London Records

British owned multi-national label created by The Decca Record Company Limited initially to market their catalogue in North America and their North American catalogue outside North America, but later to market licensed catalogue around the world, both directly (in the UK) and via their worldwide licensees. It had a third life as a worldwide label under Decca’s new owners Polygram from the 1980s.

Also appears as: London only or London Recordings.
Label Code: LC 0253 / LC 00253 (LC 7654 / LC 07654 for London/FFRR releases).

Please note: INT is not part of the catalogue number, it merely indicates that number is the international number.
For all unofficial / bootleg copies of this label please use London Records (3).

London Records was established in 1947 from the split in ownership between the British branch of Decca and that same company's USA branch. Since British Decca could not use the Decca name in North America, it used the "London" label and logo to release records from the UK owned Decca catalogue for US release only. Note: Many USA releases from 1950 to the mid 1970's say "Made in England" on the bottom edge of label; these were pressed at Decca's second factory in Hampshire, close to Southampton Docks in southern England (the primary factory was at New Malden in Surrey, about 9 miles south of central London) (see also: label). These USA issues have an inverted matrix (master) release # above the USA release # that corresponds to the original "Decca" tapes. British pressings were also shipped to Canada, where London Records of Canada, Ltd. had been established in 1948.

The label was subsequently established in England in late 1949 for releases from London's US roster, starting numerically with catalogue number L 500, "Jealous Heart" by Al Morgan. These early releases had catalogue numbers that were numerically the same as the corresponding US releases, but with the L prefix added. There were gaps in this numerical sequence corresponding to British recordings that were released on Decca in Britain.

Eventually the US roster was wound down and the US label became primarily an outlet for Decca's British and European recordings (though the Canadian branch maintained a significant domestic roster). In Britain from late 1951, the label became an outlet for recordings licensed from US independent labels via London's New York office, leading to the introduction of the HL series of singles in early 1954, and eventually the famous and collectable "American Recordings" sub-branding (or "American Series" on LPs). London Canada adopted a similar role, but without any sub-branding. This branding incorporate additional logos for , (not ), or , which are currently not acknowledged as distinct labels in the database except for . is only for the Full Frequency Range Recordings (not ) dance music imprint established in the mid-1980s; see its label profile for details.In the UK, the London label focused on pop music under the aegis of Roger Ames, while the Decca Record Company Limited operated as a separate company, with its US releases rebranded with the London name. Decca was eventually acquired by PolyGram in 1980. Decca released several classical series in Europe under the London Records label, for example , , and an unnamed series of reissues of works composed and conducted by .