His Master's Voice Records (usually shortened to HMV) was one of the first record labels. It began in the early years of the 20th century, and its last release commemorated the beginning of the 21st century. Along the way, it released music by some of the most legendary performers of its time.
The story begins in 1899, when the newly formed Gramophone Company Ltd. (the precursor of EMI) bought the rights to Francis Barraud's painting His Master's Voice, which showed a terrier named Nipper sitting on a coffin, listening to a wax cylinder phonograph with a Quizzical Tilt to his head. Since both Nipper and his master, Barraud's brother Mark, had been dead for years by the time the painting was completed, an Urban Legend arose that Nipper was listening to a recording of his late master. (He wasn't, at least while Barraud was working on the image.) The Gramophone Company had Barraud change the cylinder player to a gramophone, then adopted the image as its corporate symbol. It became so strongly associated with the company that the label changed its name to His Master's Voice in English-speaking nations, and translations of the phrase in other countries. HMV quickly became a successful company throughout Europe and Oceania, with celebrities such as Enrico Caruso on its roster. It also became a well-known name in electronics and retail.
In America, the Barraud painting was licensed by the Victor Talking Machine Company, the predecessor to RCA Records; this led to a reciprocal relationship in which HMV licensed RCA releases in Europe, giving the British company access to talent such as Perry Como, Eartha Kitt, Glenn Miller, Fats Waller, and the earliest Elvis Presley records. This arrangement ended in 1957, when RCA got its own label identity overseas through a new distribution deal with British Decca. However, by then HMV was already licensing other American labels like ABC-Paramountnote , United Artists, Verve, Disney-owned labels Disneyland and Buena Vista, and various indies. (While most of these companies eventually began releasing under their own names in England, ABC couldn't use its own name due to the UK TV studio Associated British Corporation.) HMV also had plenty of its own domestic talent, such as Bernard Bresslaw, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Kenny Lynch, Morecambe and Wise, and (unfortunately) the cast of The Black and White Minstrel Show. HMV's English roster was more oriented toward Easy Listening and Classical Music than its EMI stablemates Parlophone and Columbia, which got most of The British Invasion acts; however, it did manage to sign Manfred Mann, The Swinging Blue Jeans and a few less successful bands.
This may be why EMI decided to make HMV a strictly classical label at the end of 1967; the British pop acts switched to Parlophone or Columbia, while ABC acts moved to the pre-existing Stateside label. (The situation was different in Australia and New Zealand, where the local branches continued with pop and rock music through 1972.) This state of affairs lasted until 1988, when Morrissey (whose band The Smiths had just broken up) signed to EMI as a solo artist. When asked which label he wanted to be on, he chose to revive HMV as a pop label for his own releases, which he did until 1992. (He even put out two singles — "You're the One For Me, Fatty" and "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" — as promo-only 78s!) At that point, EMI was still using HMV for classical releases, but with the Compact Disc creating a new worldwide marketplace for music, executives decided that using a trademark that was divided between three companies in different nations (EMI, RCA and the Japanese Victor Company) was no longer feasible. Therefore, HMV changed its name to EMI Classics throughout the world, while Morrissey moved to Parlophone for the remainder of his stay at EMI.
However, the venerable trademark had one last hurrah in May 2000, when the original HMV store moved from 363 Oxford Street in London (where it had been located since 1921) to a new, larger store across the street. To mark the occasion, EMI released a limited edition 78 of Robbie Williams' 1998 hit "Millennium" backed by a 1920 recording of Edward Elgar conducting "Nimrod", a movement from his Enigma Variations suite. Elgar, along with Francis Barraud, had launched the original store 79 years earlier. While the record label ended with that release, the retail arm of HMV continues today. The label's non-licensed catalog is owned by Warner Music Group through Parlophone.
Not to be confused with the Stanisław Lem novel His Master's Voice, although the book derives its name from this company.
HMV performers with TV Tropes pages
- Sam Cooke (from the independent US label Keen Records)
- Johnny Mathis, who licensed his self-owned Mercury recordings to HMV for international release
