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Large centre |
Push out centre |
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to MSP 6040 - 1953 Most of these were repressed with push out centre |
to MSP 6255 - 1956 |
to R 4310 - 1957 |
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| Founded
in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as "Parlophon", Lindstrom
initially used the brand name for gramophones before making records. The
£trademark
is a German L, for Lindström (coincidentally it also resembles the
British pound sign, which itself is derived from the letter L for Libra,
meaning pound in Latin).
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 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). In 1950, Preuss hired 24-year-old George Martin as his assistant. When Preuss retired in 1955, Martin succeeded him as label manager. The label's fortunes began to rise in 1962, when Martin signed rising new 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 most famous and prestigious 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. |
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