Westminster - Latest Updates

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Comment by ppint.:

thank-you philmh; that seems about as much detail as any ordinary, mere mortal 'catter could wish for, very succinctly elucidated.

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Comment by PhilMH ●:

See wikipedia for the Westminster Records history, which I believe to be correct; Deutsche Grammophon now look after the catalogue within Universal, as well as the US Decca classical catalogue (basically returning to the 1950s arrangement).

Chess is also now part of Universal: Joe and Sylvia Robinson's All Platinum Records bought the catalogue from GRT in 1975, but AP went bankrupt circa 1978, and was resurrected as Sugar Hill Records in 1979 (with financial help from the notorious Morris Levy of Roulette Records); SH signed a distribution deal with MCA in 1984, but then sold the catalogue to that company in 1985. Subsequent Chess issues since 1986 have variously been logo'd as Chess, Chess/MCA, MCA/Chess, just MCA, then from 2002 (when Universal dropped the main MCA Records brand, keeping just MCA Nashville) Geffen/Chess or just Geffen. Concurrently with the MCA issues were the unauthorized Chess releases via Charly in the UK and Europe; numerous lawsuits between MCA and Charly were resolved in MCA's favour in October 2001, see here for the final judgment in Jean-Luc Young's unsuccessful appeal against the ruling that he was personally liable for Charly's infringements of sound recording copyrights and trademarks.

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Comment by ppint.:

argo record label in the uk: 1951-1957 independent, bought by decca 1957, ownership thereafter as per decca, being bought by polygram (or whatever the corporate name was in 1980), lacuna 1988-9, active again 1990, lacuna 1998-2020, active again 2020 (to date; still in use now, sfaiaa).

argo record label in merkia: chess records label 1955-1965; renamed cadet 1955. no connexion with the above.

i think both catalogues are now owned by universal, but i'm less certain about the chess records catalog(ue), which went through some interesting changes involving grt & other corporations. . .°

westminster records, merkin independent 1949, bought by abc/paramount c. 1960, released classical recordings in stereo - some(many?) of which were licensed from them by the paul hamlyn/emi music for pleasure budget price uk record label, pretty much from its launching in 1965, iirc.

yr hmbl srppnt. knows next to naught more about westminster records.° were they a relatively cheap (mid-range or budget) label ?

° - philmh will doubtless have full details stored in his internal and/or external memory bank(s). . .

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Comment by annaloog:

Yes, thanks, so did I.

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Comment by PhilMH ●:

Ah! I thought that Argo had always been part of Decca, so thanks for putting me straight. Anyway, I think the RG-17 catalogue number is just a careless leftover from the UK cover, which Westminster copied blindly, UK printer credit and all, and so isn't a valid catalogue number for US release purposes.

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Comment by Fokeman:

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying here. This is not a Decca recording. It was an Argo recording and well before any link between Decca and Argo. Decca aquired Argo eventually (in 1957) but in the early days it was an organisation set up by Harvey Usill and independent. There was no automatic right of London to issue the recordings.

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Comment by Fokeman:

Thanks for your input. RG 3 does appear on the label but the RG 17 very clearly applies to this release on the inside of the gatefold sleeve.

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Comment by PhilMH ●:

I agree with annaloog, Westminster should be the primary label here. It's not that unusual for US releases of UK Decca recordings to not be on London, who would have had the right of first refusal, and anything they didn't want they licensed out via their Declon division to whoever did want it.

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Comment by annaloog:

The main and alternate labels should be swapped: this is a US Westminster release (WN 18021) of a UK Argo recording (RG 3 ?) ... oddly (I'd think) licensed to Westminster rather than released on UK Decca's US London label. The RCA Custom matrix prefix dates this to 1955.

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Comment by Fokeman:

I'm now swaying between calling this a UK or US issue. I think probably it was an entirely US issue? Any thoughts?

I'm certain that this exists as a UK issue. But I'm not 100% sure that the images are of the original UK issue or the issue which Westminster put out in the USA? Or even a later issue put out in the UK using the American pressing?

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Comment by Careys:

Uploaded front and back cover images.

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Comment by W.B.lbl ●:

For some reason, as a youth I got this label confused with the Westbound label of Detroit Emeralds, Denise LaSalle, Byron MacGregor and early Ohio Players fame . . .

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Comment by annaloog:

I have a Brahms Violin Concerto Westminster LP with this Dunhill-inspired label design, which dates to 1969, acc. to my data base. I figure it's either a later pressing or a reissue. I may have two more, but haven't scanned their labels.

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Comment by W.B.lbl ●:

Although by the pressing, the front cover {Image #3474915} and labels {Images #3474917 & 3474918} would have been post-'69. First time I've seen this Westminster label variation (which was obviously copied and pasted from that of Dunhill, even down to the two rainbow boxes).

On another front, for some years as a youth I used to get this label confused with the (usually) R&B label Westbound.