"Embassy Records Embassy Records was a UK budget record label that produced cover versions of current hit songs, which were sold exclusively in Woolworths shops at a lower price than the original recordings. The original label was active between 1954 and 1965, after which it disappeared when its parent company, Oriole, was taken over by CBS Records. Later, between 1973 and 1980, CBS Records revived the Embassy imprint to release budget versions of albums in the UK and Europe by artists who were signed to its parent company, Columbia Records. Embassy Records was the result of a contractual arrangement between"
"singles featuring two cover versions of current hit singles sold at a much cheaper price. This venture was very successful at the time, but was eventually killed off when other record companies started to issue compilation albums. However, Woolworths remained in the music business selling a wide range of singles and albums, and remained the UK's Number 1 music retailer well into the 1990s. Even successful nationwide music specialists stores such as Virgin Megastores and HMV did not overtake Woolworths during this time. They later suffered from strong competition in this field from the large supermarket chains Tesco and Asda."
"locations, but in 1923 the product became available at all Woolworth's stores. As with many records of this type, the recording artists are not credited. The labels on the records mention only the song title, the style of music (e.g. foxtrot, waltz), and in some cases the name of the songwriter or composer. The records were popular not only for their price, but also because of the peppiness of the performances. In addition to popular fare, some children's discs were also issued. Most issues paired a popular number which was under copyright and for which royalties were paid, while the"
"Little Marvel Little Marvel was a United Kingdom record label which issued small (5 3/8 - 6 inch) gramophone records during the 1920s. The label was owned by the Vocalion record company (known in the United Kingdom as the Aeolian Co, Ltd.), and was part of a competitive market for small, inexpensive discs existing at the time in the United Kingdom and Germany. Little Marvel records were sold exclusively at UK Woolworth's chain stores at a retail price of 6d (sixpence). The Woolworth's logo appeared on the label of the discs. The first issues appeared in 1921, at select Woolworth's"
"Waldorf Music Hall Records Waldorf Music Hall Records was a budget record label exclusively sold in Woolworth stores from 1954 to 1959. Waldorf was headed by Enoch Light and based in Harrison, New Jersey. Light's business partners in this venture were Casper Pinsker and Dick Davemos. The business model for Waldorf Music Hall appears to have been inspired by the popularity of the Your Hit Parade television program. In the 1950s it was common to refer to Waldorf Music Hall, and other labels like it, as 'Hit Parader Records.' Although many sources give 1953 as the establishment date for Waldorf"
"Little Marvel label, Mimosa records were sold exclusively in UK Woolworth's chain stores, at a retail price of 6d (sixpence). Mimosa (record label) Mimosa was a 1920s United Kingdom record label which issued small (5½ - 6 inch) gramophone records aimed primarily at children. Mimosa began in 1921 with a series of 5½ inch records. This continued until 1926 when a separate series of 6 inch records became available; the label was discontinued in 1930. The label was owned by The Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing Company Ltd., which also manufactured Imperial records. Some Mimosa records contained edited versions of recordings"
"other side was a recording of a title under public domain, or with the copyright controlled by the record company. Little Marvel Little Marvel was a United Kingdom record label which issued small (5 3/8 - 6 inch) gramophone records during the 1920s. The label was owned by the Vocalion record company (known in the United Kingdom as the Aeolian Co, Ltd.), and was part of a competitive market for small, inexpensive discs existing at the time in the United Kingdom and Germany. Little Marvel records were sold exclusively at UK Woolworth's chain stores at a retail price of 6d"
"who started Waldorf Music Hall Records under the auspices of the F.W. Woolworth dime store chain. Unlike most drugstore record producers, Light was well regarded both as a musician and for his technical recording knowledge; which he would make much use of later in establishing Command Records. Probably the best known and most prolific drugstore label was Crown Records, an offshoot of Modern Records, originally a jazz label owned by the Bihari brothers and operated from Los Angeles. From the mid-1950s to the early 80s, Crown turned out hundreds of cheaply produced LPS of country, Hawaiian, Latin, and other musical"
