Parlophone

Early years

Parlophone was founded as "Parlophon" by Carl Lindström Company in 1896.^[1][2] The name Parlophon was used for gramophones before the company began making records of their own. The label's ₤ trademark is a German L that stands for its founder, Carl Lindström. (It coincidentally resembles the British pound sign £, which itself is derived from the letter L for the Ancient Roman unit of measurement libra, which means pound in Latin.) On 8 August 1923, the British branch of "Parlophone" (with the "e" added) was established, led by artists and repertoire manager Oscar Preuss.^[3] In its early years, Parlophone established itself as a leading jazz label in Britain.^[4]

EMI years and initial success

In 1927, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired a controlling interest in the Carl Lindström Company, including Parlophone.^[5] Parlophone later became a subsidiary of Electric & Musical Industries Ltd (EMI), after Columbia Graphophone merged with the Gramophone Company in 1931.^[6]

In 1950, Oscar Preuss hired producer and composer George Martin as his assistant. When Preuss retired in 1955, Martin succeeded him as Parlophone's manager. At the time, Parlophone specialized in mainly classical music, cast recordings, and regional British music. ^[7] Early artists signed to the album include, Humphrey Lyttelton, the Vipers Skiffle Group,^[8] Mrs Mills, and Jim Dale. One of the label's first consistently successful acts was teen idol Adam Faith, who was signed to the label in 1959.^[9]

The label gained significant popularity in 1962, when Martin signed the Liverpool band the Beatles.^[6] Parlophone gained more attention after signing artists like the Hollies, Ella Fitzgerald, and Gerry and the Pacemakers in the mid to late 1960s.^[10] Martin later left to form Associated Independent Recording (AIR) Studios in 1965.^[11]

Parlophone became dormant in 1973 when most of EMI's heritage labels were phased out in favor of the new EMI Records.^[12] Parlophone was revived in 1980.^[13] During the next decades the label signed Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, Roxette, Radiohead, Supergrass, Guy Berryman, the Chemical Brothers, Blur, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, Damon Albarn, Conor Maynard, Gabrielle Aplin, and Gorillaz.^[14]

On 23 April 2008, Miles Leonard was confirmed as the label's president.^[15]

EMI merging with UMG and WMG acquisition

On 28 September 2012, regulators officially approved Universal Music Group's planned acquisition of Parlophone's parent group 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 Universal's newly formed Calderstone Productions), Chrysalis Records, Ensign Records, Virgin Classics, EMI Classics and EMI's operations in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland.^[16] These labels and catalogues were operated independently separately from Universal as Parlophone Label Group in preparation for a possible transaction early in 2013. UMG received several offers for PLG, including those from Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, Simon Fuller, a Sony/BMG consortium, Warner Music Group, and MacAndrews & Forbes.^[17][18][19]

On 7 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. Warner Music closed the deal on July 1. 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 Ltd. was legally renamed Parlophone Records Ltd.

Soon after acquiring Parlophone, WMG signed an agreement with IMPALA and the Merlin Network (two groups which opposed the EMI/Universal deal) to divest $200 million worth of artists to independent labels in order to help offset the consolidation triggered by the merger.^[20][21] As of March 2015, over 140 independent labels had placed bids on the rights to the recordings of over 11,000 Warner Music artists, valuing $6 billion.^[22] In April 2016, the back catalogue of British rock band Radiohead, who had sued Parlophone and EMI over a dispute in music royalties, was transferred to XL Recordings, the label that released their last two albums, In Rainbows and The King of Limbs.^[23] All labels had to complete their acquisitions from Warner Music by September 30, 2017. As of December 2016, WMG had sold $45 million worth of assets.^[24]

WMG treats Parlophone as its third "frontline" label group, alongside Atlantic Records and Warner Bros. Records.^[25] 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.^[26]

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  "Parlophon" ad from 1927, Berlin
• 
  Parlophone trademark during the Beatles era

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.

Parlophone PNY series

In America in 1929 there was a short-lived Parlophone label made and distributed by OKeh.^[27] 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

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 record label, distributed by EMI and bearing Parlophone catalogue numbers.

The Beatles deal is said to be one of the cheapest made by Parlophone Records.^[28] 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.^[29]

Despite the separation of Parlophone from EMI as a condition of EMI's acquisition by UMG, Universal was allowed to keep the Beatles' recorded music catalogue, which was assigned to a new subsidiary called Calderstone Productions.^[30]

The 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)