The Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft registered the Name Heliodor already on July 29, 1914. With the beginning of the production of vinyl records in 1953/1954 the label was newly founded. At the beginning the label was mainly used to sell records of not so well known upcoming artists at a cheaper price than at the sister label Polydor. The releases where technically identic with the ones from Polydor and numerous artists made career at the latter or other labels later. Artist like Erni Bieler (Kitty Sisters), Udo Jürgens, Lolita (3) (Ditta Zusa), Jimmy Makulis, Danny Marino and the Hazy Osterwald Sextett had a contract with Heliodor. The accompanying orchestras where led by well known artists like Johannes Fehring, Bert Kaempfert (as Bob Parker) or Hugo Strasser, who worked for Polydor at the same time. On EPs from Heliodor cabaretistic songs from Wolfgang Neuss and Wolfgang Müller from the movies "Das Wirtshaus im Spessart" and "Wir Wunderkinder" (both 1958) where released.

In the same year, Deutsche Grammophon bought the distribution rights of some US labels. Among the artists from that labels where several Rock 'n' Roll and Pop musicians, who had been released on the London and Teldec label. Since the end of 1953 Deutsche Grammophon owned licenses of the US labels Brunswick and Coral. As releases of new material from those labels where not possible through legal reasons, those recordings where issued from June on with own catalogue numbers on Heliodor.

Due to well-known Rock 'n' Roll and Pop musicians like Frankie Avalon, The Chordettes, The Everly Brothers, Fabian, Johnny & The Hurricanes, Ray Peterson, Del Shannon or Johnny Tillotson, Heliodor developed as a popular label, that teenagers and beatniks liked a lot. For abroad Deutsche Grammophon owned additional licenses and also released those abroad under the Heliodor label. Among those where recordings from Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson and April Stevens. At the same time DG stopped to release German titles. The artists where mainly taken over by Polydor.

As the market for musik in English was quite small in the 1950', much less singles where produced by Heliodor than on its sister label Polydor. Many US titles that where released on Heliodor in Germany, only became successful after German cover versions from Polydor stars like Ted Herold, the Honey Twins or Peter Kraus appeared on the market. The few English titles that promised to be successful, furthermore where released on Polydor. Therefore not many records from Heliodor made it into the charts.

The first hit on the label was the instrumental title "Chi Chi" from the studio band John Buck and the Blazers. The recording made it into the top-ten on January 30, 1960, and stayed there for nine weeks, reaching rank 7. The German version "Tränen in deinen Augen" from Ralf Paulsen was also very successful and was released on Polydor. Johnny & The Hurricanes reached rank 32 with "Down Under". In February 1961 Ray Peterson made it to the sixt place with his title "Corinna", the best rank ever for a Heliodor single. A little later Johnny Tillotson reached the 38th position in Germany with "Poetry in Motion"

While the singles on Heliodor where exclusively used to publish pop music, albums where released by Deutsche Grammophon only with classical music. Those releases had a different logo. Until the second half of the 1970', Heliodor mostly released older recordings from the Deutsche Grammophon. Initially they also published productions from Eastern European labels. Later, Heliodor re-issued recordings from the US label Westminster with own catalogue numbers.

When the Beat music from England entered the German charts, Deutsche Grammophon stopped the release of singles on Heliodor in 1963/64. English pop music from licence contracts was mostly released on Polydor from 1965 on.

MGM, the US distributor of Deutsche Grammophon, also used the Heliodor label to release a budget series of Deutsche Grammophon recordings in the US that where pressed by MGM, whilst the full-price items where imported from Germany with the original catalogue numbers and label.