"Light's reputation as an audiophile, Waldorf Music Hall issues do on the whole sound better than average for Hit Parader records, and the performances are of professional caliber even if the idiom of rock 'n roll is not comfortably realized. Waldorf Music Hall Records Waldorf Music Hall Records was a budget record label exclusively sold in Woolworth stores from 1954 to 1959. Waldorf was headed by Enoch Light and based in Harrison, New Jersey. Light's business partners in this venture were Casper Pinsker and Dick Davemos. The business model for Waldorf Music Hall appears to have been inspired by the"
"blown out, the porch roof being destroyed and a small quantity of stock toward the front of the store being damaged. Additionally, minor structural damage was caused to the store's stockroom with two internal portioning walls adjacent to the Generator Room and Fixtures' Store having to be rebuilt. The store recommenced trading on 23 October 1992. Woolworths, for many years, was a leader in the UK music industry. In the 1950s and well into the 1960s, Woolworths issued recordings available only via their stores on their own label Embassy Records, produced and manufactured by Oriole Records. These releases were double-sided"
"three new releases that month which included ""Soul Hits"", ""Hammond Dancer Party"", and a cover version album of singles hits called ""12 Tops"". This was a label headed by Miller and Presky that concentrated on releases for children. By June 1973, they had had an available catalogue of six albums with another six scheduled for release in autumn. By July 1974, they had reached the five million mark with the Stereo Gold Award albums that they had produced and been via Woolworths. To mark the occasion, and in recognition of this achievement, Monty Presky presented Woolworths buyer Bob Egerton with"
"of note had one or more such collections on the market. Often these were recordings done for a previous record label before the star's current popularity. Other major labels of the day with their own budget lines include: Other budget record labels were Somerset Records that became Alshire Records in 1963, Stereo Fidelity, Audio Spectrum, Peter Rabbit (children's records), Azteca, Score Records, a subsidiary of Aladdin Records, Custom, and Diplomat Records, a product of the Synthetic Plastics Company who made Peter Pan Records and Ambassador Records. In England, UK the Woolworths Group jointly owned Embassy Records with Oriole Records, later"
"of Moses."" This is believed to be one of the earliest uses in an audio recording of the phrase ""rock ... and roll"", albeit in the context of a religious spiritual. Little Wonder Records Little Wonder Records was a United States record label from 1914 through 1923. The label was known for producing one-sided records with abbreviated versions of songs at a very low price. Little Wonders were manufactured by the Columbia Phonograph Company, and were distributed exclusively by music publisher Henry Waterson (the business partner of Irving Berlin) in their early years (1914–1916) – an arrangement that has only"
"Little Wonder Records Little Wonder Records was a United States record label from 1914 through 1923. The label was known for producing one-sided records with abbreviated versions of songs at a very low price. Little Wonders were manufactured by the Columbia Phonograph Company, and were distributed exclusively by music publisher Henry Waterson (the business partner of Irving Berlin) in their early years (1914–1916) – an arrangement that has only recently been discovered as the original contract stipulated that both parties were to keep this relationship a secret. Artists are generally uncredited on Little Wonder labels, which simply give recordings general"
"Small Wonder Records Small Wonder Records was a British independent record label owned and managed by Pete and Mari Stennett, that specialised in releasing records by punk rock and post-punk bands. It operated out of a record shop of the same name at 162 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London. Artists to have released on the label include Bauhaus, Crass, The Cure, The Cravats, Patrik Fitzgerald, Puncture, Cockney Rejects, The Carpettes, Poison Girls and Angelic Upstarts. The shop and labels logo - as featured on its famous paper bags - was of an Edwardian/Victorian family in their finest clothes, the mother was"
"The records were to be priced at $1.50 each and were to be manufactured by PYE which was a partner in the consortium. Most of the material would be sourced from the U.S. based Damill catalogue. In the U.K, Damill recordings were currently being released by PYE's subsidiary Marble Arch. By July 1974, five million Damont produced Stereo Gold Award albums had been sold via Woolworths since they had started selling them. In recognition of the level reached, Damont MD Monty Presky presented Woolworths buyer Bob Egerton with a gold disk. In 1979, retail chain F.W. Woolworth replaced Stereo Gold"
