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|founded = |founder = Carl Lindström |distributor = Self-distributed (United Kingdom) Warner Bros. Records (United States) WEA International Inc. (International) |location = United Kingdom |genre = Various |country = Germany, United Kingdom |url = }} Parlophone Records Ltd. is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone Records", which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. In 1926, Columbia Graphophone Company acquired the Parlophone business, label name and its titles. Columbia Graphophone later became EMI. On 21 September 2012, regulators officially approved Universal Music Group's planned acquisition of EMI, on condition that Parlophone was divested from the combined group. Parlophone and the other labels to be divested were operated in an entity known as Parlophone Label Group, pending their sale. Warner Music Group (WMG) acquired the group in May 2013, making it their third main-line label group alongside Warner Bros. Records and Atlantic Records (although the distribution company is still called WEA, in reference to Elektra Records, which was absorbed by Atlantic in 2004). Parlophone is now the oldest of WMG's three groups. George Martin joined EMI in 1950 as assistant label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of product including comedy recordings of the Goons, the pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith. In 1962 Martin signed rising new Liverpool band the Beatles. With Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer, the Fourmost and contemporary Mancunian band the Hollies also signed to the label, Parlophone in the 1960s became one of the world's most famous and prestigious record labels. For a long time Parlophone claimed the best-selling UK single, "She Loves You", and the best-selling UK album, ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. The label also achieved placement of seven singles at number 1 during 1964, when it also claimed top spot in the album charts for 40 of the 52 weeks during that year. ==History== Founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company, the brand name Parlophon was initially used for gramophones before the company began making records. The ''₤'' trademark is a German ''L'', for Lindström (coincidentally it resembles the British pound sign, ''£'', which itself is derived from the letter ''L'' for ''Libra'', meaning ''pound'' in Latin). During World War I, the Transoceanic Trading Company was set up in the Netherlands to look after its overseas assets. On 8 August 1923, the British branch of "Parlophone" (with the "e" added) was established, led by A&R manager Oscar Preuss. Parlophone established a master leasing arrangement with co-owned United States based Okeh Records, making Parlophone a leading jazz label in the UK. The CLPGS publishes a list of Parlophone titles issued between 1923 and 1956. In 1927 the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired a controlling interest in the Carl Lindström Company and thereby in Parlophone. In 1931 Columbia merged with the Gramophone Company to form Electric & Musical Industries Ltd (EMI). Under EMI, the Parlophone company initially maintained its status as a jazz label. In about 1929 or 1930, the "Rhythm Style Series" started: jazz records culled from the Okeh label. Besides the Okeh recordings, Parlophone also issued recordings from US Columbia and Brunswick as well as a few sessions produced at US Decca. As time went on the label also released speciality recordings of spoken-word and comedy recordings, such as the comedy recordings of the Goons and Flanders and Swann. In 1950, Preuss hired 24-year-old George Martin as his assistant. When Preuss retired in 1955 Martin succeeded him as label manager. Leading Parlophone artists in the 1950s included Germany's ''Obernkirchen Children's Choir'' and Scottish musician Jimmy Shand. At the dawn of the rock era, Parlophone artists such as Humphrey Lyttelton, the Vipers Skiffle Group, the pianist Mrs Mills, Jim Dale, Keith Kelly, Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins, the Temperance Seven, Laurie London and Shane Fenton would sporadically reach the British Top 20 chart. Their only consistently successful act until the "Beat Boom" was that of teen idol Adam Faith: Faith was assigned to the label in 1959 by Norman Newell, an EMI A&R man "without portfolio". Treading a path similar to other British labels of the era, Parlophone released all manner of domestic and foreign licensed product, including James Brown, but had little success in comparison to EMI siblings HMV and Columbia. The label's fortunes began to rise in 1962, when Martin signed rising new Liverpool band the Beatles. Along with fellow NEMS stablemates Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer and the Fourmost, and contemporary Mancunian band the Hollies, the Beatles turned Parlophone into one of the world's most famous and prestigious record labels. After Martin left to form the Associated Independent Recording (AIR) Studios in 1965, the Parlophone Company was absorbed into EMI's Gramophone Company unit (renamed EMI Records in 1973) with the Parlophone label maintaining its identity. For a long time Parlophone claimed the best-selling UK single, "She Loves You", and the best-selling UK album, ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. The label also achieved placement of seven singles at number 1 during 1964, when it also claimed top spot in the album charts for 40 of the 52 weeks during that year. The label was rendered dormant in 1973 when most of EMI's heritage labels were phased out in favour of the new EMI label. The Parlophone label was revived in 1980. On 23 April 2008 Miles Leonard was confirmed as label president. On 21 September 2012, regulators officially approved Universal Music Group's planned acquisition of Parlophone's parent company EMI for £1.2 billion, subject to conditions imposed by the European Commission requiring that UMG sell off a number of labels, including Parlophone itself (aside from the Beatles' catalogue, which was kept by UMG and moved to the newly formed Capitol Records UK) and a number of others. Parlophone, along with other labels and music catalogs that were to be sold, were operated independently from the rest of UMG as Parlophone Label Group in preparation for a possible transaction early in 2013. UMG received several offers for PLG, including those from a Sony/BMG consortium, Warner Music Group, and MacAndrews & Forbes. In February 2013, it was confirmed that Warner Music Group would acquire Parlophone Label Group for US$765 million. The deal was approved in May 2013 by the European Union, who saw no concerns around the deal because of WMG's relatively smaller reach in comparison to the merged UMG and Sony. Parlophone Label Group was actually the old EMI Records Ltd company that included both the Parlophone and the eponymous EMI labels. The EMI name was retained by Universal (as Virgin EMI Records) whilst the old EMI Records company was legally renamed Parlophone Records. WMG also announced in a joint presentation with IMPALA (a group who had opposed the EMI/Universal deal) and the Merlin Network that it intends to sell a "significant portion" of the assets acquired from Parlophone Label Group to smaller, independent companies in order to help offset the consolidation triggered by the merger. WMG treats Parlophone as its third "frontline" label group, alongside Atlantic Records and Warner Bros. Records.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/global/1559599/warner-music-group-outlines-parlophone-integration-process-expects )〕 In the US, most of Parlophone's artists are now distributed under Warner Bros. Records. However, Coldplay and Tinie Tempah were assigned to Atlantic Records, and David Guetta was moved to Atlantic's dance imprint Big Beat.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/global/5840082/coldplay-david-guetta-go-to-atlantic-records-radiohead-pink-floyd )〕 Image:Carl_Lindstrom_Parlophone_ad.jpg|"Parlophon" ad from 1927, Berlin Image:Parlophone.png|Parlophone trademark during the Beatles era 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Parlophone」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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