[78-L] London [was Near You by Francis Craig]

[Han Enderman]

London AMERICAN RECORDINGS were black & silver UK issues, but some were 
also issued in other countries, like Holland, Italy, India. In a single numerical 8000 series, 
the prefix is often an indication of the orig. label, but the orig. is also mentioned on the label.
A late issue is HLA-8934 by Everly Brothers 1959.
HLE prefix used for Atlantic/ATCO recs: 8819 Charlie Brown 1958.

What confuses me is the statement that London was originally an American label.
The London 101-1495 series (i.e., known from numerous label images), starts with
"Made in England", and the first "Made in U.S.A." known to me is 412 (Shearing).
The  highest nrs known are USA/Canadian, however:
London(C) 1755 Will Glahe: Liechtensteiner Polka.
London(USA) 1713 Bob Cort Skiffle Group.

Also, the occurrence of Argentine, Australian, New Zealand, Brazil, German, Irish, South-African
and Uruguayan issues suggests UK Decca/London as main company.
Since Decca was also an UK export label, there will be a difference in the scope of both labels,
but I do not know an exact difference.
A well known London LP series was the 10" Origins Of Jazz series (from Riverside).

Han Enderman
===
>>> They'd say London, then underneath, 'AMERICAN RECORDINGS'.  They'd be
recordings of US origin from a number of labels such as Atlantic.

On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 6:52 AM, Steven C. Barr <stevenc at interlinks.net>wrote:

> From: "Cary Ginell" <soundthink at live.com>
> > Check out the catalog of English London records some time. You will see
> > links to all kinds of U.S. labels: Sun, Mercury, Liberty...they set up
> > distribution deals with lots of U.S. companies. Apparently Bullet did the
> > same thing. Martin Hawkins' book "A Shot in the Dark: Making Records in
> > Nashville, 1945-1955" goes into great detail about the success of "Near
> > You" and Jim Bulleit's (pronounced Buh-LAY) stewardship of the Bullet
> > label as well as other, lesser-known Nashville labels, both country and
> > R&B, although I couldn't find anything about English Brunswick in the
> > book.
> >
> Actually, London, although it used British Decca masters, wasn't a British
> label...it was a US label (apparently with a Canadian branch). Did Decca(UK)
> market any London records as such in the UK? The Canadian operation
> pressed a number of "indie" labels for sale in Canada; most of these labels
> didn't export product to Canada...so that if their records became "hits" in
> the US, and were played on AM radio, they were heard up here. Apex had
> a series which issued such US hits; as well the Regency label did likewise.
> Only a handful of US "indie" labels had Canadian operations; a  number
> of these were issued on Canadian London.
>
> Steven C. Barr
-------
> > They'd say London, then underneath, 'AMERICAN RECORDINGS'. They'd be
> > recordings of US origin from a number of labels such as Atlantic.
> > 
> Which seems rather odd, since Atlantic was one of the last US labels
> to press and issue 78's (into cat# 1000 or thereafter!) The Canadian
> London issues were in (IIRC) a M- cat# series...which like the Apex
> series issued material from US "indie" labels which didn't create
> Canadian "branch plant" operations. I have London(C) catalogs
> which list these; however, exactly WHERE they currently are is
> indeed open to question...?!
M- series up to a point, but as with Apex and Quality, once the indie label had enough presence in the stores it would be issued with its own label by the Canadian distributor. "London Liberty" was one of the rare exceptions. This carried on into the sixties..Herb Alpert's first half dozen albums all appeared on "Quality" in Canada.
dl
<<<