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Parlophone
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Parlophone is a record label, founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company. The £ trademark is a German L, for Lindström. It also resembles the British pound sign (£), which itself is derived from the letter L for Libra, meaning pound in Latin. In 1931 Columbia merged with the Gramophone Company to form Electric & Musical Industries Ltd EMI. Parlophone is best known for their association with The Beatles.
strom initially used the "Parlophon" brand on gramophones before it started making records.
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Encyclopedia
Parlophone is a record label, founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company. The £ trademark is a German L, for Lindström. It also resembles the British pound sign (£), which itself is derived from the letter L for Libra, meaning pound in Latin. In 1931 Columbia merged with the Gramophone Company to form Electric & Musical Industries Ltd EMI. Parlophone is best known for their association with The Beatles.
Early history
Lindstrom initially used the "Parlophon" brand on gramophones before it started making records. During the First World War, the Transoceanic Trading Company was set up in the Netherlands to look after its overseas assets. On August 8, 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. In 1927 the UK company Columbia Graphophone Company acquired a controlling interest in the Carl Lindström Company and thereby in Parlophone.
Okeh Records
In the U.S. in 1929 there was a short lived Parlophone label made and distributed by OKeh . OKeh also pressed other Parlophone recordings as the PNY-34000 series along with the Odeon ONY-36000 series, were both discontinued in 1930. No one has been able to determine where these two labels were intended to be sold, since many surviving copies are in new condition. Speculation amongst record collectors is that that these records were found uncirculated in a warehouse. (Actually, starting early in 1929, selected OKeh records were issued on Parlophone (sometimes spelt "Parlophon" and "Odeon" using the regular OKeh catalog number, but using the PNY and ONY prefixes. These preceded the 34000 and 36000 series.)
As a subsidiary label
Under EMI the Parlophone company initially maintained its status as a jazz label. As time went on the label also released speciality recordings of voice and comedy recordings, 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.
Beat Boom and The Beatles
At the dawn of the rock era, Parlophone artists such as Humphrey Lyttelton, the Vipers Skiffle Group, Jim Dale, Keith Kelly, the Temperance Seven, Laurie London and Shane Fenton would sporadically reach the British Top 20 chart. their only consistent chart action until the "Beat Boom" would be that of teen idol Adam Faith. Faith was assigned to the label by Norman Newell. 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 George Martin signed a rising new Liverpool band The Beatles. Along with Brian Epstein who managed Beatles stablemates Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer and the Fourmost, they soon turned Parlophone into one of the world's most famous and prestigious record labels.
Absorbed onto EMI
After Martin become an independent producer 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 #1 during 1964, when it also claimed top spot in the album charts for 40 of the 52 weeks during that year.
Parlophone today
Now known as Parlophone is still an important label. Its contemporary HMV became solely a classical music label and Columbia was later absorbed by the EMI label.
Artists signed to Parlophone
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.
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