Capitol - Biography

Biography - Capitol

USA

U.S. label founded in Hollywood, CA, in 1942 by singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer, songwriter and director of Paramount Pictures Buddy DeSylva, and Hollywood record store owner Glenn Wallichs.

The label released pop, jazz, and country music. Between August 1942 and Fall 1943 (strike of the American Federation of Musicians), Capitol successfully avoided the restrictions of the so-called Petrillo ban by buying and releasing matrices with recordings by the King Cole Trio, Ceele Burke, and Bob Sherwood from Hugh Claudin's Excelsior Records and other sources.

From the start, Capitol had its discs pressed by three pressing plants: Allied Record Manufacturing Co. in Los Angeles, California, Clark Phonograph Record Company in Newark, New Jersey, and the Scranton Record Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, then one of the largest pressing plants in the world. The latter also did contract pressings for many other labels. As early as March 1944, Capitol acquired an option to buy the Scranton plant. First, however, Capitol set up its own pressing plant in Los Angeles, California in late 1945, with machines and technical help from the Scranton Record Company. In March 1946, Capitol bought the Scranton plant itself for $2 million, turning it into Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Scranton.

Scranton pressings were initially marked with a reverse S ("Ƨ"). Starting in mid-1944, the plant instead introduced a symbol that collectors now call the "Scranton Anvil" or "Scranton Lathe" (the "Ƨ" wasn't immediately phased out, though). Pressings by Capitol's own Los Angeles plant were marked first with a five-pointed "Hollywood" star (☆), later with a six-pointed one (✲). The early pressings by Clark Phonograph Record Co. are characterized by a small pressing ring around the spindle hole. Los Angeles also used a wider typeface for song titles (first Metroblack No. 2. Starting in May 1950, when they switched to Bert-Co, they used 12 point Spartan Heavy). Capitol's Scranton plant had its labels printed by Keystone Printed Specialties Co., Inc. in Scranton, PA, which used a narrower type face (14-point Intertype Vogue Bold Condensed for titles, 12-point Intertype Vogue Bold Condensed for artist names).

Between mid-1947 and October 1951, Capitol Records designated their A-sides "y" and their B-sides "z".

Between late July and October 1947, the label briefly introduced prefixes to its catalog numbers. A stood for "Americana." The A-prefixes start with A40020; they end with A-40044. B was used for Pop (cat. nr. B437 to B-465). Issues released between late September 1947 and mid-October 1947 also show a hyphen separating prefix and catalog number.

Capitol series:
100: 10-inch Pop series, black label, price 50c., 1942-
10000: 10-inch Criterion Pop series, purple label album discs, price 75c., May 1944-
20000: 10-inch Pop series, black label album discs, price 50c., September 1944-
15000: 10-inch Pop series, purple labels, Oct. 1947-
25000: 10-inch Children's series, 1947-
40000: 10-inch Capitol Americana folk series (Country, Hillbilly, Blues & Jazz) May 1947-1950, marked as "Americana" only until April 1948.
3-40000: 10-inch red label, 1949 only
7-25000: 10-inch Children's albums, dark-blue labels, 1949 only
37-572 to 671 (ca.): 10-inch Pop series, red labels, April to July 1949 only
37-40154 to 40170 (ca.): 10-inch Country series, red labels, April to June 1949 only
57-000: 10-inch Pop series, purple labels, 1949 only

Capitol Records, Inc. was acquired by EMI in 1955.

See also Capitol 40,000 Series
Tim Neely on the prefix letters of Capitol's album series:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/records-price-codes-the-definitive-thread.364593/
A brief guide to label designs and dates: http://www.friktech.com/btls/capitol/capitollabels.pdf
A list of Capitol album dates: http://harryjk.blogspot.com/2008/11/harrys-blog.html.

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