Parlophone

Parlophone Records
Parent company
Founded 1896 (1896)
Founder Carl Lindström
Distributor(s) Self-distributed (United Kingdom)
Warner Bros. Records (United States)
WEA International Inc. (International)
Genre Various
Country of origin Germany, United Kingdom
Location United Kingdom
Official website parlophone.co.uk

Parlophone Records Ltd. is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon.[1] The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone Records", which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. In 1926, Columbia Graphophone Company acquired the Parlophone business, label name and its titles. Columbia Graphophone merged with the Gramophone Company in 1931 to become Electric and Musical Industries (EMI).

On 21 September 2012, regulators officially approved Universal Music Group's planned acquisition of EMI, on condition that Parlophone was divested from the combined group. Parlophone and the other labels to be divested were operated in an entity known as Parlophone Label Group, pending their sale. Warner Music Group (WMG) acquired the group in May 2013, making it their third main-line label group alongside Warner Bros. Records and Atlantic Records (although the distribution company is still called WEA, in reference to Elektra Records, which was absorbed by Atlantic in 2004). Parlophone is now the oldest of WMG's three groups.

George Martin joined EMI in 1950 as assistant label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of product including comedy recordings of the Goons, the pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith. In 1962 Martin signed rising new Liverpool band the Beatles. With Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer, the Fourmost and contemporary Mancunian band the Hollies also signed to the label, Parlophone in the 1960s became one of the world's most famous and prestigious record labels.

For a long time Parlophone claimed the best-selling UK single, "She Loves You", and the best-selling UK album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The label also achieved placement of seven singles at number 1 during 1964, when it also claimed top spot in the album charts for 40 of the 52 weeks during that year.

History

Founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company, the brand name Parlophon was initially used for gramophones before the company began making records. The ₤ trademark is a German L, for Lindström (coincidentally it resembles the British pound sign, £, which itself is derived from the letter L for Libra, meaning pound in Latin). During World War I, the Transoceanic Trading Company was set up in the Netherlands to look after its overseas assets. On 8 August 1923, the British branch of "Parlophone" (with the "e" added) was established, led by A&R manager Oscar Preuss. Parlophone established a master leasing arrangement with co-owned United States based Okeh Records, making Parlophone a leading jazz label in the UK. The CLPGS publishes a list of Parlophone titles issued between 1923 and 1956.

In 1927 the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired a controlling interest in the Carl Lindström Company and thereby in Parlophone. In 1931 Columbia merged with the Gramophone Company to form Electric & Musical Industries Ltd (EMI). Under EMI, the Parlophone company initially maintained its status as a jazz label. In about 1929 or 1930, the "Rhythm Style Series" started: jazz records culled from the Okeh label. Besides the Okeh recordings, Parlophone also issued recordings from US Columbia and Brunswick as well as a few sessions produced at US Decca. As time went on the label also released speciality recordings of spoken-word and comedy recordings, such as the comedy recordings of the Goons and Flanders and Swann.

In 1950, Preuss hired 24-year-old George Martin as his assistant. When Preuss retired in 1955 Martin succeeded him as label manager.

Leading Parlophone artists in the 1950s included Germany's Obernkirchen Children's Choir and Scottish musician Jimmy Shand. At the dawn of the rock era, Parlophone artists such as Humphrey Lyttelton, the Vipers Skiffle Group, the pianist Mrs Mills, Jim Dale, Keith Kelly, Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins, the Temperance Seven, Laurie London and Shane Fenton would sporadically reach the British Top 20 chart. Their only consistently successful act until the "Beat Boom" was that of teen idol Adam Faith: Faith was assigned to the label in 1959 by Norman Newell, an EMI A&R man "without portfolio". Treading a path similar to other British labels of the era, Parlophone released all manner of domestic and foreign licensed product, including James Brown, but had little success in comparison to EMI siblings HMV and Columbia.

The label's fortunes began to rise in 1962, when Martin signed Liverpool band the Beatles. Along with fellow NEMS stablemates Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer and the Fourmost, and contemporary Mancunian band the Hollies, the Beatles turned Parlophone into one of the world's best known record labels.

After Martin left to form the Associated Independent Recording (AIR) Studios in 1965, the Parlophone Company was absorbed into EMI's Gramophone Company unit (renamed EMI Records in 1973) with the Parlophone label maintaining its identity. For a long time Parlophone claimed the best-selling UK single, "She Loves You", and the best-selling UK album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The label also achieved placement of seven singles at number 1 during 1964, when it also claimed top spot in the album charts for 40 of the 52 weeks during that year.

