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The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom.
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Early history
In 1922, Columbia Phonograph, as it was then known, sold its UK subsidiary Columbia Graphophone. However, in 1925 Columbia Graphophone bought its former parent for $2.5 million. In 1926 Odeon Records and Parlophone Records were acquired. On April 21, 1931, the Gramophone Company and the Columbia Graphophone Company merged and formed a new company Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). American anti-trust laws forced EMI to sell its American Columbia operations.
As an EMI label
EMI continued to operate the Columbia record label in the UK, until the early 1970s, and everywhere else except for the US, Canada, and Japan, until it sold its remaining interest in the Columbia trade mark to Sony Music Entertainment in 1990.
Under EMI, English Columbia's output was mainly licenced recordings from American Columbia until 1951 when American Columbia switched British distribution to Philips Records. English Columbia continued to distribute American Columbia sister labels Okeh and Epic through the 1960s when American Columbia's then parent CBS moved distribution of all its labels to the then new CBS Records created from the purchase of Oriole Records (UK) in late 1964. The loss of American Columbia product forced English Columbia to groom its own talent such as Russ Conway, Acker Bilk, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Helen Shapiro, Frank Ifield, Rolf Harris, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Dave Clark 5, Frankie Vaughan, Des O'Connor, Ken Dodd, The Animals, Herman's Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Seekers, Pink Floyd (who have been on both Columbia UK and US), and The Yardbirds. Led by avuncular A&R man Norrie Paramor, the label was arguably the most successful in Britain in the rock era prior to the Beat Boom.
Phaseout of label by EMI and trade mark transfer
EMI decided to reserve the HMV label for classical repertoire and transferred HMV's remaining pop acts to Columbia by 1967. Later, EMI replaced the Columbia label with the eponymous EMI Records in 1972. It sold its remaining interest in the Columbia name in 1990 to Sony Music Entertainment, who already owned Columbia Records in the U.S. and Canada. The formal reassignment of British registered trade marks, including the "magic notes" logo, from EMI took place in 1993.[1] Today, Sony Music prefers using the "walking eye" logo (previously used on the old CBS label) for the Columbia Records trade mark in the UK.[2]
However it revived in 1985 with 1 record with Baltimora's Tarzan Boy and because it was still owned by EMI at that time.
In Australia, EMI continued using the Columbia label throughout the 1970s. But they did add the EMI Records label in 1973.
Columbia outside the UK
The history of the Columbia record label outside the UK is dealt with in more detail in Columbia Records and Columbia Music Entertainment.