"to provide their services free of charge, including most of the UK music magazines which donated advertising space in their publications to promote the single, Geldof's record label Phonogram who released the single, their parent company PolyGram who distributed it, and the artist Peter Blake who created the single's sleeve. Geldof and Ure's biggest problem was to be able to come up with a song that could be recorded and released in time for Christmas. They both realised that they would have to write one themselves and not record a cover version, otherwise they would have to pay royalties which"
"and with a cover in the style of the Strange Fruit Peel Session releases. It however is not a Strange Fruit release. Strange Fruit Records Strange Fruit Records was an independent record label in the United Kingdom. The label, established by Clive Selwood and John Peel in 1986, was the primary distributor of BBC recordings, including Peel Sessions. The name came from the song written by Abel Meeropol and famously performed by Billie Holiday, itself a reference to racially motivated lynchings. The label had the aim of generating sufficient revenue from recordings of 'big name' artists to allow the release"
"many of the jazzier Crown sides were issued on Eli Oberstein's short-lived Varsity Records, all from dubbed masters. Probably the most collectible records on Crown include: Crown Records (1930s label) Crown Records was a record company and dime-store label that existed from 1930 to 1933 in New York City. Its catalogue included music by Eubie Blake and Fletcher Henderson. Known as the label offering ""Two Hits for Two Bits"" proudly printed on their sleeves, Crown's discs sold for 25 cents. Crown was started by the Plaza Music Company after it was excluded from the merger which resulted in the American"
"100th store opening in the Kings Road, Chelsea, the 200th at Stirling, Scotland, and the 300th in Brixton, South London. In the first half of the 1980s Our Price established itself as the United Kingdom's second largest retailer of records and tapes (with Woolworths the largest). Brand recognition was driven by pun-rich radio advertising built around the ""Get Down To Our Price"" slogan, which later transferred to television featuring an animated carrier bag called Billy. A sister chain, Our Price Video, was established to capitalise on the success of the new VHS tape format, and some towns eventually had two"
"produced the 'Diva' label for W.T. Grant, and Plaza produced the 'Oriole' label for McCrory's, among many others.) Drugstore records were called such as they were often sold in metal racks similar to the racks used for paperback books in drugstores or dimestores in the 1960s for prices from half to a quarter of regular LP albums. These records were markedly less expensive than major label recordings. The initial ""drugstore records"" mostly comprised popular music played or sung by unknown orchestras or singers, or conversely, once famous singers or orchestras playing music or songs that were relatively unknown (popular singers'"
"Frank Winfield Woolworth Frank Winfield Woolworth (April 13, 1852 – April 8, 1919) was an American entrepreneur and the founder of F. W. Woolworth Company and the operator of variety stores known as ""Five-and-Dimes"" (5- and 10-cent stores) or dimestores, which featured a low-priced selection of merchandise. He pioneered the now-common practices of buying merchandise directly from manufacturers and fixing the selling prices on items, rather than haggling. He was also the first to use self-service display cases, so customers could examine what they wanted to buy without the help of a sales clerk. Frank Woolworth was born in Rodman,"
"costs were much lower than for the shellac discs of the time. Hit of the Week discs sold for just one shilling and enjoyed great popularity. Durium Records (UK) Durium was a short-lived record label in the United Kingdom run by Durium Products (GB) Ltd in the 1930s. Its presses were located in Slough, near London. Its products and marketing were derived from the American record company Durium Products, Inc., producer of the Hit of the Week record label. Durium Products sold its single-sided paper gramophone records from around 1930 to 1933 whereas the UK firm operated only from 1932"
"setting. Wood wore a woollen hat found in lost property. The schoolchildren were brought down from the Midlands to London by bus during the autumn half-term to add their contributions. At the time of the single's release, Wizzard's contract with EMI was close to expiration. Promotional copies were pressed by Warner Brothers, with whom the band had just signed for future releases. Only then was it discovered that EMI were legally entitled to the track after all, so the Warner Bros. Records pressings were halted and the record appeared on the Harvest label, but with the same picture sleeve. This"
"the 1970s). In the UK Pickwick Records' ""Top of the Pops"" record series, which operated between 1968 and 1985, was the most successful budget album range. Discount stores (as well as Department stores) have had records produced by them by various record producing companies since the 1910s. It was fashionable for a chain like McCrory's or Kress to have their own exclusive label. Most of these records contained songs also available on many other 'exclusive' labels. (For example from the 1920s into the 1930s, Paramount produced the 'Broadway' label for Montgomery Ward, Cameo produced the 'Romeo' label for Kress, Columbia"
