The London Records Story
By David Edwards, Patrice Eyries, Mike Callahan, Randy Watts and Tim Neely
Last update: July 15, 2012





When British Decca was split from American Decca in World War 2, British Decca formed a new North American subsidiary called London in 1947. The headquarters of London Records was at 521-539 West 25th Street in New York City. The President of the company was Ted Lewis. The A&R Director was Joe Delaney, and A&R was handled by Berle Adams, Remy Farkas, Eddie Kissack, Tawny Neilson and Jack Pleis. The Musical director was Tutti Camarata. The output of the label was pop, classical, international, country and western, rhythm and blues, jazz, Latin, sacred, gospel and folk. London established a budget label called Richmond in the late 1950's and brought a spoken word label called Argo to the US in the mid-1960's.

The material on London included music recorded by British Decca and music recorded in the United States by London itself. The name London was also used in the United Kingdom to issue recordings leased from American record companies for distribution in Europe.

The London and associated label discography was compiled using our record collections, Schwann Catalogs from 1949 to 1982, a Phono-Log from 1963, and various other sources including the Internet. Tracks are listed in the order they appear on the albums, when known. The double slash (//) is indication of the separation between sides. Titles listed without a double slash (//) are listed as printed in the Schwann catalog or Phono-Log, and the separation between side one and side two is unknown. Titles with an asterisk (*) in front of the number have the titles listed alphabetically since track order is unknown. For those albums where the track-by-track stereo content is indicated, (S) means true stereo, (E) means electronic (fake) stereo, and (M) means mono.

The discography covers the London label and it's subsidiaries or distributed labels: Argo (spoken word label not US jazz label), Buk, Chapter One, Coliseum, Deram, Group, Lejoint, Mam, Orphic Egg, Palomar, Parrot, Press, Richmond, Threshold, Tribe, and UK. We are including in this discography albums released in the United Kingdom on London as part of their American series. This discography does not include London series of strictly classical recordings, it does include classical recordings that are contained in series that include popular music.

We would appreciate any additions or corrections to this discography. Just send them to us via e-mail. Both Sides Now Publications is an information web page. We are not a catalog, nor can we provide the records listed below. We have no association with London Records. Should you be interested in acquiring albums listed in this discography (which are all out of print), we suggest you see our Frequently Asked Questions page and follow the instructions found there. This story and discography are copyright 2012 by Mike Callahan.



London US:

London label, Part 1 London LL 1 Main Series (1949- 1958)

London label, Part 2 London LLA Multi-LP Set Series (1949- 1955)

London label, Part 3 London International Series (1955- 1976)

London label, Part 4 London LL 3000-3199 Main Series (1958- 1961)

London label, Part 5 London LL 3200-3399 Main Series (1961- 1964)

London label, Part 6 London LL 3400-3534/PS 400-599 Main Series (1964-1971)

London label, Part 7 London PS 600-733 Main Series (1971- 1979)

London label, Part 8 London Phase 4/Sound 4 Issues (1961- 1978)

London label, Part 9 Miscellaneous London Series (Soundtracks, Original Casts, Samplers, Collectors Series, etc.)

London label, Part 10 Special NP Rolling Stones Series

London label, Part 11 Polygram/London Issues (1983- )

London label, Part 12 PS-100 Stereo Series to PS-249 (1958- 1962)


London Distributed Labels:

07-05-12-------- Argo label Spoken Word

06-18-12-------- Buk label

05-30-12-------- Chapter One label

06-18-12-------- Coliseum label

06-13-12-------- Deram label

05-29-12-------- Group label

06-21-12-------- Hi label

06-18-12-------- LeJoint label

06-18-12-------- Mach label

05-30-12-------- M.A.M. label

06-18-12-------- Orphic Egg label

06-18-12-------- Palomar label

05-29-12-------- Parrot label

05-29-12-------- Press label

06-18-12-------- Richmond label

05-28-12-------- Threshold label

05-30-12-------- Tribe label

06-14-12-------- UK label


London (UK) Label:

London (UK) Story

London (UK) label, Part 1 1000 Series Pop 10-Inch LPs (1951-1958)

London (UK) label, Part 2 3500 "Origins of Jazz" Series 10-Inch LPs (1954-1956)

London (UK) label, Part 3 14000 "American Jazz Recording" Series 10-Inch LPs (1954-1956)

London (UK) label, Part 4 15000 "American Jazz Recording" Series 12-Inch LPs (1955-1962)

London (UK) label, Part 5 2000 Series Pop Mono 12-Inch LPs (1956-1962)

London (UK) label, Part 6 6000 Series Stereo 12-Inch LPs (1958-1962)

London (UK) label, Part 7 8000 Consolidated Main Series 12-Inch LPs (1962-1984)




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