or pop culture.

On Capitol Records Day, so named by the L.A. City Council, the label gets its star on the Boulevard, which will coincide with the spire atop the Capitol Tower changing its Morse Code emission from "Hollywood" to "Capitol 75" for the ensuing year. Pretty flashy.

More on Capitol's 75th here and here.

The Tower in 1956, 1959 and 2016