London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is
a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing
records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then
becoming a semi-independent label. London arose from the split in ownership
between the British branch of Decca Records and that same company's USA branch;
the American London label released British Decca records in the USA, since it
could not use the "Decca" name there. They were noted for their
classical albums made in then state-of-the-art stereophonic sound.
Such artists as Georg Solti, Joan Sutherland and Luciano
Pavarotti made many, if not all, of their recordings for the company. The
London name was also used by British Decca in the UK market to release American
labels which British Decca licensed, such as Imperial, Chess, Dot, Atlantic,
Specialty and Sun, as well as the first two UK releases from Motown. In the
sixties more licensing deals were made with Big Top, Monument, Parrot, Philles
and Hi, and London Atlantic, London Monument and London Dot became
subsidiaries. The label bore the logo "London American Recordings",
and on Radio Luxembourg it was known as "London American".
