An American jazz label, founded by Norman Granz in 1956.

The Verve catalogue grew throughout the 1950s and 1960s to include most of the major figures in jazz, though Granz tended to record established artists, sometimes in decline, rather than new talent. It also recognized the potential of comedy albums.

Granz sold Verve to MGM in 1961. Creed Taylor took over as producer, bringing the bossa nova to America with artists such as Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto. Shortly before leaving Verve in 1967, Taylor also created a folk music subsidiary named Verve Folkways (later renamed Verve Forecast).

But new recordings now began to decline and ceased altogether in the early 1970s. The label was revived in the mid-1980s for new releases. Yet a more important focus for the new Verve Records is the reissuing of its back catalogue, in ever more imaginative ways.

The label became part of the PolyGram group when MGM sold its labels in 1972, at this point incorporating the Mercury/EmArcy jazz catalogue, which Phillips, part owners of PolyGram, had earlier acquired.

Verve Records became the Verve Music Group after PolyGram was merged with Seagram's Universal Music Group in 1998.

Since 2002, the label has released a series of Verve Remixed compilation discs where classic tracks by Verve artists are remixed by contemporary electronic music DJs. Some of the record labels currently in the Verve Music Group include Impulse Records, Coral Records, Blue Thumb Records, Brunswick Records and Decca's jazz holdings.