The label became dormant in 1973 when most of EMI's heritage labels were phased out in favour of the new EMI label.[2] The Parlophone label was revived in 1980.[3]

On 23 April 2008 Miles Leonard was confirmed as label president.[4]

On 21 September 2012, regulators officially approved Universal Music Group's planned acquisition of Parlophone's parent company EMI for £1.2 billion, subject to conditions imposed by the European Commission requiring that UMG sell off a number of labels, including Parlophone itself (aside from the Beatles' catalogue, which was kept by UMG and moved to the newly formed Capitol Records UK) and a number of others.[5] Parlophone, along with other labels and music catalogs that were to be sold, were operated independently from the rest of UMG as Parlophone Label Group in preparation for a possible transaction early in 2013. UMG received several offers for PLG, including those from a Sony/BMG consortium, Warner Music Group, and MacAndrews & Forbes.[6][7][8]

In February 2013, it was confirmed that Warner Music Group would acquire Parlophone Label Group for US$765 million. The deal was approved in May 2013 by the European Union, who saw no concerns around the deal because of WMG's relatively smaller reach in comparison to the merged UMG and Sony. Parlophone Label Group was actually the old EMI Records Ltd company that included both the Parlophone and the eponymous EMI labels. The EMI name was retained by Universal (as Virgin EMI Records) whilst the old EMI Records company was legally renamed Parlophone Records. WMG also announced in a joint presentation with IMPALA (a group who had opposed the EMI/Universal deal) and the Merlin Network that it intends to sell a "significant portion" of the assets acquired from Parlophone Label Group to smaller, independent companies in order to help offset the consolidation triggered by the merger.[9][10]

WMG treats Parlophone as its third "frontline" label group, alongside Atlantic Records and Warner Bros. Records.[11] In the US, most of Parlophone's artists are now distributed under Warner Bros. Records. Coldplay and Tinie Tempah are distributed under Atlantic Records, and David Guetta is distributed under Atlantic's electronic music imprint Big Beat.[12]

Notable releases

Rhythm-style series

In addition to the occasional release of US material from OKeh and Columbia, in about 1929, Parlophone started a series of American jazz records on their "Rhythm Style Series". Edgar Jackson was the director of this series, which was issued within the existing R- series (the first issue was R-448). Culled from the American OKeh, artists like Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer, Joe Venuti, Duke Ellington, Miff Mole and other major artists who recorded for OKeh. These records were usually "split-coupled" (the top and bottom side of each record was usually by different artists and did not correspond with the original American coupling). The "Second New Rhythm-Style" series replaced the first series in about 1931, and there was a separate series for each year from 1934 through 1941, as well as some miscellany series. These 78s were popular and remained in print for years. A select number of American Columbia and Brunswick recordings also populated these series with artists like Fletcher Henderson, Chocolate Dandies, Jack Teagarden, Eddie Condon and others.

Even though these records were never licensed for sale in the US, they were heavily imported through jazz shops like Commodore and Liberty in the late 1930s and were sold through the 1940s and into the early 1950s. They are treasured by collectors because they are pressed from the original stampers and usually sound much better than the worn and usually rare US OKeh original records.

The Parlophone PNY series

In America in 1929 there was a short-lived Parlophone label made and distributed by OKeh.[13] Initially, certain OKeh records were issued using the Parlophone label and using the OKeh catalog number. An example – Miff Mole's "Birmingham Bertha" b/w "Moanin' Low" – has been found on Parlophone PNY-41273 and Odeon ONY-41273 (issued as by "Eddie Gordon's Band") as well as the standard OKeh 41273 (issued as by "Miff Mole and his Molers"). OKeh then started the PNY-34000 series (along with the Odeon ONY-36000 series) lasting until late 1930 or early 1931. No one has been able to determine for whom these two labels were intended, since many surviving copies are in new condition. A number of noted record collectors and researchers (George Blacker, Carl Kenziora, Len Kunstadt, among other members of the New York Record Research Associates) had long speculated that since these records were found in a west coast warehouse uncirculated, they were possibly intended for offshore sales in US possessions (Guam, Marianas, etc.) or possibly at military offshore bases, but this has never been proven. One of the reasons for this speculation is because OKeh specifically recorded quite a number of sides without vocals and issued them only on Parlophone and Odeon (in addition to the standard vocal versions). These non-vocal version are especially prized by collectors. Regardless, this series (along with OKeh's Odeon ONY- series) appears to not have been available for sale in the United States.

The Beatles

Main article: The Beatles

Parlophone released the Beatles' albums up to Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Subsequent releases – The Beatles (the White Album), Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be – were issued on the Beatles' own Apple label, distributed by EMI and bearing Parlophone catalogue numbers.

