Embassy Records
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Embassy Records of the UK was a contractual arrangement between Oriole Records and Woolworths and were sold exclusively through their stores from 1954 to 1965. The label's repertoire consisted of double A-side single releases which were copies of current or imminent UK Top Twenty Hits. It was not unusual for different artistes to appear on either side of the record and contrasting pop styles of the day. These releases sold at a fraction of the cost of a major label release of the era. They were recorded and manufactured by Oriole Records (UK) who also licensed the material to many foreign outlets. Recording was usually done on a Thursday and the discs rushed out into the stores by the following Monday to compete with the real thing. They also produced EPs of trad jazz and musicals. The label disappeared after the parent label Oriole was taken over by CBS (US Columbia) by which time the concept had been imitated by various other labels such as Cannon, Crossbow, Top Six and Top Pops. CBS subsidiary Hallmark/ Pickwick launched the Top Of The Pops series of albums a few years after the demise of Embassy but unlike Embassy releases no artistes were ever identified on the records. It's now quite well known that Elton John recorded for the Top of The Pops series. It was the UK equivalent of US labels such as Hit and Bell Records.
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[edit] The Artists
Between November 1954 and July 1965 Embassy released around 1200 songs recorded by about 150 different artists.
The tight Embassy recording schedule required 4 different songs to be recorded in one 3-hour session. And this had to include studio set up time and sound balance before any actual songs were recorded and also a mandatory musicians coffee break - during which time they would often leave the studio to move their cars to different parking meters!
This meant that on average there was a little over 30 minutes allowed for recording an individual song. Which in turn meant that the artists who did the actual singing had to be first rate professional singers who could enter a studio and record a song in a very few takes, with minimum fuss, minimum delay, and minimum mistakes.
Not surprisingly, these artists tended to be very experienced big band and session singers who regularly broadcast live on BBC radio. Sometimes they used their normal professional name when recording for Embassy but very often they used psuedonyms.
The artist whose name appears on most recordings was Paul Rich, a singer with the Lou Praeger Orchestra who became a very successful music publisher. He recorded for Embassy for the longest period: between 1957 and 1965.
But the artist who actually recorded the most songs for Embassy singles was Ray Pilgrim , a singer and broadcaster with the Oscar Rabin Orchestra who made over 200 radio broadcasts for the BBC. Between 1960 and 1965 he recorded almost 150 songs for the Embassy label using the name Bobby Stevens, Ray Pilgrim, The Typhoons, The Jaybirds, and The Starlings.
Rikki Henderson, a singer with the Denny Boyce Orchestra, was also in the top 3 artists in terms of numbers of songs recorded for the label. He recorded between 1957 and 1964.
Mike Redway, had also been a singer with the Oscar Rabin Orchestra. He also used the psuedonym Redd Wayne when recording for Embassy as well as being on many of the Typhoons, Jaybirds and Starlings recordings for the label between 1962 and 1965.
Ken Barrie, who later became the voice of Postman Pat, recorded under the name of Les Carle and was also on many of the group recordings.
The girl singers who made the most recordings for the label were Jean Campbell, Joan Baxter, Maureen Evans and Barbara Kay. Jean, Joan and Maureen recorded for Embassy under their own name. Barbara Kay, who was yet another singer who had been with the Oscar Rabin Orchestra, was usually credited as Kay Barry. Maureen went on to have a hit for Oriole with "Like I Do", and Barbara was one of the Carefrees on "We Love You, Beatles"
Instrumentals would be recorded by whatever session musicians were booked for that day, so the names used for the label such as Bud Ashton, The Beatmen, The Happy Knights, etc did not imply any particular participants.
Similarly, the group names such as The Typhoons, The Jaybirds, and the Starlings did not imply any consistent membership and were generally made up from the artists booked on the session for that day. They were most usually a combination of Ray Pilgrim, Mike Redway, Ken Barrie, Terry Brandon, Joan Baxter and Barbara Kay.
But no list of the main artists would be complete without mentioning the Mike Sammes Singers. Although they were rarely credited on the label, Mike and his team provided the backing on literally hundreds of the Embassy releases. Without them it would have been a far less successful label.
