Parlophone

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Parlophone Records

Parent company	EMI
Founded	1896
Founder(s)	Carl Lindstrom
Distributing label	Parlophone Records (In the UK)
Genre(s)	Various
Country of origin	UK
Official Website	http://www.emimusic.co.uk/04/parlophone.htm

Parlophone is a record label, founded in Germany 1896 by the Carl Lindstrom Company. The ₤ trademark is not the British pound sign, but a German L, for Lindstrom. During the war, the Transoceanic Trading Company was set up in the Netherlands to look after its overseas assets. In 1923, the British branch of Parlophone was established, led by Oscar Preuss as A&R manager. Parlophone established a master leasing arrangement with co-owned United States based Okeh Records, making Parlophone a leading jazz label in the UK. In 1927, Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom acquired a controlling interest in the Carl Lindstrom Company and thereby in Parlophone. In 1931, Columbia merged with the Gramophone Company to form EMI.

Under EMI, Parlophone initially maintained its status as a jazz label. As time went on, the label also released speciality music, spoken-word and novelty/comedy material, such as the comedy recordings of The Goons. In 1950, Preuss hired 24-year-old George Martin as his assistant. In 1955, Preuss retired and Martin succeeded him. Leading Parlophone artistes at the time included Germany's Obernkirchen Children's Choir, Scottish musician Jimmy Shand and the pianist Mrs Mills.

At the dawn of the rock era, Parlophone artists such as The Vipers, Jim Dale, Keith Kelly, the Temperance Seven and Shane Fenton would sporadically reach the top of the British charts, yet Parlophone's only consistent chart action until the Beat Boom would be experienced by a nascent teen idol, Adam Faith who was not a Martin discovery (Faith was assigned to the label via EMI's A&R man-without-portfolio, Norman Newell). Treading a path similar to other British labels of the era, Parlophone released all manner of domestic and foreign licensed product (i. e. James Brown) but had little success in comparison to EMI siblings HMV and Columbia and there was a distinct possibility Parlophone would eventually be shuttered, despite issuing many quality sides which failed to chart.

Parlophone's fortunes began to rise in 1962, when Martin signed a rising new Liverpool pop band, The Beatles, who, along with Brian Epstein managed stablemates Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer, and the Fourmost soon turned Parlophone into one of the world's most famous and sought-after record labels.

After Martin decided to become an independent producer in 1965, the Parlophone Company was absorbed into EMI's Gramophone Company unit with the label intact. Since The Beatles, many other pop/rock artists have signed to the label, including the Hollies, Queen, The Easybeats and The Church. Recently the label's line-up has included acts such as Siobhan Donaghy, Athlete, Supergrass, Radiohead, Babyshambles, Coldplay, Beverley Knight,Jamelia, Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys, Blur, All Saints, Gorillaz, The Divine Comedy and Lily Allen.