The Beatles deal is said to be one of the cheapest made by Parlophone Records.[14] Companies used and abused the Beatles' name, producing everything from T-shirts to hairspray. Their early songs were used in many commercials without permission from the Beatles. The Beatles were only allowed to own 49% of the company shares, therefore only owning 49% of their songs, which was not enough to buy back the songs from the company.[15]

Despite the separation of Parlophone from EMI as a condition of EMI's acquisition by UMG, UMG was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, which UMG assigned to a new Capitol Records UK entity.[16][17]

Beatles albums released by Parlophone
  1. Please Please Me (1963)
  2. With The Beatles (1963)
  3. A Hard Day's Night (1964)
  4. Beatles for Sale (1964)
  5. Help! (1965)
  6. Rubber Soul (1965)
  7. Revolver (1966)
  8. A Collection of Beatles Oldies (1966)
  9. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Current artists

Parlophone is still an important pop label with artists such as Gabrielle Aplin, Conor Maynard, Coldplay, David Guetta, Gorillaz and Kraftwerk, among others. It has recently signed indie rock band Two Door Cinema Club and electrofunk duo Chromeo, along with up-and-coming American, indie dream pop band, Saint Motel, who recently topped European charts with their "My Type" EP.[18] It is also EMI's oldest active label: its contemporary HMV was always more of a classical music label and ceased issuing popular music recordings in 1967; later known as EMI Classics, it was absorbed into Warner Classics in 2013; English Columbia has been replaced by the EMI pop label. Parlophone also operates the imprint Regal Recordings, a contemporary revival of the historic Columbia Graphophone budget/reissue label founded in 1914.

Parlophone is Warner Music Group's oldest record label.

Parlophone's 45 rpm releases continue, as of 2013, to be numbered using the same "R xxxx" catalogue number series that it has used continuously since 1956 (starting around R 4200 and currently up to the R 6800 range). The R series is actually carried over from the 78 rpm era, the earliest numbers dating back to at least 1930.

Notable artists signed to Parlophone

Because Parlophone Records Ltd. has absorbed the catalogues of EMI Records, Columbia Graphophone Company, His Master's Voice and other sublabels the former EMI Records company owned with new reissues bearing the Parlophone label, only artists whose recordings were originally issued on the Parlophone label are listed here.

Parlophone record labels

The labels shown here include those used for 78s and LPs. The label design for 7" singles had the same standard template as several other EMI labels, with the large "45" insignia to the right. In recent years, design uniformity has relaxed from release to release.

References

  1. ↑ "About". Parlophone.co.uk. 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
  2. ↑ Billboard - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1973-02-03. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  3. ↑ Billboard - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1980-09-13. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  4. ↑ "EMI rings changes". Music Week. 23 April 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  5. ↑ Ingham, Tim (26 November 2012). "Universal's Capitol takes shape: Barnett in, Beatles on roster". Music Week. Intent Media. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  6. ↑ Sweney, Mark (21 September 2012). "Universal's £1.2bn EMI takeover approved – with conditions". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  7. ↑ Pakinkis, Tom. "Nine groups in Parlophone race, 12 eyeing other UMG/EMI assets". Music Week. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  8. ↑ Negishi, Mayumi (7 January 2013). "Sony, BMG in joint bid for Parlophone, EMI labels - FT". Reuters. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  9. ↑ Sisario, Ben (15 May 2013). "Warner Music Gains Approval to Buy Parlophone, a Last Piece of EMI". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  10. ↑ Sisario, Ben (19 February 2013). "Warner Music Makes a Deal With Small Labels". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  11. ↑ "Warner Music Group Outlines Parlophone Integration Process, Expects $70 Million in Annual Cost Savings". Billboard.biz. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  12. ↑ "Coldplay, David Guetta Go To Atlantic Records; Radiohead & Pink Floyd Catalogs, Kylie Minogue, Damon Albarn To Warner Bros: WMG’s US Plans for Parlophone (Exclusive)". Billboard.biz. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  13. ↑ The OKeh label using the prefix "PNY"
  14. ↑ "The Beatles Biography". Retrieved 2012-09-29.
  15. ↑ Roberts, Jeremy (2010-12-31). "The Beatles, Music Revolutionaries". USA Today. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
  16. ↑ "Universal plans to launch Capitol UK | CMU: Complete Music Update". Thecmuwebsite.com. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  17. ↑ Ingham, Tim. "Universal's Capitol takes shape: Barnett in, Beatles on roster". Music Week. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  18. ↑ "Saint Motel". Retrieved 2015-06-18.

External links

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