 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2009) |
| Oriole Records | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Levy Company, then CBS |
| Founded | 1925 |
| Defunct | 1964 |
| Status | Closed |
| Distributor(s) | CBS Records Sony Music UK (catalogue) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Oriole Records was a British record label, founded in 1925 by the London-based Levy Company, which owned a gramophone record subsidiary called Levaphone Records.
The Levy family founded a record shop, which also sold bicycles and sewing machines, at 19 High Street, Whitechapel, and which later moved to 139 High Street. Oriole recorded popular music in England, and also issued masters from the United States Vocalion Records in May and June 1927. The original label was discontinued in 1935.
Beginning in 1931, Jacques Levy produced records at the West End studios at Rosslyn House, 94-98 Regent Street, London, where the company stayed until 1937, after which it moved into what was once an art gallery. at 73 New Bond Street, with chief engineers Ted Sibbick and Bill Johnson. In 1949, the company segregated the work and the label. Oriole Records Ltd moved into 104 New Bond Street, London, and Levy moved to a factory at Aston Clinton, near Aylesbury, with Norman Angier and Leslie Gouldstone from MD-1, later to be joined by others. [1] From 1938 or 1939, David Morris Levy lived nearby, at Flat 98, Clarence Gate Gardens, near Baker Street, until his death in 1971, and also maintained a residence in Birchington, Kent.
The owner, David Morris Levy, along with his brother Jacques (no relation to his Roulette Records namesake), revived the Oriole label in 1950. Until 1955, it was the exclusive UK licensee for the American Mercury label, with releases by artists including Frankie Laine, Vic Damone and Patti Page. Initially, the releases appeared on the Oriole label, but later on Mercury. [2]
Oriole had a few home-made hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group's version of "Freight Train" (featuring Nancy Whiskey on vocals), "Like I Do" by Maureen Evans (based on the same music as Allan Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" – Amilcare Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours – and the label's biggest hit), and Russ Hamilton's "We Will Make Love", which reached number 2 in the UK singles chart, and the B-side of which ("Rainbow") reached number 4 in the US Billboard Hot 100 on Kapp Records. [3]
Another success for Oriole was Clinton Ford's 1962 version of the George Formby song, "Fanlight Fanny", which featured accompaniment by the "George Chisholm All Stars". [4] With permission, new words were added, written by Ford. [5] "Fanlight Fanny" was Ford's third UK chart hit and his most successful single, reaching 22 in the UK singles chart in March 1962 and spending ten weeks in the chart. [6] [7]
The label also had successes with tracks licensed from European labels, notably Domenico Modugno's original recording of "Volare" and recordings by the Swedish instrumental group the Spotnicks. In the 1960s, Oriole licensed several recordings produced by Joe Meek, with performances by the Dowlands, Alan Klein and Screaming Lord Sutch. It also distributed several American hits from Columbia Records in the US.
On the long playing(LP) front, Oriole had a big success in 1954 with the original cast recording of the hit West End musical, Salad Days , which broke all box office records.
Oriole also produced cover versions of the hits of the day, which it released on its Embassy label, sold exclusively in Woolworths stores. The repertoire consisted of cut-price cover versions of current British pop hits, with the first being released in November 1954. One such recording was a version of "Blue Suede Shoes" by Don Arden (father of Sharon Osbourne), who did his best to impersonate Elvis Presley. Embassy later issued cover performances employing Reg Dwight, later known as Elton John.
During the tenure of A&R manager John Schroeder, Oriole was the first UK label (after the odd release on London and Fontana) to license recordings on a regular basis from the US Tamla and Motown catalogues, but none of the releases charted. It was not until a few years later, and on EMI's Stateside label, that the Detroit-based company would begin its run of hits in the UK. Nonetheless, several of the Oriole singles have since come to be highly regarded, including "Do You Love Me" by the Contours, "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" by the Miracles, and "Fingertips" by Little Stevie Wonder. Oriole released nineteen Motown releases on its black and white Oriole American label, while seven albums appeared on the normal black and yellow Oriole label. The company was known as Tamla Motown outside the US, and they were some of its rarest releases.
The Oriole record company had two record pressing factories, one situated in Aston Clinton and the other in Colnbrook. The company lasted until 21 September 1964, when it was bought by CBS, parent of the American Columbia Records, which was looking to set up its own manufacturing facility in the UK. The result ended the distribution of the CBS label by Philips, and began the phasing out of the Oriole label, which was officially renamed CBS Records in 1965. [8] At first, David Morris Levy stayed on as managing director, but severed all ties with CBS in 1967.
David Morris Levy's sons, John Jacob, a lawyer at Nicholas Morris in London, and Edward Frederick, principal of Chelsea Music Publishing in London, remained active in the music industry.
The Oriole catalogue is now handled by the successor to CBS, Sony Music, which was formed after Japanese conglomerate Sony bought CBS Records in 1988 and renamed it Columbia Records in 1991. Reissues of releases by Oriole are distributed by Columbia Records UK.
Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was originally headquartered.
Mary Esther Wells was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s.
Clinton Ford was an English popular singer of the 1950s and 1960s.
Stateside Records, styled as $tateside Records, is a British record label, owned by Warner Music Group and operates through its Parlophone and Warner Records imprints. Upon creation, it initially released licensed American recordings and is now a reissue label.
Philips Records is a record label founded by Dutch electronics company Philips and Dutch-American music corporation Universal Music Group. It was founded as Philips Phonographische Industrie in 1950. In 1946, Philips acquired the company which pressed records for British Decca's Dutch outlet in Amsterdam.
Embassy Records was a UK budget record label that produced cover versions of current hit songs, which were sold exclusively in Woolworths shops at a lower price than the original recordings. The original label was active between 1954 and 1965, after which it disappeared when its parent company, Oriole, was taken over by CBS Records.
The Elgins were an American vocal group on the Motown label, active from the late 1950s to 1967. Their most successful record was "Heaven Must Have Sent You", written and produced by the Holland–Dozier–Holland team, which was a hit in the US in 1966, and in the UK when reissued in 1971.
Brenda Holloway is an American soul singer who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. Her best-known recordings are the hits "Every Little Bit Hurts", "When I'm Gone", and "You've Made Me So Very Happy". The latter, which she co-wrote, was later widely popularized when it became a Top Ten hit for Blood, Sweat & Tears. She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s, after her recordings had become popular on the British "Northern soul" scene.
"Get Ready" is a Motown song written by Smokey Robinson, which resulted in two hit records for the label: a U.S. No. 29 version by The Temptations in 1966, and a U.S. No. 4 version by Rare Earth in 1970. It is significant for being the last song Robinson wrote and produced for the Temptations, due to a deal Berry Gordy made with Norman Whitfield, that if "Get Ready" did not meet with the expected degree of success, then Whitfield's song, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", would get the next release, which resulted in Whitfield more or less replacing Robinson as the group's producer.
"Money (That's What I Want)" is a rhythm and blues song written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, which was the first hit record for Gordy's Motown enterprise. Barrett Strong recorded it in 1959 as a single for the Tamla label, distributed nationally on Anna Records. Many artists later recorded the tune, including the Beatles in 1963 and the Flying Lizards in 1979.
Kim Weston is an American soul singer, and Motown alumna. In the 1960s, Weston scored hits with the songs "Love Me All the Way" and "Take Me in Your Arms ", and with her duet with Marvin Gaye, "It Takes Two".
Phonogram Incorporated was started in 1970 as a successor to Philips Phonographic Industries, a unit of the Grammophon-Philips Group (GPG), a joint venture of Philips N.V. of the Netherlands and Siemens A.G. of Germany.
"Ain't That Peculiar" is a 1965 song recorded by American soul musician Marvin Gaye for the Tamla (Motown) label.
"The Tears of a Clown" is a song written by Hank Cosby, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder and originally recorded by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles for the Tamla Records label subsidiary of Motown, first appearing on the 1967 album Make It Happen. The track was re-released in the United Kingdom as a single in July 1970, and it became a number-one hit on the UK Singles Chart for the week ending September 12, 1970. Subsequently, Motown released a partially re-recorded and completely remixed version as a single in the United States as well, where it quickly became a number-one hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B Singles charts.
"Tammy" is a popular song with music by Jay Livingston and lyrics by Ray Evans. It was published in 1957 and made its debut in the film Tammy and the Bachelor. It was nominated for the 1957 Oscar for Best Original Song. "Tammy" is heard in the film in two versions. The one that became a No. 1 hit single for Debbie Reynolds in 1957 is heard midway through the film, and was a UK No. 2 hit single in the same year. Another version was heard during the main titles at the beginning of the film and was a hit for the Ames Brothers. There have been other cover versions of the song.
Marvin Earl Johnson was an American R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. He was influential in the development of the Motown style of music, primarily for the song "Come to Me," which was the first record issued by Tamla Records, the precursor to the famous label.
"For Once in My Life" is a song written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown Records' Stein & Van Stock publishing company, and first recorded in 1965.
"There's a Ghost in My House" is a song written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland of Motown Records, together with R. Dean Taylor. It was originally recorded by Taylor in 1966, and it reached No. 3 in 1974 in the UK.
CBS Records International was the international arm of the Columbia Records unit of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (CBS) formed in 1961 and launched in 1962. Previously, Columbia Records had licensed other record companies to manufacture and distribute Columbia recordings outside North America, such as Philips Records and its subsidiary Fontana in Europe.
"Fanlight Fanny" is a song written in 1935 by George Formby, Harry Gifford and Fred E. Cliffe, and recorded by Formby in May that year. Another notable version was released in 1962 by Clinton Ford.
