Season’s Deletings : Pop Rosters Altered in Yuletide Trimmings

Recording artists are getting the heave-ho-ho this holiday season as part of an ill-timed Grinch tradition.

It’s an annual end-of-the-year rite in the recording business, a serious kind of musical chairs when stars set out in search of new record labels, when companies pass on some acts’ contract renewals, when labels simply drop some performers altogether.

At the heart--if that’s the right word--of the matter is the hard reality that making money is, well, the hard reality of the music business.

There’s little label shuffling among the hottest acts but plenty among the ranks of those whose best-selling years are probably behind them.

“It’s very sad,” says one industry executive. “Merry Christmas, you know? But at the end of the year, dead weight goes.”

Depending on who is doing the talking, this year’s Christmas list includes: Kenny Rogers, Black Sabbath, Marilyn McCoo, rapper Sister Souljah, Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks, D.A.D., the Mighty Lemon Drops, Army of Lovers and rappers Lord Finesse and Bronx Style Bob, Eleven, Faster Pussycat, Little Caesar and Junkyard.

It’s not always easy to tell who’s shifting or being dropped because the record companies rarely announce such things. And even when word leaks out, industry executives like to apply the official spin to each artist’s story.

“The term ‘dropping an artist’ sounds like you’re pulling a lever at the gallows,” says Bob Merlis, senior vice president and director of media relations at Warner Bros. “I’m never going to say ‘drop’ again. It’s unfair to the artist; it casts a pall on them.”

“It’s a private thing between the artist and the company,” says Alan Mintz, president of Epic Records’ West Coast operations. “But it’s certainly an unfortunate part of our business.”

The biggest name caught in this end of the year’s shuffle is probably veteran country-cum-pop star Kenny Rogers, who is as well known these days as the Gambler in TV movies as he is a recording artist. Rogers, whose last album was 1991’s “Back Home Again,” was reported dropped by Warner/Reprise Nashville on the front page of Daily Variety this week.

Foul, cried Warners and Rogers’ manager, Ken Kragen. The Gambler wasn’t dropped at all, they said. He just shifted to Warner-distributed Giant Records.

“The reality as I know it,” says Kragen, “is that Kenny wasn’t happy with the production of his record and wanted to work with (Giant producer) James Stroud.”

“It was an internal move,” concurs Jim Ed Norman, president of Warner/Reprise in Nashville. “He had our blessing.”

But ex-Warner/Reprise star Emmylou Harris is a different story.

“What can I say?” says Norman. “Her contract was up.”

Harris, who didn’t respond to requests for an interview, is said to be shopping for a new company, most likely Elektra’s new Nashville-based Asylum label.

Although the Christmastime shuffle may make the industry look especially Scroogish, artists actually are dropping and shopping all throughout the year. Rapper Sister Souljah, for instance, was quietly dropped by Epic last month. Neither Souljah nor the record company would comment on the move.

“There’s rarely, if ever, any statement surrounding a dropping,” says Epic’s Mintz. “We don’t see that there’s much advantage for the artist or the label in terms of making an affirmative statement to the world.”

Still, the end of the year is traditionally a time for label housecleaning and, this year at least, for belt-tightening, too.

“It’s difficult for record labels to let go of somebody that they reached fever pitch trying to market only six months ago,” says an industry insider. “But it’s a fiscal reality. You can’t show a debt worth a small house in Bel-Air for an act that sold 10,000 units.”

Consider the case of Black Sabbath, a group that was at the top of the heavy-metal scene in the ‘70s but is today eclipsed by the Metallicas of the ‘90s. The group made one album, “Dehumanizer,” for Warner’s Reprise label under a short-term contract that has now expired. The album sold a respectable amount--more than 250,000 units--but not enough to move a record executive to lock them into a megabucks, long-term deal.

“A contract expires and you don’t renew for a number of reason. It’s our prerogative,” says Warner’s Merlis. “It’s not like we’re sitting in a room (saying), ‘Hah, hah! Let’s get rid of this guy.’ It’s already done.”