Rē Records was founded by Chris Cutler in 1978, as a vehicle for Art Bears and then other projects of his own. At the same time he launched Recommended Records, a specialised mailorder service which established its own label for outside releases. A Recommended shop opened in the early '80s, and in mid-decade the shop and distribution functions separated from the labels, becoming a workers collective and changing its name to These Records. In the early '90s Cutler merged the labels under the name ReR Megacorp and set up a new distribution and mailorder service under the same name. These Records continued until 2006, when it finally closed.

Often telling which label a release is on can be confusing, even with the release in front of you. The way to tell them apart is by the catalog numbers:
Re or Rē numbers = Rē Records [generally releases featuring Chris Cutler]
R.R. or RR numbers = Recommended Records [releases by other artists]
RēR numbers = ReR Megacorp [releases after 1988]