London Records

This label in Discogs is for releases with either London or London Recordings logos. This branding may incorporate additional logos for ffrr, Full Frequency Range Recording (not Recordings), American Recordings or British Recordings, none of which are currently acknowledged as distinct labels in the database (except for an early incarnation of London American Recordings). There is an FFRR label in Discogs, but it's only for the Full Frequency Range Recordings (not Recording) dance music imprint established in the mid-1980s; see its label profile for details.

London Records arose in the 1940s from the split in ownership between the British branch of Decca and that same company's USA branch. Since British Decca could not use the Decca name in North America, it used the London label to release records there. In the UK, the London label focused on pop music under the aegis of Roger Ames, while the Decca Record Company Limited operated as a separate company, with its US releases rebranded with the London name. Decca was eventually acquired by PolyGram.

In 1999, the MCA and PolyGram families merged to form Universal Music Group, and in 2000, Roger Ames was hired to run Warner Music. The Decca name could be used worldwide by Universal after the merger, so Ames was allowed to take London elsewhere, and London Records switched distribution worldwide to WEA. In the US, the imprint was merged with Sire Records Group to form London-Sire Records, which existed until 2003. In the UK, The label was renamed London Records 90 Ltd. to distinguish it from the Decca Label Group.

In 2010, Universal Music reclaimed ownership of the London Records trade mark. On July 1, 2011 Universal Music reclaimed the London Records name and relaunched it under the executive team of Nick Raphael (President) and later Jo Charrington (Senior Vice President of A&R) who together previously ran Epic Records for Sony Music Entertainment since 2001. Both had started their careers at London Records in the Ames era in the 1990s.

LC 7654

Beware of spiel on a large number of releases which states:
"Marketed in France by Barclay & in Germany by Metronome Musik GmbH/Motor Music Gmbh" as this is very often applied arbitrarily with no consideration for the genuine country of release.

For example, releases earmarked for exclusive release in the UK, Germany and Croatia include this base text. Where this text is displayed it should be used as a guide only when attributing a release to a given country. if in doubt consider where the release was purchased in addition to rights societies and other identifiers.