London Records
| London Records | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Parent company | Universal Music Group |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Founder | Edward Lewis |
| Distributor(s) | Self-distributed |
| Genre | Various |
London Records is a record label in the U.K. that marketed records in the U.S, Canada, and Latin America from 1947 to 1979 before becoming semi-independent.
London arose from the split in ownership between the British and American branches of Decca Records. The American branch released British Decca records in the U.S. since it could not use the "Decca" name there. The label was noted for classical albums made in then state-of-the-art stereophonic sound, and such artists as Georg Solti, Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti.
The London name was also used by British Decca in the UK market for releases taken from American labels which British Decca licensed, such as Imperial, Chess, Dot, Atlantic, Specialty and Sun, and the first two UK releases from Motown. By the 1960s more licensing deals had been made with Big Top, Monument, Parrot, Philles, and Hi, and subsidiary labels were London Atlantic, London Dot and London Monument (the last featuring Roy Orbison, who remained with London in the UK even after he signed for MGM Records in the U.S.).
An unusual feature was the letter code in the numbering system. From the late 1950s until 1973, the label bore the logo "London American Recordings", and on Radio Luxembourg it was known as "London American".
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