[78-L] Phil Harris on OKeh and Harmony

[Geoffrey Wheeler]

DL says: The Harmony label was a short-lived budget label c. 1948-49, 
pressed by
Columbia but actually marketed by Eli Oberstein.


Harmony Records. In 1949, Oberstein made a marketing arrangement with 
Columbia Records: Columbia would press records from it is backcatalog 
and he would market them through his Wright Record Co. under the old 
Harmony imprint. Although Columbia Phonograph had discontinued Harmony 
as a secondary budget label in 1932 during the depths of the 
Depression, it still retained rights to the trademark and CBS assumed 
them when it took over Columbia Phonograph in December 1938. The new 
Harmony series ran from Ha 1001 to Ha 1087. Among the releases were 
recordings issued from the early 1930s on Brunswick and Vocalion from 
the Brunswick Record Corp., Bessie Smith from Columbia Phonograph; and 
releases from the CBS Columbia and OKeh labels from 1940-1942. Artists 
included Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Guy Lombardo, The Mills Brothers, Russ 
Morgan, Phil Harris, Horace Heidt, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Claude 
Thornhill, Charlie Spivak, Billie Holiday, Sons of the Pioneers, Sammy 
Kaye, and Leo Reisman. Beginning with Ha 1049, the imprint began to 
sprinkle in current recordings from the Columbia 40000 range by Julie 
Wilson, Pearl Bailey, Phil Brito, Eddie Duchin, The Three Flames, Bob 
Crosby, Hot Lips Page, and Rosemary Clooney. The joint venture lasted 
only a year or two. In the mid-1950s, CBS revived Harmony as a budget 
LP imprint with no liner notes.