Vocalion (2)

For the 1960s Decca Records UK-based sublabel and the earlier (1919-1927) UK Vocalion label (and its Australian subsidiary 1927-1931) please see Vocalion (3).
For the current UK-based reissue label operated by Dutton Laboratories, please see Vocalion.
For unofficial releases, please see Vocalion (5).
Note: The official color of the reddish-brown records is 'Red', as listed in catalogs during that time.

This label began as Aeolian Vocalion in 1917, and became "Vocalion" when the "Aeolian" was dropped from their name in 1921. In November 1924 the label was acquired by Brunswick Records. In April 1930, Warner Bros. Pictures bought Brunswick and, for a time, managed the company themselves. In December 1931, however, Warner Bros. licensed the entire Brunswick and Vocalion (2) operation to the American Record Corporation (ARC). Vocalion produced the only recordings of the influential blues artist Robert Johnson in 1936 and 1937.
In December 1938 ARC was bought by the Columbia Broadcasting System, which discontinued production of Brunswick and Vocalion (2) in 1940. Vocalions were reissued on Columbia Records' recently revived Okeh label with the same catalog numbers. The discontinuance of Vocalion voided the lease arrangement Warner Bros. had made with the American Record Corporation (ARC) back in 1931, and Warners re-acquired all pre-1931 master recordings of Brunswick and Vocalion (2), which they promptly sold outright to Decca. All post-1931 Brunswick and Vocalion masters were retained by Columbia Broadcasting System (Columbia/CBS)!

In the late 1950s, Decca resurrected Vocalion as a budget label for back-catalog reissues. It was active until 1973 when parent label Decca was merged along with Kapp Records and UNI Records to create MCA Records. Some of the LPs on this label remained in print well after 1973 on either MCA or Coral, a former Decca subsidiary label reactivated as a budget reissue label (which was quickly renamed MCA Coral) soon after the consolidation of the MCA-owned labels.

The label was also revived for a short time in the 1960s in the U.K. (Vocalion (3)). In 1997, the label was again revived (Vocalion) for a new series of compact discs produced by Mike Dutton of Dutton Laboratories Ltd of Watford, England (also see Dutton Epoch).