[78-L] London

Sat Jul 24 08:26:48 PDT 2010

This is information culled from "The London American Legend" by David M. McKee, published by Athena Press. 

London came from the old British Decca label after they severed ties with American Decca's distribution network. American London was born in 1947 to be specifically used to market British Decca recordings in the U.S. Canadian London began operations a few months later. Pressings were imported directly from the UK (using their patented ffrr process - full frequency range recording).

London was one of the first US companies to issue 33 1/3 records (also pressed in Britain) in 1948. By 1950, all single-play issues appeared on 7-inch 45s.

The first few hundred London releases all originated from British Decca. At issue #500, the first U.S. recording appeared ("Jealous Heart" by Al Morgan). This disc was originally on Universal 148 but London had better distribution. 501 was "Johnson Rag" by the Jack Teter Trio, acquired from Sharp Records in Chicago. Despite signing such successful artists as Teresa Brewer, London could not compete with other U.S. labels and in the early 1950s, they gradually reduced its US roster of artists. Eventually, London reverted back to its previous status as a distributor for British recoridngs. 

After the success of the Morgan and Teter recordings, British Decca decided to release them in Britain, which resulted in the birth of British London. The first British release was the Teter disc, issued on L501. One month later, the Morgan release came out on L500. Release dates were chronologically erratic. The UK series corresponded the same catalog numbers as their US counterparts, however, some in the 16000 C&W series were given specially allocated numbers for issue in Britain. None of the R&B 17000 series were issued in Britain. The first UK release not to have appeared on US London was L1003 "That Old Black Magic" by Billy Daniels, licensed from Apollo and issued in March 1951. As the US roster was slowly depleted, British London increased its licensing from US independent labels. The most prominent hit during this period was "Indian Love Call" by Slim Whitman, licensed from Imperial in November 1952. The series continued until the HL8000 series began in 1954. 

The HL8000 series marked the beginning of British Decca exclusively licensing material from US labels (the HL stood for "Home London"). Eventually, London became the leading source of contemporary US pop recordings in Britain. Thanks to rock 'n' roll, London licensed recordings from labels like Sun, Imperial, Cadence, Chess, Specialty, Atlantic/Atco, Dot, Liberty, and many others. The exception to the Sun license was Elvis Presley. An application had been made to release Presley's 2nd release (Good Rockin' Tonight/I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine) but London decided against the release. A year later, when "Mystery Train"/"I Forgot to Remember to Forget" was released on Sun, London decided to issue it as a 45, but by the time the contract was received, Elvis had already moved to RCA. (London did press and distribute Elvis' RCA releases in England). 

Cary Ginell

> From: dlennick at sympatico.ca
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:36:22 -0400
> Subject: Re: [78-L] London [was Near You by Francis Craig]
> 
> 
> It gets more confusing when London begins to do American recording (Teresa Brewer, Jack Teter) and picks up distressed labels (Gene Austin, The Harmonicats from Universal) and issues them with US numbers but MOST of them are pressed in England, although I don't think I've ever seen the Jack Teter on anything but a US pressing. In Canada, Max Zimmerman found himself with a lot of orders for The Wedding Samba by Edmundo Ros and began having it pressed locally by Sparton. The Canadian operation began to do quite a lot of its own recording (Jim Magill, Aznavour & Roche, Ozzie Williams' Orchestra) circa 1950 and these were all pressed here.
> 
> 
> 
> dl
> 
> 
> 
> > Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:15:43 +0000
> > To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> > From: agp2176 at verizon.net
> > Subject: Re: [78-L] London [was Near You by Francis Craig]
> > 
> > Here's a bit of my observations about London and the Deccas.
> > 
> > A note about something that confounds me. Its those pesky US London 
> > 78s from the 50s all say Made in England. So, what to put in the 
> > country column in my database - US or UK. I put US, but my question 
> > is, where these actually pressed in England and shipped to the USA, 
> > classifying London of that time as a UK export label?
> > 
> > BTW -- as an addition to the comments by Han, there is currently a 
> > London B.12000 series black label 78 on eBay, that may be a US market 
> > disk made in England
> > 
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/78rpm-12-LONDON-Escapada-When-Day-Done-AMBROSE-/190422502699
> > 
> > and a P.18000 series (That I doubt is German in origin)
> > 
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/London-German-18008-Geschwister-Winkler-Quartet-Heimat-/22064104570
> > 
> > and an R.10000 series
> > 
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/London-Red-Label-PHIL-GREEN-Slaughter-Tenth-Avenue-/220626345817
> > 
> > London in South America (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay at least) seemed 
> > to exist as an outlet for UK Decca releases as well as an outlet for 
> > small US indies that did not have a presence in those countries. 
> > Examples of the US indies are Runaway by Del Shannon from Big Top, 
> > The Girl Can't Help It by Little Richard from Specialty, So Long by 
> > Fat Domino from Imperial. London in Uruguay was distributed by the 
> > local label Clave. My memory gets a bit cloudy here because I do 
> > recall seeing Telstar by the Tornados on a 78 from Brazil and that 
> > was I think on Decca, but it may have been London. There is an 
> > Argentine London release of a UK Decca by Vera Lynn on eBay now
> > 
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/VERA-LYNN-DESDE-QUE-DICES-ADIOS-CANTA-Argentina-78-RPM-/30040808803
> > 
> > US Decca had a presence in South America and I have I'm Sorry by 
> > Brenda Lee from Uruguay. The label is a reddish brown. Bigger US 
> > indies that where on London American in the UK appear to have had 
> > local operations through labels like Ariel (for ABC Paramount) and 
> > Music Hall (for Dot).
> > 
> > In South Africa, it looks like US Decca stuff made it out on UK 
> > Decca. Buddy Holly stuff appears there on the UK blue and silver 
> > Decca label of the 50s. London has two styles, a simple London label 
> > with did some US indies as well as London International, from whence 
> > came a South African release of To Know Him is to Love Him by the 
> > Teddy Bears from Dore.
> > 
> > In India (and Pakistan) London American seemed to mirror UK London 
> > American release. For example US Cadence on the HLA series.
> > 
> > I do not know about the Philippines, but I would guess that London 
> > was the Decca outlet there as US Decca had its own imprint there.
> > 
> > Actually the whole London outside of the UK thing is quite 
> > fascinating. I think I may do some additional research.
> > 
> > T
> > 
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