Myrrh

US label that was started in 1972 as a division of Word Records. It was established by Billy Ray Hearn. Myrrh was the mainstay of Word's "popular music" sounding religious issues. At one point, Word was issuing more titles on Myrrh than Word itself. Sometimes described as: A division of Word, Inc., Waco, Texas. In Canada: Word Records Limited, Vancouver, B.C. In September 1974, Myrrh announced that ABC Records would distribute their records nationwide. The label was discontinued in 2000. Word Label Group relaunched Myrrh in 2005 as a label for worship music. The biggest "find" for Myrrh was singer Amy Grant. Another big "find" for Myrrh was Petra (9), a popular Christian rock and roll group, but they never achieved the pop music status of Amy Grant. The logo has changed over the years, from simply the word "myrrh" in lower case, used during the 1970s and 1980s, to two different stylized "M" logos, used in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Note that Word Records made a manufacturing, marketing and distribution deal with A&M Records in January 1985, as reported in Cashbox dated 19th January 1985. At that time, they introduced a new catalogue number series WR-81xx for all distributed labels, and introduced barcodes. Many older releases were reissued with new catalogue numbers and barcodes, but retained their original copyright dates. So, anything with a WR- catalogue number, a barcode, and date earlier that 1985, is a 1985 or later reissue. This distribution arrangement lasted until about 1990, after which distribution moved to Epic/Sony. Myrrh catalog numbers (frequently) follow these patterns, sometimes with dashes or "SPCN" prefixes: 7-01-####06-# (LP) 7-01-####38-# (cassette) 7-01-####61-# (CD) 8-01-####69-# (VHS) 9-01-####15-# (promo 12" or CD)