Decca - Biography

Biography - Decca

UK

British record company, producing 78s under the Decca label from 1929-1960.

[Information taken from Grace's Guide, mostly from a site called Banjolin / The Times, Monday, Sep 24, 1928 / Frank Hoffmann, ed., Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound]

1832 The later Decca Records Company Ltd. has its origin in the firm of Barnett Samuel and Sons, musical instruments makers and wholesalers and gramophone makers, established in 1832 in Sheffield, then relocating to London. First at 31 Houndsditch and 27a Duke Street, the company later had offices at 32 Worship Street, Finsbury Square, London, EC2.

1901 The company was incorporated as Barnett Samuel and Sons Ltd. By this time the firm was one of the largest musical instrument wholesalers in the country and, in addition, had established their own piano factory in North London.

1914 Barnett Samuel and Sons began manufacturing a portable gramophone called the Dulcephone and sold it under the trade name Decca. Many were taken overseas by soldiers in WWI.

1914 Manufacturers and importers of pianofortes and all kinds of musical instruments, gramophones and records. Specialities: the Pistonola player piano, Chicago cottage organs, Odeon, Jumbo and Fonotipia records and the Dulcephone, an improved type of gramophone. 200 employees.

1918 Barnett Samuel and Sons established subsidiaries: British Music Strings and Boyd Ltd.

1922 Listed Exhibitor. Manufacturers of "Deccalian" Gramophones; "Decca" and "Rally" Portable Gramophones; Record Carriers; Flutes; Stringed, Percussion and other Instruments. Instrument Case Makers. (Stand No. B.28) 1922 British Industries Fair Page 70.

1927 The sales of these portable gramophones was enormous and dwarfed the sales of all other goods made by the company, although the manufacture of banjos was thriving because of the dance-band boom.

By 1928 Barnett Samuel and Sons' gramophone interests had been renamed the Decca Gramophone Co., which was floated in 1928 as a public company.

In 1929, Edward Robert Lewis, whose firm had brokered the public offering of Decca Gramophone Co. shares, formed a new company, Decca Record Company Ltd., that acquired the Decca Gramophone Co. and began producing records under the Decca label using the previously acquired pressing plant of the former Duophone Record Co.

In 1930, Lewis bought the British rights to release Classical recordings by Polydor under the Decca Polydor label.

Despite the economic upheavals of the Great Depression, Decca succeeded. On the one hand, the company lured Jack Hylton's Orchestra away from His Master's Voice and immediately scored a large hit with "Rhymes" (1931, 300,000 copies sold). On the other hand, it competed with other companies on price. Decca records sold for only 1s 6d, just like the cheaply produced Broadway and Imperial discs, compared to 2s 6d for a classical recording on His Master's Voice.

In April 1932, Decca acquired Brunswick Ltd., the British branch of the former Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co., which itself had been sold to American Record Corporation (ARC). In this way, it acquired not only the British rights to release Brunswick, Melotone, and Panachord records, but the rights to all pre-December 1931 recordings and a license to release future ARC recordings in the UK. Decca also exported UK Brunswick issues using the BM series under its own label, with the numbers the same as the UK Brunswick issues.

In 1933, Decca took over Edison Bell; in 1937, Crystalate.

In 1934, Decca formed a US branch, Decca Records, Inc., leading to an exchange of material between the US and the British branch that continued even after the US branch was sold off during World War II. In Britain, US Decca recordings were released on the Brunswick label until 1967, after the end of its 78rpm line.

In 1944, Decca began developing Full Frequency Range Recordings (ffrr), replaced by Full Frequency Stereophonic Sound (ffss) in 1958.

From 1947, Decca distributed its recordings in the US, Canada, South America, and the Far East under the newly created London Records label.

In 1950, Decca introduced the first micro-groove LPs, but 78 rpm production only ended in 1960.

Label Guide:
1929-1931 The earliest Beethoven head labels show the text “The Decca – Record Co. Ltd.” In the bottom margin. The hyphen after Decca marks the place where a royalty stamp could be affixed.

Early 1932: The lower margin text is replaced with “Made in – England.” (last cat. nr. seen is F. 2922, rec. April 1932).

Ca. May 1932-1933: The lower margin text is replaced with “Manufactured in England – Fabriqué en Angleterre.”

1934-April 1946: The margin in the label’s top half adds the text: “This copyright record may not be sold below the price fixed by the manufacturer, nor publicly performed.”(Last seen on cat. nr. F. 8620). Red labels say instead: “This copyright record may not be publicly performed nor broadcast without authority."

May 1946-April 1948: top margin text changes to: “Copyright record, not be publicly performed, copied or re-recorded, or sold below price fixed by manufacturer.” (latest cat. nr. seen F.8850)

April 1948-Oct. 1954: margin text changes to: “All rights of the manufacturer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved. Made in England. Unauthorized public performance, broadcasting and copying of this record prohibited.” (starting with F.8852)

In July 1950, Decca stopped adding the side indicators A and B to its labels.

In November 1954, Decca introduced its ffrr label.

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