Everything about The Columbia Graphophone Company totally explained
The
Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest
gramophone companies in the
United Kingdom.
Early history
In
1922,
Columbia Phonograph, as it was then known, sold its UK subsidiary
Columbia Graphophone. However, in
1925 Columbia Graphophone bought its former parent for $2.5 million. In
1926 Odeon Records and
Parlophone Records were acquired. On
April 21,
1931, the
Gramophone Company and the Columbia Graphophone Company merged and formed a new company
Electric and Musical Industries (
EMI). American anti-trust laws forced EMI to sell its American Columbia operations.
As an EMI label
EMI continued to operate the Columbia record label in the UK -- and everywhere but the U.S., Canada, and Japan -- until the early 1970s.
Under EMI, English Columbia's output was mainly licenced recordings from
American Columbia until 1951 when American Columbia switched British distribution to
Philips Records. English Columbia continued to distribute American Columbia sister labels
Okeh and
Epic through the 1960s when American Columbia's then parent
CBS moved distribution of all its labels to the then new CBS Records created from the purchase of
Oriole Records (UK) in late 1964. The loss of American Columbia product forced English Columbia to groom its own talent such as
Russ Conway,
Acker Bilk,
Cliff Richard,
The Shadows,
Helen Shapiro,
Frank Ifield,
Rolf Harris,
Freddie and the Dreamers,
The Dave Clark 5,
The Animals,
Herman's Hermits,
Gerry and the Pacemakers,
The Seekers,
Pink Floyd (who have been on both Columbias), and
The Yardbirds. Led by avuncular A&R man
Norrie Paramor, the label was arguably the most successful in Britain in the rock era prior to the Beat Boom.
Phaseout of label by EMI and trade mark transfer
EMI decided to reserve the
HMV label for classical repertoire and transferred HMV's remaining pop acts to Columbia by 1967. Later, EMI replaced the Columbia label with the eponymous
EMI Records in
1972. It sold its remaining interest in the Columbia name in 1990 to Sony Music Entertainment (now
Sony BMG Music Entertainment), who already owned Columbia Records in the U.S. and Canada. The formal reassignment of British registered trade marks, including the "magic notes" logo, from EMI took place in 1993. Today, Sony BMG prefers using the "walking eye" logo (previously used on the old CBS label) for the Columbia Records trade mark in the UK.
In Australia, EMI continued using the Columbia label throughout the 1970s. But they did add the EMI Records label in 1973.
Columbia outside the UK
The history of the Columbia
record label outside the UK is dealt with in more detail in
Columbia Records and
Columbia Music Entertainment.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Columbia Graphophone Company'.
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