Creator / Parlophone Records

Parlophone Records, a company best known as the home of The Beatles before they started their own Apple label, is one of the oldest and most respected names in the music industry.

Parlophon (as its name was originally spelled) was founded in 1896 by Carl Lindström, a Swedish inventor living in Berlin. (The label's logo is a German "L" for Lindström, but is often mistaken for the British pound note symbol.) The company originally manufactured gramophones, but eventually switched over to making records. In 1923, the label started a British branch (which is when the "e" was added). Around the same time, Parlophone became the European licensee for American Blues and Jazz label Okeh Records, allowing the company to add major performers such as Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith to its roster. In 1931, Parlophone became part of the new EMI conglomerate, which put it under the same ownership as two larger labels, His Master's Voice and the European offshoot of Columbia Records.

In 1950, a young musician named George Martin became Parlophone's assistant manager, then assumed control in 1955. It's often reported that Parlophone was a minor label until the Beatles came along, but in the late 1950's and early 1960's Martin found success with performers like Buddy Hollyesque crooner-with a-hiccup Adam Faith (who scored two #1 UK hits, and several other top ten smashes between 1959 and 1962), skiffle group The Vipers (two top tenners in 1957) and trad jazz revivalists the Temperance Seven (a #1 hit in 1961, and three more chart entries in 61/62). As well, the label was noted for Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy acts like Peter Sellers (both as a solo artist and part of The Goon Show), Beyond the Fringe and Flanders and Swann. Still, prior to 1962 UK Parlophone was noted chiefly as a novelty-oriented label (even its successful pop acts had a novelty flavour about them), and sales definitely lagged behind Columbia and HMV. Then, in 1962, Martin auditioned a young group from Liverpool who had already been rejected by several other labels, a band with the unusual name The Beatles. Martin liked what he heard, and Parlophone (and the world in general) was never the same.

The Beatles' massive success allowed Parlophone to sign other British Invasion acts such as The Hollies, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas and Cilla Black, and Martin continued working with the Fab Four even after he left EMI to form AIR Studios in 1965. EMI temporarily stopped using the Parlophone name^note in England; the label continued in at least two countries, Australia and New Zealand after a corporate consolidation in 1973; when Apple soured in 1976, Parlophone was brought back for Beatles and Beatle-related reissues. In 1980, EMI reinstated Parlophone as an active label; artists signed during this era included Dexys Midnight Runners, Pet Shop Boys, Radiohead, Coldplay, Blur and Morrissey.

In 2012, after decades of mismanagement, EMI went out of business, and its recording assets were divided between Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. Currently, Warner owns the Parlophone name and the majority of its catalog (as well as that of most other British and European EMI labels), while Universal has the Beatles' catalog, with permission to use Parlophone's branding where appropriate on remastered reissues (the disc labels of which are facsimiles of the original LP labels.^note incidentally, Parlophone did almost the exact same thing with their own David Bowie reissues, but replaced all the original branding with renditions of Bowie's last name in the style of the old logos.) Soon after acquiring Parlophone, WMG allowed dozens of indie labels to acquire several artist catalogues from Parlophone and other Warner labels, primarily to soften consolidation triggered by the Universal merger.

While Parlophone continues as an active company signing new acts, Warner sometimes uses it to reissue EMI catalog artists who weren't originally on the label, such as The Animals, Hawkwind, Al Stewart and Pink Floyd. As with other Warner-owned labels, Rhino Records handles back catalog reissues for Parlophone.

Parlophone Records performers, past and present, with TV Tropes pages:

• ABC
• Air^note Transferred from Virgin France
• Lily Allen
• The Animals^note CD reissues of the first two albums
• Louis Armstrong
• Ashnikko
• Charles Aznavour
• Long John Baldry^note Australia only
• Syd Barrett^note All reissues from 2014 onward
• Bat for Lashes
• Beastie Boys
• The Beatles
  • George Harrison
  • John Lennon
  • Paul McCartney
  • Ringo Starr
  • Wings
• Be-Bop Deluxe^note Rights now owned by Cherry Red Records and their Esoteric Recordings imprint
• Beyond the Fringe
• Blur
  • Gorillaz
• The Bonzo Dog Band
• David Bowie^note Parlophone issued two early Bowie singles in 1965, while he was still known as Davie Jones; Parlophone also inherited the rights to Bowie's catalog following the dissolution of EMI
• James Brown^note Parlophone released three of his singles in England in the early 1960s
• Kate Bush
• Buzzcocks^note Reissues of their United Artists Records catalog, until the rights were acquired by Domino Records
• Cabaret Voltaire
• The Chemical Brothers
• The Church (Band)
• Coldplay
• Noël Coward
• Bernard Cribbins
• Daft Punk^note Reissues of their Virgin catalog
• The Dandy Warhols
• Danger Mouse
• Deadmau5
• Deep Purple
• Dexys Midnight Runners
• The Divine Comedy
• Thomas Dolby
• Siobhán Donaghy
• Duran Duran
• Idris Elba
• Duke Ellington
• Sky Ferreira
• The Fireman (UK Only)
• Flanders and Swann
• Gang of Four
• The Good, the Bad & the Queen
• The Goon Show
• David Guetta^note Transferred from Virgin France
• Françoise Hardy
• Hawkwind
• Herman's Hermits^note Original releases in the Phillipines, plus Japanese reissues from 2003 onward
• The Hollies
• Interpol (outside North America)
• Iron Maiden
• Jane's Addiction
• Elton John^note Parlophone released Madman Across the Water and Honky Chateau in the Philippines
• Tom Jones
• Kraftwerk
• LCD Soundsystem
• Manfred Mann
• Spike Milligan
• Kylie Minogue
• Morrissey
• My Life Story
• Stevie Nicks
• Yoko Ono
• Pet Shop Boys
• Pink Floyd^note All reissues in Europe after the Warner takeover
• PinkPantheress
• The Proclaimers
• Queen
  • Freddie Mercury
• Radiohead^note Rights now owned by XL Recordings
• Gerry Rafferty
• Renaissance^note Parlophone released Prologue and Ashes Are Burning in South Africa
• Roxette
• Saxon
• The Searchers (South Africa only)
• Peter Sellers
  • Sophia Loren^note She recorded a few singles with Sellers
• Sigue Sigue Sputnik
• Sigur Rós (outside North America and Iceland)
• Bessie Smith
• Stereophonics
• Al Stewart
• The Sundays
• Supergrass
• Sweet^note Two early singles
• T. Rex^note A few releases in Australia and New Zealand
• Talk Talk
• Talking Heads ^note Outside North America; gained the rights to the band's 1984-1992 material in these regions after the closure of EMI.
• Tinie Tempah
• Thin Lizzy^note Their first single, released only in Ireland as "Thin Lizzie"
• Linda Thorson (Philippines only)
• Peter Tosh
• Tina Turner
• Peter Ustinov
• The Verve
• W.A.S.P. (Band)
• Whitesnake
• Ylvis

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