Benson Music Group
Provident Music Group
741 Cool Springs Blvd
Franklin, TN 37067
1 (615) 261-5909
Provident Music Group is owned by Sony Music Entertainment, Inc.
MUSIC GENRES:
Contemporary Christian, Southern Gospel
RECORD LABELS:
Heartwarming, Impact, Greentree, Paragon, New
Pax, Milk & Honey, Zondervan/Singcord, Supreme Productions
ARTISTS ON VARIOUS LABELS INCLUDED:
Mickey & Becki Moore, Twila Paris, Farrell
& Farrell, Bill Gaither Trio, Michael Card, Gaither Vocal Band, Doug Oldham, the Rambos, and
many others.
HISTORY:
The John T. Benson
Music Publishing Company was founded in
1902.
Benson’s record labels in the 60s and 70s
included Heartwarming and Impact. Heartwarming was Southern Gospel; Impact more contemporary.
Bob Mac Kenzie joined the Benson company in 1966 as creative director and produced almost every album released by Benson. Mac Kenzie utilized some of Nashville's finest musicians and studios to improve the quality of the recordings. Album masters were taken to London to add orchestrations, many notably arranged by Rick Powell.
Paragon Associates,
Inc. formed a partnership in 1980 with The Zondervan Corporation to own and
operate The Benson Company, and Bob Mac
Kenzie, who founded Paragon along with Bill Gaither in 1975,
became the president of Benson. Paragon sold its interest in Benson to
Zondervan in 1983.
Ownership by Paragon and Zondervan put the Benson
Music Group name on the Greentree, Milk & Honey, Paragon, Power
Disc and NewPax labels.
THE NINETIES:
The following is contributed by Greg Seneff who was Director of Legal Affairs at Benson for a number of years in the ‘90s.
In 1992, after a sales slump with layoffs and unsuccessful hopes for a buyout, Zondervan, which was acquired by HarperCollins Publishers in 1988, decided to exit the music business. Benson was sold in November to Music Entertainment Group, Inc. (“MEG”) which was overseen by two long-time music industry executives, Wes Farrell and Steve Fret.
Mr. Farrell entered the music business as a songwriter at the famous Brill Building. He wrote hits such as “Hang On Sloopy” made famous by the McCoys, the Wayne Newton classic “Danke Schön,” co-wrote a song the Beatles recorded on their first U.S. album entitled “Boys,” as well as numerous other well-known hits of the 1960’s & 70’s. Mr. Farrell was tapped to be the producer of many of the Partridge Family albums.
Mr. Farrell founded The Wes Farrell Organization which had a very large publishing catalog. He worked with a number of music stars including Neil Diamond, whom Mr. Farrell signed to his first publishing agreement. He formed his own record company, Chelsea, to release Wayne Newton’s first top-10 hit, “Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast.”
Mr. Farrell scored several motion pictures, including the Academy-Award-winning Midnight Cowboy (1969), and at one time was married to Frank Sinatra’s daughter, Tina. Mr. Farrell was the chief executive and president of Music Entertainment Group.
Mr. Fret worked in a number of positions for major record labels, assisted in the sale of the Chappell publishing catalog to Warner Brothers and worked at SBK, the original label for Vanilla Ice and Wilson Philips.
When Jerry Park, who was president of Benson when MEG purchased it, left the company, Steve Fret became the acting president. Mr. Park went on to act as the Executive Vice President and Group Publisher for the Nelson Christian Books Group.
When Mr. Farrell died of cancer at the age of 56 in 1996, Mr. Fret continued the management of MEG, including the Benson Music Group, as president.
In 1997, Music Entertainment Group sold Benson Records to Zomba Music Group.
Mr. Seneff's The Seneff Law Office in Nashville, TN represents Christian recording artists, independent record labels, film and video production companies, publishers, etc. Mr. Seneff has also served as General Counsel for both the Gospel Music Association (GMA) and the Christian Music Trade Association (CMTA). He is an adjunct professor, contributes to magazines, serves on the board of a non-profit ministry, conducts seminars for industry conferences, and still finds the time to create a podcast called Artist Insider.
The Benson Music Group owned some 46,000 music copyrights and over 18,000 master tapes.
Benson Music became a part of the Provident Music Group which was created by Zomba in 1997 as an umbrella for its Christian labels. Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing was established as Provident’s publishing division. Zondervan’s Singspiration catalog is a part of Brentwood-Benson.
In 1999, Benson switched to being a new
artist-focused label. However, new artist releases did not sell as much
as anticipated and in January 2001, the
Benson label was shut down.
This page last updated August 19, 2008.