"Hit Records Hit Records was a record company based in Nashville, Tennessee, which specialized in sound-alike cover versions of hit records. Founded in 1962 by Bill Beasley, Hit Records were sold in dime stores for 39¢ (US), less than half the price of the hit recordings they were covering. Located in Nashville, the home base for the country music recording business in the United States, the company had a pool of talented singers and musicians to record the cover songs. Some of these performers would later become successful on their own such as Sandy Posey, Ray Stevens, Bobby Russell and"
"Madison Records (Grey Gull) Madison Records was a United States-based record label. It was also sold in the United Kingdom through the F.W. Woolworth dime store chain. It was a subsidiary of Grey Gull Records, produced from 1926 through 1931 (almost a year after the last record on the Grey Gull label was issued). General opinion among the knowledgeable record collectors of this era is that Madison, being sold at Woolworth's, survived for a while after Grey Gull and their other labels due to fulfilling the Woolworth contract. Like Grey Gull, Madison records were often poorly recorded and made from"
"They were issued in flimsy rice paper sleeves, few of which have survived. A new issue featuring a current ""hit"" popular song was released every week. Unlike other records, they were sold at newsstands. Previous issues could be obtained by mail order. Retailing for 15 cents each, later raised to 20 cents, Hit of the Week records were by far the lowest-priced records in the US at that time. The first regular issue was released in February 1930. By the summer of 1930, up to half a million copies of each week's issue were produced. But as the Depression worsened,"
"offered Davenport a recording contract a year prior when introduced through a collaboration with Bootsy Collins and Malcolm McLaren, where she was featured on McLaren's ""Waltz Darling"" LP. She declined Stewart’s offer at the time due to his requirement for her to relocate to London, England. Later to ink a solo development deal with Delicious Vinyl, who made introductions to her future bandmates, The Brand New Heavies who at the time had no singer. With the core band members based in London, she decided to relocate there. The band’s initial UK indie label Acid Jazz Records, struck a deal with"
"versions of the same tune. Mills often took a co-composer credit. From the beginning of their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every label including Brunswick, Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Pathê (and its Perfect label), the ARC/Plaza group of labels (Oriole, Domino, Jewel, Banner) and their dime-store labels (Cameo, Lincoln, Romeo), Hit of the Week, and Columbia's cheaper labels (Harmony, Diva, Velvet Tone, Clarion) labels which gave Ellington popular recognition. On OKeh, his records were usually issued as The Harlem Footwarmers, while the Brunswick's were usually issued as The Jungle Band. Whoopee Makers and the Ten Black Berries were other"
"Award records that it was selling exclusively with their own brand / record label, Chevron. They had already been selling Chevron cassettes since 1977, so the arrival of the records would complement the cassettes. In a ""Billboard"" article dated February 17, 1979, Damont's MD Monty Presky was quoted as saying Woolworths would concentrate on a higher priced repertoire in the future and building its custom pressing business. He also said that it was a disappointment for them. Stereo Gold Award Stereo Gold Award was a budget label record label owned by Dave Miller (producer). It released many budget and exploito"
"count towards chart position, only sales through the shops. This market was dominated by the big retail chains of Woolworths, Asda, WHSmith and Tesco. If you could not get your single into these stores, you were very unlikely to have a hit. Sadly for Otway, none of these stores would take the single. However an orchestrated fan campaign saw ""Bunsen Burner"" reach number nine in the UK Charts. It is then revealled that despite this success and an appearance on the BBC's flagship music programme ""Top of the Pops"", Woolworths still refuse to stock Otway's single and place their own"
"away with the De-lite imprint, and subsequent Kool & The Gang records were issued by PolyGram's Mercury label. After the purchase by PolyGram, Pickwick started putting out new material again, but this time it was ""Sound-Alike"" albums which featured covers of a certain artist or group on one album, and Disco Christmas albums. Most of those albums were performed by session musicians and singers dubbed Mirror Image; Pickwick also issued a few records from groups such as The Young Lovers and Kings Road in earlier years. This lasted until 1983 when PolyGram folded Pickwick. The Hallmark name has since been"