London Record Label 50s and 60s music catalogue

[richmc]

Can anyone please tell me why the prefixes for the catalogue numbers on the classic London Label records in the 50s and 60s changed between artists, and what each one means. They change from HL, to HLD, HLE, HLG, hlk, HLL, HLM, HLN, HLP, HLS, HLT AND HLU.

Also if anyone happens to know when Columbia chose DB as it's prefix, and Parlophone R, whilst Decca chose F, I'd love to know.

[johnalex]

Hi richmc - Crumbs this brings back memories! My brother and I had a huge collection of 45's including stacks of London Label, all neatly numbered in the corners. All sold long ago - biggest mistake ever! I still remember some of them, eg HLU 9342 Roy Orbison, Runnin' Scared. I have several unpublished photographs of the Big O when he first came to the UK, including one with his arm on my shoulder! Perhaps I should sell them to the press!! You can add HLX to your list for Del Shannon, from memory HLX 9317, 'Runaway'. Why was everyone running in the 60's?!!

Good luck with your search - I am sure you will receive a good response and a proper answer. Cheers, ja

[g6rik]

HL was "Home Londoon" The U in HLU/HL-U was an "export allowed to" letter which was general worldwide (except US and Canada) When they tied Liberty down to a contract around 1960 the U changed to G for that distribution allocation. This all ended as far as Liberty was concerned when around 63 they produced their own records in the UK. The other letters are for different distribution patterns
http://www.soul-source.co.uk/articles/soul-articles/london-label-listing-and-info-pete-smith-r404/