A division of
Universal Records was first introduced in 1988 by MCA Records, Inc. in Nashville. It was headed by Jimmy Bowen, who left MCA for Capitol Records in 1990 and took most of the label's artists with him. In March 1996, the label was reintroduced when the Rising Tide label was renamed, with the country acts retained on the earlier label as a subsidiary of Universal Records.

As part of the Universal Music Group, it was brought under the Universal Motown Records Group umbrella.

In 2006, with its sister label Republic Records being rebranded as Universal Republic Records, Universal Records was merged into both it and Motown to create Universal Motown, causing the Universal Motown Records Group to reinstate itself as the Universal Motown Republic Group.

In 2011, with the dismantling of Universal Motown and its UMRG unit, Universal Motown was folded to the revived Motown, while Universal Republic has been rebranded back as Republic. Today, releases under the urban unit of Universal Records and/or Universal Motown are being reissued by either Republic or Motown under UMe. However, the entirety of Universal Records remains dormant.

Only use this label for releases with a Universal Records[/u] logo. Releases that contain only the standard Universal (black-and-white globe) logo must not be listed here.