Bear Family Records has a long history with the catalog of Caterina Valente. Their work began in the 1980s with successful vinyl reissues of her 1950s recordings. Throughout the 1990s, they released numerous CD boxes and singles, all properly licensed from the master rights holders.
Caterina Valente’s direct involvement in these projects was limited. She contributed only to the box set “With a Song in My Heart,” at the request of her management at the time.
A significant incident occurred in 2003. Bear Family released a compilation of the Japanese duo “The Peanuts,” which included two medleys from The Caterina Valente Show. These medleys were sourced from original playback tapes owned by the show’s producer, who was also Valente’s manager and husband at the time, Erik van Aro Sr. The rights status of this specific, unreleased TV material was complex, as the show itself had licensed the underlying songs for broadcast. Bear Family did not secure a license from the producer for this release.
Following the sale of Bear Family Records, its founder recently launched a new label with a similar name. This new entity has released three Caterina Valente projects. These sets contain:
- Material previously released and in the public domain.
- Unreleased material of unclear copyright status.
- Eleven songs that are definitively not in the public domain.
These new releases were produced without seeking permission for the not in the public domain songs from or providing compensation to the rights holders. The appropriate legal representatives are now addressing this matter.
We share this information because fans deserve transparency. The current market is saturated with numerous identical releases of Valente’s public-domain material, which can be found easily on platforms like Spotify. This situation highlights a broader industry pattern where entities, large and small, may prioritize commercial gain over artistic legacy and fair compensation, creating an environment that can feel predatory to both artists and collectors.