I don’t know about you, but as a lover of records, growing up in the UK, one of the great things for me was watching the record spinning round. Being mesmerised by those colourful labels, those works of art, so integral to the package. Back then, I used to scour the label for information about the artist and who wrote the songs. I also loved the logos as well. When I look back now, the record was a piece of social history. The songs were evocative of an era, the format, particularly the 45 single, was just something to be adored, but to me the label meant everything. You knew what you were getting with the label. I mean, Tamla Motown was the sound of young America, London Records just brought you so many great American artists. Parlophone meant hearing the likes of The Beatles and The Hollies. Atlantic and Stax brought us the other great soul singers of the sixties. This e-book then, is our chance to gaze back lovingly at the labels and remember the good times. I’m going to do a series of them, whilst not the definitive works, it’s certainly one which takes me back, brings some great memories, and reminds me of why I loved vinyl so much. We’ll start with the the letter A, and in future books we’ll continue through the alphabet until we’ve got the set. Most of the labels will be British pressing labels, after all, that’s where I’m from, but you never know, you could find others as well.
As I said at the very beginning, this is by no means a thorough account of labels across the world. In fact, this is just a very small sample of the many labels that have been part of the era of vinyl across the years. I hope you’ve enjoyed looking back through them and that it’s brought back a few memories for you. There will be additional books to take us through the alphabet! James Murphy