Benson Records

History

Benson Records began in 1980 as a joint venture between Zondervan and Paragon Associates, a company founded five years earlier by Bob MacKenzie and gospel singer Bill Gaither. Zondervan bought out Paragon’s stake in 1983, and under the leadership of Bob Jones, Jr., the label expanded through the 1980s with acts like Gold City, The Kingsmen Quartet, DeGarmo & Key, and Dallas Holm. During that decade, Benson agreed to distribute a new imprint created by Dan R. Brock, Eddie DeGarmo, Dana Key, and Ron W. Griffin. That imprint became Forefront Records, which signed Dc Talk in 1989. Forefront was sold to EMI (now part of Universal Music Group) in 1996, a deal that included the entire DeGarmo & Key catalog.

In 1993, the Benson Music Group launched a children’s music series called Kids’ Classics, releasing six initial titles. The following year, the Impact Records name was sold to Landmark Distribution, and two more Kids’ Classics albums—Toddler Tunes and Hymns—came out. On November 1, 1994, the series was rebranded as Cedarmont Kids. In 1995, Benson acquired the Diadem Music Group, which brought in Tribute Records contracts for gospel-jazz pioneer Ben Tankard, Yolanda Adams, Twinkie Clark, and Bob Carlisle, best known for his hit “Butterfly Kisses.”

Benson Records was sold to Bertelsmann AG through its Provident/Zomba division in 1997, and it now falls under Sony Music Entertainment. Zomba shut down the label in late 2001. More recently, the Heart Warming Records and RiverSong names were sold to Homeland Entertainment, owned by Bill Traylor and former Zondervan president Bob Jones, Jr. Benson’s choral music printing business was acquired in 2023 by Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology and Townsend School of Music, operating as Celebrating Grace, from Universal Music Group.