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Mercury

2023-03-08T15:57:02+01:00März 8th, 2023|

Mercury is one of the oldest labels of the Universal Music Group. It was launched in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge of the Mercury Record Corporation of Chicago, Illinois.
In 1961 the Dutch company Philips Phonografische Industrie (PPI), having lost its distribution deal with Columbia Records outside North America, signed an exchange agreement with Mercury, and PPI subsequently bought the Mercury Record Corporation and its labels to expand its US base. This meant that the Mercury label was now marketed worldwide via PPI’s affiliated record companies (mostly Phonogram companies). In the US, Mercury was distributed by Phonodisc, Inc. from 1 June 1975.

In 1962 PPI formed a joint-venture with Deutsche Grammophon GmbH and ten years later they merged to form PolyGram. Mercury became one of Polygram’s flagship labels.

In December 1998, after Seagram acquired Polygram, Mercury became part of the Universal Music Group with the takeover effective from January 1999.

Since its reactivation from 2007 to 2013, the label operated via The Island Def Jam Music Group in the US and by Mercury Records Ltd. in the UK. Recently, the label has also been revived by Universal Music France.

In the UK, the label has been known as the Mercury Music Group from approximately 2007 to 2011.

Since the closure of the Island Def Jam Music Group in April 2014, the label division had been shuttered and phased out once again, this time merging operations with Island Records. The label itself remained in use worldwide.

In the US in 2022, Republic Records acquired and relaunched the label with some artists from Republic and and it will continue as their imprint.

Source: Discogs
 

Morad

2023-03-07T18:05:12+01:00März 7th, 2023|

It is unclear whether the singer Najeeba Morad or one of her family members started the Morad Record label. The label existed only in 1948.

Pressings and sides of Morad Records are limited, most included two black drawn birds, four star (two on either side of the spindle hole) and Nejeeba’s publicity photograph at the top center.

The following records are known:

Label:Artist:Tune:   Rec. Date: 
201 ANajeeba Morad–   1948 
201 BNajeeba Morad–   1948 
202 ANajeeba MoradLama Akawayet   1948 
202 BNajeeba MoradLama Akawayet   1948 
203 ANajeeba Moradالبدر لما زار – جلوة العروس / Al Bader Lama Zar   1948 
203 BNajeeba Moradالبدر لما زار – جلوة العروس / Al Bader Lama Zar   1948 
204 ANajeeba Moradعینک یا قلب عتابا / Nassahtak   1948 
204 BNajeeba Moradیا وررز / Ya Wared Nassem   1948 
205 ANajeeba MoradYam Elabayah   1948 
205 BNajeeba MoradYam Elabayah   1948 
206 ANajeeba MoradJawal Ya Gannam   1948 
206 BNajeeba MoradJawal Ya Gannam   1948 

HELVETIA

2023-03-07T16:21:39+01:00März 7th, 2023|

In 1920 Ferdinand Ingold, a poor but visionary Swiss settler in the small Wisconsin town of Monroe, audaciously launched a record label, HELVETIA — invoking his homeland’s ancient name and celebrating its musical heritage.

Praised in the immigrant press yet beset by fiscal challenges, Helvetia issued a scant 36 sides.

Rollicking and somber, sentimental and lusty, these Swiss, German, and Tyrolean tunes and songs feature virtuoso instrumental combos, vocal quartets, and especially yodelers from Swiss communities in New Jersey, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Illuminating one of the first American record labels established by an immigrant for his own community, Alpine Dreaming both recalls a bygone era and resonates with all who seek better New World lives while remembering their homelands.

Source: Archephone

Click

2022-12-30T14:14:53+01:00Dezember 30th, 2022|

“America’s Top Recording” Click was a record label from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was active in the late 1940s. The records were recorded from Allied Recordings.

KALIPHON

2022-11-21T14:10:42+01:00November 21st, 2022|

 
The independent label KALIPHON was founded by Ajdin Asllan in New York City in the 1940s.
 
Ajdin Asllan was an Albanian-American multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, oud, llaute/lauto) and independent label owner (born March 12, 1895 in Leskovik, Albania – died October 1976 in New York, NY).
 
Asllan made his living as a musician in the Turkish, Greek, Armenian, and Albanian nightclub scene on 8th Avenue in New York City. Around 1937, he released his first recordings on the short-lived Mi-Re Rekord label, which released four or five records with Albanian music.
 
Around 1942, Asllan opened the Balkan Phonograph Record Store at 42 Rivington Street in the Lower East Side in New York; the store later moved to 27th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues.
 
In the 1940s, he also founded a number of labels that released Albanian, Greek, Turkish, and Sephardic music, most notably Balkan Phonograph Records and its successor Balkan, Kaliphon Phonograph Records and Kaliphone Phonograph Records, Me Re Record Co. and its successor Metropolitan Phonograph Record Co..

 
Source: excavatedshellac.com, monitori.xyz

VERNE

2022-11-21T13:43:04+01:00November 21st, 2022|

VERNE was a US Latin music label founded in New York in late 1940’s by Luis Cuevas assisted by Ernie Ballesta (Verne Verne Recording Corp.).

It also recorded in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

Source: 45worlds.com

BUSY-BEE

2022-11-03T17:01:09+01:00November 3rd, 2022|

BUSY BEE was an American record label active from 1906-1909. It was founded in 1904 by Sherwin Bisbee.
Records were produced by several manufacturers for the O’Neill-James Company of Chicago.

O’Neill-James introduced Busy Bee disc phonographs in 1906. These had a rigid rectangular lug affixed to the turntable and so required use of a disc with a corresponding cut-out through the label area.

Busy Bee records were produced by several companies, including the American Record Company, Leeds & Catlin, Hawthorne & Sheble, Universal Talking Machine Manufacturing Company and American Graphophone Company/Columbia Phonograph Co.

The term ‘Amberized’ (an early form of plastic) describes the type of material used for the manufacture of these recordings.

O’Neill-James dropped the Busy Bee label in 1909, following reciprocal lawsuits between Columbia Phonograph Co. and Victor Talking Machine Co. over patent infringement and distribution disputes.

Source: Discogs
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